How to Control Your Body Temperature

The human body is a magnificent machine that has been naturally designed to take care of each and every threat that it faces from the external environment. For example, our body makes us feel hungry and tired when it needs energy, it signals us to stop when we have eaten enough.

Our heart starts beating faster when we exert ourselves, only to tell us that we must relax. We cannot concentrate if we don't get proper sleep..., and the list goes on and on. Speaking in terms of body temperature, we start to shiver when we are feeling cold, which is the body's natural response to make a movement to increase the body temperature.

On the other hand, we start sweating when we are feeling hot, which is our body's natural response to release the heat by perspiration and cooling the body down. Isn't our body just amazingly designed to take care of itself on its own!

Then why do we need to learn how to control our body temperature when the body is naturally designed to do it? Well, the answer is simple! The environment that we live in isn't designed to take care of our needs (at times), and therefore, we need to help our body in controlling its temperature in extreme conditions by taking help of some external elements.

Well, when it comes to controlling your body temperature, your skin plays a very important role in it. Apart from being the largest organ in the body, it is a natural cover of the body which helps in regulating the body temperature.

The skin consists of blood vessels, hair and sweat glands which play a significant role in adapting to the temperature around the body. Mentioned below are some ways to regulate your body's temperature.

It is natural to sweat when feeling extremely hot. When your body senses that the temperature is way too higher than its comfort level, it starts sweating as an attempt to cool it down and bring the temperature down.

The blood vessels tend to widen up so that the excessive heat can escape easily through the skin. Also, if you have noticed the hair on your skin, they would usually be lying flat so that they don't end up absorbing more warmth from the surrounding. This is body's natural way to cool you down, but what should you do? This is what you should do.

• Drink Lots of Water: Lack of hydration can also cause imbalance in the body's temperature. Because a hot climate would make you sweat a lot, you need to replace the lost fluid by drinking more water. Drink at least 8-12 glasses of water everyday. This will help the body maintain a balance in temperatures.

• Wear Light Clothes: Most athletes tend to wear plastic clothes and work out to lose more weight because they sweat more. This is a myth. Sweat depends upon the amount of workout one does and not on the kind of clothes one wears. You see more sweat in plastic clothes because they don't allow the sweat to dissipate. So wear light cotton clothes to feel cooler.

• Avoid Exercising at Warm Hours: Try to avoid doing physical activities during the sunlight and shift your exercise time to either early morning or late evenings.

• Use the Power of Imagination: Another way to help you in this case is to visualize and hypnotizing yourself that all the body heat is escaping through your scalp. Though this technique needs a little bit of practice, it is known to benefit some people.

Exercising also helps in regulating the body temperature and the metabolism of a person. It is known that people who are obese tend to feel more hot as compared to others. Therefore, exercising also helps in regulating your weight, thereby giving you a healthy body. But make sure that you stop when your body tells it's too hot, rest in the shade, sip some water and then start.

How does your body react when it starts to get too cold around? It starts shivering, you get those goose bumps and the hair on your skin stand straight.

Why does this happen? Well, the mechanism is just the opposite as to how your body reacts when its hot. The blood vessels narrow down so that you retain the maximum amount of warmth within the body. Even your hair stand erect so that they can trap warmth from the surrounding.

• Drink Warm Fluids: You have to keep yourself hydrated, be it cold or hot. Only, when you feel hot, sip in a cup of warm water or green tea with a dash of lime. Just keep sipping some healthy soups, herbal tea or simple water as they would increase your body temperature.

• Use the Power of Imagination: What did you imagine when you felt extremely hot? That the heat is passing through your scalp. Now visualize that there is a shield over your scalp that is trapping all the heat in the atmosphere and supplying it to you, making your body feel more warm.

• Find a Comparative Warm Corner: Like a hot sun wants you to go under a shade, in case of cold winds, find a 'comparatively' warm corner where your body is not directly exposed to the wind. Make sure you cover your ears and neck. This will help you feel warmer.

• Wear Thin Layers of Clothes: We would obviously wear those heavy winter clothes to keep ourselves warm. But it is also very important to wear thin layered thermal sweaters underneath them. This is because they keep you warm even when you end up removing your woolens for sometime, say for doing some work like doing the dishes.

Another condition that can be responsible for feeling too cold or too hot for unexplained reasons is if you are suffering from thyroid problems. If you think that could be a reason for fluctuations in your body temperature, then make sure you get yourself checked with a doctor as soon as possible.

The normal body temperature is considered to be 98.6°F, however, a variation of 1 to 2 degrees is considered to be alright. The aforementioned ways to control your body temperature would work only if you have no health related issues.

It is always advisable to consult with your doctor if you are experiencing a lot of fluctuations in the body temperature. Remember, a doctor is the safest guide you can rely on when it comes to anything related to your health. Take care.