Women also have more fat between the skin and the muscles, so the skin feels colder, as it's slightly further away from blood vessels. Women also tend to have a lower metabolic rate than men, which reduces heat production capacity during cold exposure, making women more prone to feeling cold as the temperature drops.
But a University of Utah study published in the journal Lancet found that women's core body temperatures can actually run 0.4 degrees F higher than men's on average. And women's hands can be significantly colder — 82.7 degrees F on average, compared with 90 degrees F for men.
“Since women have a lower metabolic rate, they tend to produce less heat than men do, which makes them feel colder,” explains Rob Danoff, DO, an osteopathic family physician from Philadelphia.
Some people naturally tend to feel colder than others without any discernible cause. However, cold intolerance can also indicate an underlying medical condition, such as hypothyroidism, anemia, or peripheral artery disease.
Thin people's subcutaneous layer lacks adipose tissue, but fat people's subcutaneous layer contains adipose tissue, which functions as an insulator and keeps the body warm. As a result, thin people feel colder than fat people.
Scientists have found a reason why some people never seem to get warm while others never seem to feel the cold: some nerve cell receptors deep in the body are stimulated by signals other than temperature.
But some healthy people can feel colder than do others in the same environment. Women often report that they feel colder than men in the same environment. This is probably because they have a lower skin temperature, a consequence of more subcutaneous fat and the hormone oestrogen.
Increased cold sensitivity is a normal part of aging, but it can also be a sign of a health problem. Older adults have a thinner layer of fat under the skin, making them more susceptible to cold. Conditions like diabetes, peripheral artery disease and kidney disease can restrict blood flow and lower body temperature.
Cold intolerance can be a symptom of a problem with metabolism. Some people (often very thin women) do not tolerate cold temperatures because they have very little body fat to help keep them warm.
Different parts of our body have different temperatures, with the rectum being the warmest (37℃), followed by the ears, urine and the mouth. The armpit (35.9℃) is the coldest part of our body that is usually measured.
Metabolism and heat
Blame our slower metabolisms. A study in the Journal of Applied Physiology showed that the resting metabolic rate, or the amount of energy your body burns at rest, was 23% higher in men than women. A slower metabolism causes women to produce less heat so they tend to feel colder.
Most researchers agree that women are more emotionally expressive, but not that they experience more emotions than men do. Some studies have shown that women are more likely to produce inauthentic smiles than men do, while others have shown the opposite.
Majority Prefers Hotter Climate
Fully 57% of the public prefer a hotter climate while 29% would rather live in a colder one.
Body temperature is one of the most well known and important factors involved in lifespan; increased body temperature has been shown to negatively associate with longevity (i.e. earlier death) and conversely, lower body temperature is associated with increased longevity and reduced aging.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines an “older adult” as someone who is at least 60 years old. Many states may also have different definitions of “elderly” when determining what resources are available in cases of elder abuse, although most states commonly use 65 years of age as the cut-off.
It can keep you looking younger.
Cold weather enhances the complexion and rejuvenates skin, Wong says. In a way, it slows down the aging process—think of cryotherapy spa treatments or splashing cold water on your face in the morning—and keeps skin tight, vibrant and radiant.
Lack of vitamin B12 and iron deficiency can cause anemia and lead you to feel cold. Good sources of B12 are chicken, eggs and fish, and people with iron deficiency may want to seek out poultry, pork, fish, peas, soybeans, chickpeas and dark green leafy vegetables.
And the reason for this may be in a person's genes. Our new research shows that a common genetic variant in the skeletal muscle gene, ACTN3, makes people more resilient to cold temperatures. Around one in five people lack a muscle protein called alpha-actinin-3 due to a single genetic change in the ACTN3 gene.
See definition of cold-hearted on Dictionary.com. adj.unfeeling.
The good news: Not only will your body acclimate to the cooler weather, but you can also hurry this process along. Beginning in the 1960s, U.S. Army researchers found that nude men who spent eight hours a day in a 50°F (10°C) chamber became habituated to the cold and had mostly stopped shivering after two weeks.
Smaller people, who have more surface area compared to the total volume of their bodies, lose heat more quickly. (It's often said that women feel colder than men; average body size may play a part.)
Among the reasons: a decrease in circulation as the walls of the blood vessels lose their elasticity and the thinning of the fat layer under the skin that helps conserve body heat. And as people age, their metabolic responses to the cold may be slower.