How come when we are sick, we sometime feel cold?

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Most of the time when I get sick, my body temperature goes up, which make me feel hot/burning up obviously, but why does sometime I feel cold and even have cold sweat?

In: Biology

3 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

That’s one of the ways fever works. 

There’s a tiny organ in the brain called the hypothalamus, which is called the “thermostat” of the brain. Some infectious diseases produce molecules called pyrogens which circulate in the blood and eventually reach this thermostat. In response, the hypothalamus raises the “default” or “desirable” body temperature. So now the normal body temperature feels like hypothermia and the body tries to warm itself up by shivering and making you want to wrap up and drink lots of hot tea. Eventually, when the necessary temperature is reached and the immune system can begin firing on all cylinders, the body begins to vent a lot of unnecessary heat, so you start blushing (blood next to skin sheds heat) and wanting to take a cool bath.

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