The warmest parts of the human body are the head, chest and armpits. Conversely, the
Most body heat is generated in the deep organs, especially the liver, brain, and heart, and in contraction of skeletal muscles.
The armpit (35.9℃) is the coldest part of our body that is usually measured. Here are four other factors that affect our body temperature – and may be the reason behind why some people always feel cold.
A slower metabolism causes women to produce less heat so they tend to feel colder. “It's simple physics,” says Boris Kingma, PhD, a thermophysiologist, at The Netherlands Institute for Applied Science (TNO). “If you lose more heat than your body produces, your body temperature will go down and you will sense that.”
The body's metabolism is responsible for the production of energy, including heat. Although men and women maintain an internal body temperature of 98.6 degrees, men typically have more muscle mass and generate more heat by using more calories to fuel those extra muscles.
Heat production, to maintain body temperature, is an important by-product of muscle metabolism. Nearly 85 percent of the heat produced in the body is the result of muscle contraction.
The armpit (35.9℃) is the coldest part of our body that is usually measured. Here are four other factors that affect our body temperature – and may be the reason behind why some people always feel cold.
The most sensitive heat receptors are found on the elbows, nose, and fingertips. Meanwhile, cold receptors are found on the chest, chin, nose, fingers, and the upper lip. Hence, the nose has both sensitive heat and cold receptors which is why it is generally the most receptive sense.
The clitoris was the most sensitive to vibration out of all the body parts. Overall, the researchers found that the genitals are more sensitive to pressure and vibration compared to light touch, which they found “interesting” because people enjoy sex and sex toys.
Given that escape testing revealed a greater sensitivity of males to heat but a greater sensitivity of females to cold, it follows that a similar sex difference should be observed for thermal preference testing.
Much like a thermostat regulates the temperature inside your home, the hypothalamus regulates your body temperature, responding to internal and external stimuli and making adjustments to keep the body within one or two degrees of 98.6 degrees.
According to Stevens et.al., the most sensitive body part to temperature is the face, particularly the face and cheeks, while the least sensitive ones are the thigh and calf. Temperature threshold is the point at which one can tolerate the hotness or coldness of a stimulus.
Even when bodies are the same size, the amount of body fat inside can vary — and affect how cold or hot we feel in comparison to others. The greater the amount of body fat, the warmer one feels. Older people often might feel colder than younger people, as the fat layer under the skin that conserves heat thins with age.
At an internal temperature of 95 degrees, humans can experience hypothermia, shivering and pale skin. At 86 degrees, they become unconscious and, at 77 degrees, cardiac arrest can occur. Most people cannot survive if their core temperature drops to 75 degrees.
It is commonly held that the maximum temperature at which humans can survive is 108.14-degree Fahrenheit or 42.3-degree Celsius. A higher temperature may denature proteins and cause irreparable damage to brain. Simply put, the human body can turn into a scrambled egg.
Hair, indeed, is insulating; it holds heat onto the scalp. When it is lost due to androgenetic alopecia (male of female pattern hair loss), people feel the cold in the areas of hair thinning or loss.
Due to higher blood flow in the head and neck than in the rest of the body, 40 to 45 percent of body heat is lost through the head and neck.
Cold intolerance is a frequent complaint among those who have lost a considerable amount of weight. The body's core has lost a significant part of its protection against heat loss. The problem is usually worse for those who become very thin, especially small women.
Researchers found that not only do subcutaneous fat reserves act as a layer of insulation, hindering heat exchange and therefore the cooling process, but that overweight people produce more heat.
Hormones
Imbalances in your hormone levels can lead to night sweats or hot flashes. Many females experience night sweats as part of premenstrual syndrome due to fluctuations in estrogen and progesterone levels. Night sweats and hot flashes are two of the most common symptoms of menopause.
To Prevent Bacteria Growth
Hospitals combat bacteria growth with cold temperatures. Keeping cold temperatures help slow bacterial and viral growth because bacteria and viruses thrive in warm temperatures. Operating rooms are usually the coldest areas in a hospital to keep the risk of infection at a minimum.
Body composition and size have a lot to do with cold perception, too. Compared to men, women have less muscle, which is a natural heat producer. They also have 6 to 11 percent more body fat than men, which keeps the inner organs toasty, but blocks the flow of blood carrying heat to the skin and extremities.
Eccrine sweat glands under the skin secrete sweat (a fluid containing mostly water with some dissolved ions), which travels up the sweat duct, through the sweat pore and onto the surface of the skin. This causes heat loss via evaporative cooling; however, a lot of essential water is lost.
Our internal body temperature is regulated by a part of our brain called the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus checks our current temperature and compares it with the normal temperature of about 37°C. If our temperature is too low, the hypothalamus makes sure that the body generates and maintains heat.