I am always cold!

[annasyd]

I am sick of always feeling cold. I seem to be fine in summer when it's really hot and sure like everyone else i feel too hot but in winter, i really struggle. I wear layers and layers of clothes. I sleep under a winter quilt and five fleece blankets on top of me plus two blankets underneath me. If i am warm I am fine but the moment I get cold, it takes me ages to warm up. The past few weeks I have been waking up at night almost swimming in my sweat and at the same time not even feeling too hot. I am not a particularly sweaty person, and i never used to wake up sweating at night but these past few weeks, i'm not kidding, if i touched my blanket there were drops of water in my hands. I got really concerned last night when i was just about to go to sleep. It was a warm night and i was only covered with a couple of blankets feeling just right, then i bumped my elbow on my bedside table and the 30 seconds of awful pain was then followed by me absolutely FREEZING! All of a sudden, as if my body confused the appropriate reaction to pain. I curled up under all my 5 blankets feeling every single organ inside of me shaking, my jaw was shaking, it was ridiculous. I couldn't stop for about 10 minutes. I'm a 25 year old female and weigh about 50 kilos (i'm about 165 cm tall). I know there isn't much fat on me to keep me warm, but that's a bit over the top! Every time i check my body temp, unless I am sick, it's around 36.6C which is supposed to be just right. When i have my period it's even worse, the first couple of nights i can never get any rest because i wake up throughout the night. I am not really 'cold' cold then, but i feel a funny kind of 'cold' discomfort inside my body. i have never seen a doctor about it but this all started about 7 or 8 years ago and recently has been getting worse. I keep turning up the heating at work until everyone is feeling sick from the heat and i am still wearing a double jumper. What the heck is wrong with me??

[Dr. Kokil Mathur]

Hi
Welcome to the MedHelp forum!
The commonest cause of feeling cold is low external temperature. However you say it was warm enough. There can be several other causes like hypothyroidism, liver diseases, low Vit B12,  adrenal insufficiency, liver failure and as a side effect of some drugs. Chills are also felt when a fever is about to start in case of malaria and bacterial infections due to release of toxins. Vit B12 deficiency causes feeling cold, tiredness, dizziness etc. Low intrinsic factor in gut that hampers absorption, pernicious anemia, parasites in the gut, diet poor in Vit B12, Crohn;s disease, IBS, or poor metabolism by liver are the causes behind it. Please consult a doctor to rule these out. Take a diet rich in Vit B12 which should include meat and animal products, cheese, such as beef, liver, salmon, cod, and eggs. Take B12 supplements and breakfast cereals fortified with vitamin B12. Finding the cause is important.
The hands could be cold due to reduced blood supply as in diabetes, carpal tunnel syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, poor sleep, smoking, Raynaud’s phenomenon and pinched cervical spinal nerve.
Hope this helps. I think you should discuss these possibilities with your doctor. It is difficult to comment beyond this without examining. A comprehensive investigation is required keeping all the points in mind. Please let me know if there is any thing else and do keep me posted. Take care!

[annasyd]

i do realise that i am probably having too many blankets covering me, which is why i sweat, but if i am this hot and sweaty, you'd think that i would FEEL hot, which i don't :(

[txgurl4real]

You may want to get your thyroid levels checked. Being cold often is is a classic sign of hypothyroidism. Also night sweats are another syptom.

[Leiqhlay]

One , all the blankets will make you sweat
your body temperature will go up
and you will sweat, all that heat on your body
is why. i do that a lot during the winter
You could be anemic , i  would check that out
if something is off it could cause u to feel cold
often.