Being cool isn’t always about keeping up with the latest trends, being with it, or like our frosty friend here, doing your own thing.

For some people with disabilities staying cool is a medical necessity. For instance, it has been proven that people with Mutliple Sclerosis can be very adversely affected by heat. The elevated body temperature further impairs the ability of a demyelinated nerve to conduct electrical impulses and increases a common symptom of MS, fatigue.

There are a number of personal cooling products or body cooling devices as they are commonly known. Most of these cooling devices were not developed specifically to counter disability related symptoms, but they have been used successfully by people with disabilities for many years.

Looking for a cooling device? Check out this extensive list of Personal Cooling Device manufacturers.

There are two common types of personal cooling devices.

Active cooling devices, also known as cooling suits or liquid-cooled garments, have separate mechanisms (e.g., pumps) that attach to the garments, circulating coolant through tubes in the garments.

and

Passive cooling devices which cool with no active mechanism such as a separate pump. This type of device is often a garment such as a vest or collar that works by placing ice or gel packs into the pockets of a vest or by placing the garment in a freezer to pre-cool it.

Now here’s what chills me about personal cooling devices- Many funders won’t pay for them! They say they are experimental, investigational or unproven and offer no greater benefit to people with Multiple Sclerosis than air-conditioning or a cool bath or shower.

OK, I’m not a researcher and I am willing to concede that cooling devices may have no greater or lesser benefit than air-conditioning or cold baths. But unlike our polar-bear-like friend in the picture, most people with Multiple Sclerosis are not about to jump into an icy pond to cool off. Even if they could find one in the middle of August.

The message that funders appear to be sending is- Stay home and chill out but don’t look to us if you need to leave your house or bathtub to wander out into the hot cruel world.

The message they are missing is- Disability should not a prison make. No one, again, no one, should be iced out of their community for lack of readily available devices. That’s what the funders can’t seem to understand, and that’s about as uncool as you can get.

Hey, be cool
Ziggi