How Does Your Body Keep Its Temperature Steady?
Your body is adjusting all the time. When you get too warm, it finds ways to let more heat out. When you get too cold, it holds onto heat and can even make more of it. That’s why you might sweat, shiver, get flushed, or end up with cold fingers. All of those are just different ways your body tries to keep its temperature steady.
A part of your brain called the hypothalamus is involved in making those adjustments. It keeps tabs on your body’s temperature, and when it starts moving too far in one direction, the hypothalamus triggers changes that help bring it back. You don’t have to decide to start sweating when you’re hot or tell your muscles to shiver when you’re cold. Your body takes care of those adjustments automatically.
When You Get Hot, Your Body Lets More Heat Out
Sweating is one of the first things you might notice when you’re getting hot. But it isn’t simply the sweat on your skin that cools you. As that sweat evaporates, it uses heat from your skin, taking some of that heat with it.
That’s also why you start sweating during exercise even when it isn’t particularly hot around you. Your working muscles are making extra heat, and sweating helps your body get rid of some of it.
You might notice your skin getting flushed, too. That happens because more warm blood moves toward your skin, where some of its heat can escape. So that red, warm skin you see when you’re hot is one of the ways your body lets heat out.
When You Get Cold, Your Body Holds Onto Heat
In the cold, your body starts holding onto the heat it already has. Less warm blood is sent toward your skin, where heat can escape more easily. That’s why your fingers can feel freezing while the rest of you doesn’t feel nearly as cold.
Then there’s shivering. Those quick muscle contractions make heat, so when your teeth are chattering or your body starts shaking, it’s your muscles helping replace some of the heat you’re losing.
Steady Doesn’t Mean Exactly The Same Temperature
Your body isn’t trying to stay at one exact temperature every second. Your internal temperature moves around somewhat, and the temperature of your skin can change much more depending on what’s happening around you.
The important part is that your internal temperature usually doesn’t rise and fall nearly as much as the conditions around you do. You can go from a warm room into cold air, start exercising, or stop moving, and your body keeps adjusting.