What is the human body temperature range and what can it tells about us?
The normal human body temperature range is typically between 95°F and 98.6 °F (35 and 37°C). Although, it may varies depending on many factors like the age, activity level, consumption of food and liquids, emotional state, the subject’s state of consciousness (waking, sleeping or sedated), among others.
The body temperature can reveal a lot about our health. It is one of the vital signs doctors watch for. The others are blood pressure, pulse rate and respiration rate. We may have different body temperatures when we exercise (high body temperature) and at night when we sleep (low body temperature). For some people a low body temperature can be normal and for others could be a sign of fever or an illness.
How our body temperature regulates?
Temperature control (thermoregulation) is the ability of an organism to keep its body temperature within certain boundaries, even when the surrounding temperature is very different. This process keeps the balance between gain and loss of heat and our body temperature will increase or decrease depending on our heat capacity and the environment where we are at a determine time.
Humans are warm blooded animals that always keep the same temperature 95°F. However, the widespread of our specie on the planet has made people have to live in very diverse thermal conditions and have to take measures to maintain the body in conditions close to comfort. That is why we wear light clothes or a lot of coats depending on the environment temperature. And that is the reason why we feel more cold than we think we should feel if we wear our coats in some warm place and then move away from it, exposing our body to a very low temperature. Because the thermoregulation will decrease the gain of heat in our body when we are in a warm place and it will take time until it gets used to a new environment temperature.
The extreme weather changes affect us if we don’t take the properly measures when they come. We might get cold if we come from a hot weather environment and then get into an office with air conditioner or we may get cold if we go out from our home and get exposed to a very cold weather.
What things we may consider when temperature changes come?
We should take care of our immune system every day because it might be weak when a strong change weather comes by maintaining our emotional balance, managing stress and anxiety, avoiding excesses and having a balance diet. All these things will make our health stronger and let us avoid colds that we might think only comes with extreme temperatures.
Are all changes extreme temperature changes bad for health?
Sudden changes in temperature can also be beneficial, but only for short periods of time. That was the case of the ice bath and nowadays of the whole body cryotherapy. This aesthetic, healthy and sport treatment basically consist on exposing our body to very low temperatures for a short period of time. For approximately three minutes we will feel our body exposed to a very low temperature but then we will feel benefited from health processes as vasoconstriction and endorphin rush.
This treatment has not only been proven and approved by celebrities and athletes but by more and more people around the world. When the vasoconstriction arrives, the diameter of blood vessels decreases as the temperature of our body. This process will help us to reduce the pain and get better from any injury we may have.
Regarding the endorphin rush we will feel with more energy and stress free. The whole body cryotherapy treatment generates a relaxing and refreshing effect that will help us to fight stress, anxiety and depression. These emotional states make our immune system weak and more exposed to colds or illness. With the benefits of the whole body cryotherapy we can also be able to sleep better and avoid insomnia as our body will rest more and our immune system will be strength.
Among other benefits the whole-body cryotherapy treatment will help us to eliminate toxins, rejuvenate and improve the quality of our skin and it will help us to burn calories. As you may know this treatment won’t be able to help us to burn calories if we don’t have a balance diet and an exercise routine.
After a three-minute cryotherapy session to compensate and balance the temperature decrease in our body, a metabolic activation will occur and it will last approximately six hours. As a consequence, our blood flows will increase as well as an oxygenation of the cells.
Not all changes in our lives are bad as long as we are aware and prepare for them.
