When our body temperature is high, why do we feel cold?

Question

I was recently sick and my body temperature was 38.6°C. It felt like I was in a refrigerator.
So, why do we feel cold when we have a high body temperature? Shouldn’t we feel hot instead?

In: Biology

Answer 1

> So, why do we feel cold when we have a high body temperature? Shouldn’t we feel hot instead?

We don’t really sense how hot or cold we actually are. What we sense is how much heat we are gaining or losing to the environment around us. When we have a fever, we are losing more heat to our surroundings, so we feel cold.