Why are my hands so cold all the time?
Oh I love answering this question as much as I love the science and physiology behind it. See, it’s a very interesting process.The body is very smart, and it does a lot of things in order to keep it healthy and functioning properly, one of these is mantaining the temperature always constant at 37°CBut if it does that… then why letting your hands and feet freeze?.You may notice that your hands feel very cold… but your chest or belly doesn’t. When you are somewhere cold, the body knows it and starts thinking: “Oh no, it’s cold where we are, we need to keep alive the important organs to survive!”. Now, you may not be in a life or death situation, but the body prepares itself anyway. What it does is it redirects the blood supply that was originally fo your further limbs, to your organs, this means that there is less blood flowing through your hands, feet, ears and nose because they are not necessarily important to survive as much as your liver or your brain. So your hands get cold, because the body is trying to prevent your internal organs from not working properly so it sends more blood to them to ensure their correct functioning.So there you go, and this and many more amazing facts about the body is why I’m studying medicine.
Why are my hands always cold?
Cold hands and feet are a tell tale sign of thyroid problems. Your thyroid gland produces thyroid hormones that regulate the rate at which cells work (or metabolism). When there are not enough hormones, metabolism slows down. Some things that come along with it is fatigue, weight gain, depression, high blood pressure, thinning hair, neuropathy, joint pain/stiff joints, infertility, low libido, etc. While not all of these have to be present, there usually is some in tandem. Cold and sore hands would be an example. For more information on how to get this checked out and how to treat it, go to the following link.
Does anyone know why i'm always cold?
While feeling colder than others around you is quite common, your symptoms are more pronounced than usual. Therefore, I would definitely suggest a visit with your doctor. Here are some of the more common reasons for feeling colder than normal: ◘ Low body weight. Both fat thickness and muscle mass assist in keeping us warm. Muscle activity generates heat and fat acts as insulation. If you have lost a lot of weight recently or you have always been thin, you might be sensitive to ambient temperatures that would be comfortable for most people. ◘ Skipping meals. Some people get cold when they skip meals or take in too few calories. The body conserves energy and produces less heat in response to fasting. ◘ Being overly tired. Not getting enough sleep and feeling tired all the time may be contributing to the cold feeling. ◘ An underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism). Feeling cold can be a symptom of hypothyroidism. A simple blood test for TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) can determine if you have this problem. ◘ Low red blood cell count (anemia). While anemia can cause a person to feel colder than other people in the same room, it would be unusual for it to cause the extreme cold feeling you describe. Again, it's easy to check for anemia with a simple blood test. ◘ Raynaud's phenomenon. The normal response to cold temperatures is to shunt blood away from the skin to keep the internal organs warm. In people with Raynaud's phenomenon, that natural response is extreme. The tiny blood vessels get severely narrowed and markedly reduce blood flow to the skin, most often in the fingers and toes. One or more digit turns white or blue, temporarily. People with Raynaud's tend to be much more sensitive to even minor drops in air temperature than other people. In addition to wearing gloves and thick socks, they need to keep their core body temperature up by wearing lots of layers of clothing.
Why does hair grow on the top of people's arms but not on the bottom?
You can learn a lot about humanity by thinking about something obvious like that.The bottoms of our arms aren’t entirely hairless. The only places in our bodies that are entirely lacking hair are the palms, soles of the feet, lips, navel, and nipples. The rest of our bodies is covered with tiny hairs called vellus hairs. Those hairs provide a tiny bit of insulation and hold on to sweat, making it easier for us to cool ourselves.You can get a clue about the function of arm hair by looking at when it appears and who has it. It usually becomes thicker and more noticeable after puberty. Men have more arm hair than women. In fact, adult men have more body hair overall than women.This diagram shows common body hair patterns for men and women.This pattern is common but lots of people don’t follow it exactly. Many men don’t have much chest hair. Men of some ethnic groups have little or no beards. Some women have more body hair than they would like.If you look at this diagram, an interesting pattern appears. Men have the most hair on parts of the body that show the most and less hair on the sides, hands, and feet.It’s got to be a signal. And it’s an effective one. Many women like men with lots of body hair. Here’s a scientific article documenting that (The Role of Facial and Body Hair Distribution in Women’s Judgments of Men’s Sexual Attractiveness). But you don’t have to pay $39.95 to read that article because you know that already. On the other hand, most people think that women lacking hair are more attractive.So, the answer to the question is that hair on the upper part of the arm is more showy than hair on the bottom of the arm.But there’s another possible answer.Some scientists think that our ancestors lost their hair which made it harder for fleas, lice, and ticks to hide out. This concept may be partly true but doesn’t fully explain the differences between men and women or the difference between children and adults.Further readingI discuss the evolution of pubic hair here:Israel Ramirez's answer to What is the evolutionary reason for the growth of so much hair around our pubic area?Here’s a couple of articles discussing both the sexual and parasite theories:Why do women have less body hair than men?Why Humans and Their Fur Parted WaysThis Wikipedia article is unusually well done:Body hair - Wikipedia