Why do people feel cold while their body temperature rises during a fever
In: Biology
You don’t feel temperature you can only feel the rate of energy exchange. In most case, this give us a good approximation of the temperature, after all the colder something is the faster it will suck energy from you and the colder it will feel to you.
But when you have a fever your temperature is high, and energy go from high energy to low energy, so your heat transfer through conduction to the environment faster when you have a fever, than when you don’t have one. So even if you have an higher temperature your body feel more energy leaving it, which is the cold feeling.
The difference is the the heat come from inside your body by burning more fuel and the energy will flow toward the outside. When you feel hot it’s because the energy is coming from the outside and flow toward your body when you can feel the rate of energy transfer.
During a fever your body’s core temperature rises to a degree that can harm all the organs. To prevent this your blood vessels restrict so that less blood can flow through at once. This is to help your body cool down. Therefore even though your core temp is higher, what you feel is the warmth of the blood flowing through your veins and vessels since it’s closer to your nerves and skin. It’s the same concept as feeling cold even though your body temp is normal!
1. Your body raises its temperature in order to get it above the temp threshold of certain bacteria.
2. Body pulls blood from surface to the core to help fight the infection.
3. Result- you have a fever but have the “chills”
My mum (a nurse) explained it to me like this when I was a kid: when you have a fever, your brain will set the thermostat of your body higher so your body gets to the right temperature to fight the germs.
As long as your body has not reached the temperature your brain has decided it should be, you will feel cold and your body will make sure your temperature rises to match the thermostat’s setting.
When the temps match, is when you feel slightly better (not hot/cold but sorta alright, temperature-wise).
Then there is usually a moment where your body is like “well, that was enough, time to turn the thermostat down!” Then you’re gonna be HOT and sweating so your body temperature falls to the thermostat setting your brain decided on.
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