BBC News: 'Staying warm: What does an unheated room do to your body?'

"Mention deadly cold and I think of polar explorers with icicles dangling from their beards and mountaineers tackling the heights of Everest; of fingers turning black with frostbite and the chilling clutch of hypothermia.

So I was sceptical when I was asked to take part in a cold experiment that took place at just 10 degrees Celsius. Yes, 10C.

To me that's mild, nowhere near freezing and certainly no Arctic blast. Surely we'd have to go much colder before putting a strain on the body? I was wrong.

"It sounds mild, but it is a real physiological challenge," Prof Damian Bailey, from the University of South Wales, tells me.

He's invited me to his laboratory to explore the impact of cold homes on our bodies and why such seemingly mild temperatures can become deadly.

"Ten degrees is the average temperature that people will be living in, if they can't afford to heat their homes," said Prof Bailey.

And as I was about to find out, 10C has a profound impact on the heart, lungs and brain."

....

"Next my fingers turn white and they feel cold. The blood vessels in my hands are being closed off - known as vasoconstriction - in order to keep my warm blood for my critical organs.

This would happen even more quickly if I were a different gender.

"Women do tend to feel the cold more, because of hormones (oestrogen) their blood vessels in their hands and feet are more likely to constrict... and that makes us feel cold," says Dr Clare Eglin from the University of Portsmouth."

....

"What shocks me is the change in blood flow to the brain and how much longer it takes me to complete a shape-sorting game.

I wouldn't want to be trying to do school homework in a cold room or to have this compound something like dementia.

"You're delivering less blood to the brain, so there's less oxygen and less glucose [sugar] getting into the brain and the downside of that is it's having a negative impact on your mental gymnastics," Prof Bailey says.

But my body is achieving its main goal of keeping my core body temperature stable - it's just having to do more work.

I'm pumping warm blood around my body more intensely with my heart beating faster and blood pressure also shooting up.

"That increasing blood pressure is a risk factor for a stroke, it's a risk factor for a heart attack," Prof Bailey tells me.

The blood itself is also changing "so it becomes a bit like treacle", says Prof Bailey, and this thicker gloopier blood also adds to the risk of a dangerous blockage."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63602501

 

Thank god it is 11.2C in here.