Why do we feel cold when we have fever

Question

Just doesn’t make sense
Our temperature is higher
We should feel hot (IMO) 🤷‍♂️

Edit 1: With that why do we feel so weak and tired when sick/have a fever

In: 3288

Answer 1

I’ll have to strongly disagree with the heat transfer hypthesis described in multiple posts here. The sensation of cold/heat during fever is internal sensation usually caused by a mismatch between internal thermostat temperature and real body temperature. Whereas the things you describe come from an sensation form your environment (outside sensation which can be influenced by many factors).
Your body has a thermostat which regulates temperature usually it is set around 98,6 F. During normal situation everyting is in balance, you lose as much heat as you produce and you feel neither really warm or cold.

During fever your body decides to set temperature to 100 F (to kill bacteria and viruses more effectively). Even if you are already warm (lets say 99F) your body temperature does not match the desired thermostat (internal sensation of cold) and does everything to get to that set temperature (shiver, extera layers of clothing) to increase heat production/conservation resulting in higher body temperature (fever). Going outside into 50 F you would almost certainly feel even more cold (outside sentation cold).

Conversely during an extended Sauna session the core temperature of a healthy person could also be raised to 99F. Because the thermostat is still set to its normal temperature at 98,6 the body feels it has too much heat (internal sensation of warm). Now it tries everything to cool you down (mainly sweating). If you would go outside into mild winter cold (around 50F) you could still sense outside as cool though percieving your internal as too warm. In this case the outside temperature is not nearly as unpleasent because it helps your body to bring it to the desired temperature.

Heat transfer would be roughly the same in both situations (outside sensation of cold), Internal heat sensation in both situaions can vary drastically bases on internal set temperature.