39-year-old Lewis Gordon Pugh can safely swim a kilometer in water, the temperature of which does not exceed zero degrees. After studying Pugh's body, scientists made sure that his reaction to cold is indeed abnormal
However, despite a number of innate advantages, his almost superhuman abilities were largely acquired through training, notes journalist Duncan Graham-Rowe.
Other cases are known in the world: for example, Japanese and Korean pearl divers in the old days could spend in water with a temperature of 10 degrees for up to 30 minutes. And yet, after 30 minutes in cold water, their body temperature drops to 35 degrees - on the verge of frostbite, the author emphasizes. In contrast, Pugh, after a 30-minute swim in much colder water, keeps his body temperature at 36 degrees.
Pugh became interested in swimming at the age of 17 in South Africa and just a month after the first serious lesson he took part in a 7 km swim at a water temperature of 12 degrees - albeit in a diving suit, the author says. Over the past 20 years, the swimmer has taken part in 17 marathon swims, including a 21-day 204 km swim along the Sognefjord in Norway.
Pugh explains his success with careful psychological preparation: for several weeks before the swim, he performs exercises under the guidance of a psychologist for up to four hours a day, allowing him to calm down and focus. “I think about all the stages of the swim, from start to finish, I hear my hands splashing in the water, I feel ice on my skin,” he says in an interview. On the eve of the swim, he tries to stir himself up by listening to compositions by Eminem and P. Diddy. "A few minutes before the start, Pew recalls these emotions, which allows him, without any physical exertion, to raise his body temperature to 38.4 degrees - as much as 1.4 above normal," the newspaper writes.
Pugh immerses himself in cold water immediately, which would shock most people and cause death, noted British physiologist Michael Tipton. He manages to somehow preserve the heat of the muscles, and, consequently, the coordination of movements. One of Pugh's talents has not yet been explained by science: he knows how to calm his shiver - an unconscious reaction to cold, which turns on as soon as the body temperature drops below 36.6 degrees, the newspaper notes. In cold water, shivering is harmful - it only accelerates the cooling of the body, scientists explain.
Pew's personal record was swimming in water with a temperature of minus 1.7 degrees at the North Pole. After that, the swimmer, according to him, did not feel his hands for four months. Having realized his dream of Arctic and Antarctic swimming, Pugh temporarily retired, the author concludes.
