1/ 🧵 Though the approaching autumn and winter are already on my mind, I am still savoring the gentle summer sun. While others are still in t-shirts, I can be chilly and wrapped in a thick jumper.
Are you shivering on the couch and more likely to curl behind a blanket?
2/ 🧵 If you find yourself in cold surroundings, sensors in your skin recognize this and signal the brain.
These lead your body to react in two ways: generating heat and conserving as much body heat as feasible.
Some of these reactions occur unintentionally; others are deliberate. First, blood vessels just under the skin constrict, lowering the heat output to the surroundings.
Your skin feels cold, but more heat stays in your core to guard essential organs. There is less blood also reaching the extremities of the body. You thus develop a chilly nose, hands, and feet. Furthermore, you start generating heat by alternately tightening and releasing your muscles.
3/ 🧵 Though individual differences exist, women generally feel cold sooner than men. This results from variances in body composition. Women have less muscle and somewhat more fat than men. You cannot generate as much heat the less muscular mass you have.
Conversely, fat increases your capacity to retain heat and acts as an insulating agent. Still, muscles are more crucial for warmth.
Women also experience a sensation of cold somewhat faster since their body temperature is usually somewhat greater than that of males. Female hormones and the menstrual cycle might also influence this.
Estrogens can aggravate blood vessel contraction even further. Additionally important is the body surface area to volume ratio. The heat you can lose through the skin increases depending on the body's surface area.
4/ 🧵 Why do senior citizens experience cold faster?
Because of all the elements I already described, aging impacts your systems to stay warm. There is great individual variety, but this is a somewhat slow procedure.
Cold-sensitive skin sensors begin to react less rapidly as one age. You lose more heat, and the circulation system and blood vessel contraction and relaxation perform less effectively. You also lose muscular mass very drastically. You can offset that, though, by continuously moving. Besides, elderly
People have less brown fat, which means less ability to generate heat.
5/ 🧵
https://inleo.io/@lucidlucrecia/the-science-of-staying-cozy-a-winter-survival-guide-hhx