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Heat stroke is a concern primarily during hot weather, but in the relatively cool environmental temperature of 50 F, healthy marathon runners can have body temperatures as high as 103.8 F. Weight lifters often have temperatures of 101 F during workouts in a warm gym. One runner who was still conscious is reported to have developed a temperature of 107.8 F after finishing a marathon, but most people cannot tolerate temperatures that high.

You suffer heat stroke when your body temperature rises so high that it cooks your brain, causing you to pass out. This is particularly likely to happen when you exercise, particularly in hot weather, because food is converted to energy by a series of chemical reactions, each of which release heat. The sum of the reactions convert more than 80 percent of the energy into heat, while less than 20 percent is actually used to drive your muscles. That means that the harder you exercise, the higher your temperature can rise, and your body has to work very hard to keep your body from overheating. During exercise, not only must your heart work extra to pump oxygen from blood in your lungs to your muscles, it must also pump heat in blood from your muscles to your skin where you sweat and it evaporates to cool you off.

Several factors increase our chances of developing a heat stroke such as when the outside temperature and humidity are high, you are not in shape, you take certain medications or are sick or dehydrated. Aspirin does not keep your temperature from rising during exercise because aspirin lowers fever by making you sweat and it when your body temperature rises during exercise, you sweat, and aspirin does not make you sweat more.

To protect yourself from heat stroke when you exercise, start out slowly and gradually increase your pace. This gives your body time to circulate the heat to the skin where heat can be dissipated. Drink fluids long before you are thirsty. Once you are thirsty, you are already dehydrated, having lost at least 2 pounds of fluids. Drink whatever you like best at least every 15 minutes and know the symptoms of rising body temperature. When your temperature rises above 102, your muscle often start to burn, when your temperature is over 104 you will usually become short of breath and when your temperature rises above 105, you will often have signs of brain distress, such as a headache, blurred vision, ringing in your ears, dizziness, nausea and passing out.

Dr. Gabe Mirkin has been a radio talk show host for 25 years and practicing physician for more than 40 years; he is board certified in four specialties, including sports medicine. Read or listen to hundreds of his fitness and health reports at http://www.DrMirkin.com

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A network traffic monitor examines the usage of a Local Area Network (LAN) and gives display information of download and upload statistics. The main function of a network traffic monitor is to count and monitor the IP traffic between the Internet and LAN. One of the most common functions of a network traffic monitor is to monitor the bandwidth usage of firewalls, routers and leased lines. Network traffic monitors register and monitor every new dial-up connection, and can upload and download traffic of computers. It displays all the details of incoming and outgoing traffic of the last 10 minutes on the link. These 10 minutes adds up to hours, and this information is saved in computer for further analyzing.

A network traffic monitor informs which applications in a machine are causing how much network traffic, and over which IP port this traffic is occurring. It can identify peak usage hours, application usage and more. A user can view details on the host, recent traffic patterns and applications that are generating network traffic. A network traffic monitor, with just a few clicks, shows everything that passes through the network’s pipes. One can easily filter the network traffic to concentrate on certain information that is much needed.

A network traffic monitor debugs new applications that involves network communication and troubleshoots network related problems. Some network traffic monitors have technology that allows the decoding and restoring of network traffic in an easy format, so that even a novice user can understand it. A network traffic monitor can track the entire process of incoming and outgoing traffic, all uploads and downloads, instant messaging conversations, sent and received e-mails, and viruses. Many software companies offer free trial versions of network traffic monitors to promote their company.

Winter backpacking can mean your footprints are the only ones out there. That adds to the beauty of the experience, but also to the danger. Alone and in a cold enviroment, it’s important to know what to do in an emergency. Learning a few basic cold weather survival skills can save your life.

Fire Making

Imagine slipping into a stream and soaking everything with you, when you are more than a day from the nearest road and it’s below freezing out. What would you do? Start a fire, of course, but can you?

Always carry waterproof matches, and practice starting a fire in the cold BEFORE you go winter backpacking. Learn which tinders work even when wet. Birch bark, for example, will burn when wet, and so will sap from pines and spruces. You may have only minutes before your fingers get too cold to function, so speed is of the essence.

Winter Backpacking - Survival Shelters

You’ll probably have a tent with you, but you still may want to learn shelter building using snow blocks. Sometimes you can stomp out blocks without tools, using your feet, and then lift them from beneath. Just play around in your backyard until you get the hang of it. In an emergency, or if the weather turns extremely cold, you may want to put your tent behind a wall of snow blocks, to stop the wind.

If it isn’t raining, a quick survival shelter for warmth is a pile of dry leaves, grass, braken ferns or other plants. I once collected enough dried grass from a frozen swamp in thirty minutes to make a pile several feet thick. I slept warmly in the middle of it (half the insulating grass above, half below) with just a jacket, despite below freezing temperatures.

Staying Dry

You can be wet and warm when it far below freezing, as long as you are active. The moment you stop moving, however, you start to lose your body heat. Once you get chilled through, it is difficult to get warm again. Hypothermia (a lowered body temperature) kills many people every year.

If you get wet, try to get dry before you go to sleep. Put dry clothes on if you have them, and use a fire to dry any wet clothes. Earlier in the day, you may be able to hang damp clothes on your pack to dry in the sun. Often when it is coldest, the air is dryer.

Try not to sweat. Adjust your layers, removing and adding shirts, sweaters and jackets as necessary to keep from getting too hot or too cold. Sweat, and clothes damp with sweat, will cause you to lose body heat fast once you stop moving. Stay dry to stay warm.

There are many other cold weather survival skills that you may want to learn. (You can generate heat by eating fatty foods, for example.) You don’t need to know hundreds of skills and techniques, but why not learn a few basics, like the ones above, before your next winter backpacking trip?

Steve Gillman is a long-time advocate of lightweight backpacking. For more on winter backpacking, plus tips, photos, stories and a new Wilderness Survival Guide, visit The Ultralight Backpacking Site: http://www.The-Ultralight-Site.com