KatelynHeindel is always cold.
“In the summertime when it’s 80 degrees, I’m walking around saying I’m freezing,” the 28-year-old told weather.com. “I feel like it’s negative 80 degrees on my hands and feet.”
Her hands and feet feel frozen so often, she said it got to the point where she was wasting time at work trying to warm them up. Her husband insisted she go to the doctor to get the issue checked out.
The problem: Her body’s natural process of vasoconstriction, or the shunting of blood away from extremities in cold environments, was going haywire, making her feel extreme cold, even pain.
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Her doctor believes she has Raynaud’s syndrome, a condition in which the blood flow to your extremities is extremely reduced in cold environments. Severe pain, numbness and cold, white fingers and toes are Raynaud’s hallmark symptoms, Nicholas Morrissey, M.D., a vascular surgeon at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Columbia University Medical Center, told weather.com.
“Raynaud’s is a pathological level of vassal constriction,” he explained. Everyone’s body does this to some extent — shunts warm blood away from the fingers and toes to maintain the body’s core temperature — “but in some people that mechanism is exaggerated.”
Women in particular seem to experience cold hands and feet, numerous studies have found,including one in The Lancet. There's also lots of anecdotal evidence that women feel colder than men.
The reasons why are varied and complex.
For one, autoimmune diseases such as Lupus are more likely to strike women — coldness is a symptom of these conditions. Thyroid problems may be the most common cause of pathological coldness, another condition that may disproportionately affect women.
“Thyroid hormone levels are one of the most thought-of causes of feeling cold or cold intolerant,” Dr. Morrissey said.
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Significant anemia, or low blood iron levels, can hurt a person’s temperature regulation, as can a significant vitamin B deficiency.“Some people really do just have hypersensitive nerves,” Dr. Morrissey added.
The vast majority of women who feel colder than their male peers don’t have any kind of underlying health condition — sleep patterns and diet may play a role, according to The New York Times. There are a few more mechanisms at play as well — including hormones.High levels of the female hormone estrogenmake the body more sensitive to temperature, so a woman’s temperature regulation will change throughout her menstrual cycle.
“We know that women have temperature sensation changes when they go through menopause,” Dr. Morrissey added, noting that the hormonal side to temperature regulation hasn't reached a dogmatic level in the medical field.
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Men also have a higher metabolism than women, thanks to their generally higher muscle mass. This means their bodies burn energy faster — and hotter.
Surprisingly, the female body’s higher level of body fat may hurt how females feel in cold temperatures. Body fat insulates the internal organs, making it harder for heat to reach the surface of the skin, creating the sensation of coldness, even when the core temperature is normal.
This effect is more pronounced in obese people of either gender, according to an article in Popular Science.
Women might also feel colder because, on average, they’re smaller. They have more surface area compared to the total volume of their bodies, so they lose heat more quickly, Catherine O’Brien, a research physiologist with the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, told Popular Science.
But does it matter? Or is it dangerous? For most people, poor temperature regulation is a “harmless situation,” Dr. Morrissey said. “I just tell people to keep warm socks and gloves on, and limit their skin’s exposure to cold air.”
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