Your body temperature is a critical vital sign, but it’s important to understand what can make it wonky.
Why women always seem colder than men
Women have a higher percentage of body fat and conserve more heat around the core, which helps keep vital organs warm, but not extremities. And when your hands and feet feel cold, so does the rest of your body. Research also indicates that women have a lower threshold for cold than men. When women and men are exposed to the same freezing temperature, blood vessels in women’s fingers constrict more than men’s do, which is why they turn white more quickly.
Your temperature is not 98.6 degrees
That gold standard number came from measurements on thousands of patients calculated by German physician Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich in the 19th century—but more recent research has proved that number wrong, according to Real Clear Science. Using far more accurate thermometers, University of Maryland researchers found that the average body temperature is closer to 98.2 °F. But for what it’s worth, your temperature at any given time is unlikely to be 98.2 degrees exactly
You don’t lose more heat through your head
Here’s the faulty logic behind this old wives’ tale. Your head represents only 10 percent of your body’s surface area. Studies have shown that people lose the same amount of heat from whatever area of their body is exposed.
When you’re sick, fever is often a good thing
It’s your body’s way of fighting off germs. A study in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology found that increases in body temperature help our immune systems work more effectively.
Lying can make your nose grow warm
Call it a modified Pinocchio effect. Researchers at the University of Granada used thermal imaging to discover that lying-induced anxiety causes the nose and areas near the eyes to grow warm, Everyday Health reported.
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