What causes someone to always be cold?

Answer 1

There can be many medical reasons to feel cold, but it can also just be that an individual has a normal body temperature that is low, and then outside cold temperatures could be more noticeable. There can be hereditary factors. It is also true that adipose tissue (body fat) works as an insulator of body temperature, therefore, if someone has very little body fat and not much muscle, they may feel colder because it is easier for body heat to be lost. Feet, hands, ears, noses and other places further from the core of the body (where the heat is held), can get colder if the circulation is slow or if blood pressure is low. After meals you can feel cold because the blood is moving more to the digestive system instead of peripheral locations, like arms and legs.

If you perspire more than others, you would feel colder as the perspiration evaporates from your skin. Sometimes people sleep with extra blankets, which may cause them to get too hot, then they perspire and wake up cold and put on more blankets and that can be a cycle of temperature ups and downs. Eating hot chiles can make you perspire very slightly, even without noticing you are, and then get cold.

Many people after having open heart surgeries, such as heart artery bypass surgery, notice that they feel cold all the time after the surgery. They may have always felt hot prior to this, but notice a dramatic change after the procedure. It is not understood why this happens to a certain percentage of heart surgery patients, although it seems like it might have to do with the extra-corporal circulation machines used during that surgery. This machine is used to move the blood in the body during the surgery without having it flowing through the heart during the procedure. It may be related to very minor damage to the structures in the tiny capillaries, or it may be related to changes in the temperature control section of the brain being affected by the lowered body temperature during the procedure.

Anemia and low thyroid function can make you colder, so it is something that is worth mentioning to your doctor to find out the cause in your case, just to be sure there is not a medical problem as the cause.

Answer 2

They have less heat-insulating fat.