Do you feel cold all the time? Here’s what your body might be telling you

Are you the one in your household who turns up the heating, pulls on a second jumper and still finds that you can never seem to warm up, while the rest of your family are walking around in t-shirts?

When you feel freezing all the time, you might just assume it’s your circulation and there’s nothing you can do to change it. You simply get used to taking extra layers with you. But if you always seem to feel colder than everyone else, or this has been a gradual or sudden change for you, then it might be worth looking into why.

In this blog, I explain some of the reasons why you might be feeling the cold more than everyone else, which foods and nutrients can help you have a better internal radiator, and when it might be worth getting things checked out.

How your body keeps you warm and toasty

Your body has lots of things going on to keep your internal temperature stable, through a range of temperatures. It generates your inner heat from energy in the food that you eat. Your muscles also make more heat when you’re moving about and taking exercise. Your thyroid helps to control how quickly your body uses all that energy. And then good circulation helps your blood to transport this warmth around your body. A run of broken nights and poor sleep can also make you feel the cold more, so catching up on any lost sleep can really help on that.

All of these processes cleverly work together to help keep you toasty. However, if you are not eating enough food, you’re sitting at your desk for hours on end, you sleep badly or your thyroid isn’t working as well as it should, you might feel the cold more.

When you go into a cold environment, your body sets off a process to hang on to the warmth it’s already made. The small blood vessels close to your skin narrow, so that less heat escapes through the skin. This helps keep the centre of your body and your vital organs such as your heart, liver and kidneys warm, but consequently, it leaves less warm blood available to reach your hands and feet. That’s why your fingers and toes are often the first things to feel the cold.

When there may be more going on

Feeling the cold can be one of several clues flagging that your body is running low on specific nutrients it needs to make enough internal heat. It could also mean that you have an underlying health condition that is making it harder to keep you warm. Here are some of the things to explore if you are fed up with feeling cold all the time.

Low iron and anaemia

Iron is a mineral that so many of us don’t get quite enough of. We need it to make haemoglobin, which is what carries oxygen around your body within your red blood cells, so it’s important that you are getting enough iron through your diet.

And it’s not unusual to be running low on iron, particularly if you experience heavy periods or you’re pregnant, when your body needs more iron. If you follow a mainly plant-based diet, then it’s worth thinking about where your dietary iron is coming from. This is because the iron in vegetables, beans, nuts and seeds isn’t absorbed quite as easily as the iron we get from meat and other animal-based foods.

When you are anaemic and don’t have enough iron in your bloodstream, you can feel tired and feel the cold more, so it is important to check your ferritin (your iron stores) through a blood test. If you know it is too low, then it is important to work on raising your levels through a diet rich in iron and taking iron supplements. Here is more information on how to do this.

Low vitamin B12 and pernicious anaemia

Vitamin B12 is another key nutrient that helps to make your haemoglobin. When B12, known as cobalamin, runs low in your body, fewer red blood cells are made. Your blood cells can be larger and less efficient than they should be which can lead to tiredness and a sluggish system. It is thought that with flagging B12 levels, your body has less fuel to make heat and so it protects your internal organs by drawing warmth away from your hands and feet.

B12 also helps the tiny ‘batteries’ inside your cells called mitochondria that help to turn food into energy. When these mitochondria slow down, so does your internal heating system and it can be a reason for feeling the cold.

If you are plant-based then you may not be getting much vitamin B12 as it comes from foods such as meat, fish or eggs. You might be taking certain medications like metformin to control polycystic ovaries or diabetes; or proton pump inhibitors to control stomach acid; or even the combined oral contraceptive pill can lower B12 blood readings.

If you are not getting enough vitamin B12 from your diet or your blood levels are skimming at the low end of the reference range, then you might benefit from taking a food supplement for a few months to rebuild your levels.

Some people struggle to absorb enough dietary B12 efficiently, even when they’re eating plenty of foods that contain it. Conditions such as pernicious anaemia can affect B12 absorption, so do ask your GP to investigate this. If you have persistently low B12 levels, you will likely need regular supplementation or vitamin B12 intramuscular injections to maintain healthy levels.

Thyroid conditions

At the front of your neck is a small butterfly-shaped gland called your thyroid. One of your thyroid’s main functions is to control how efficiently your body uses energy from the food that you eat, and how much heat it produces to help maintain a constant internal body temperature. So, if your thyroid isn’t making enough of its own thyroid hormones, your body’s metabolism can slow right down. And this may be one of the reasons you’re finding it so difficult to keep yourself warm.

It is important to do a full review of your thyroid blood markers. Your GP can carry out the basic TSH and T4 thyroid markers which can indicate if you have an underactive thyroid known as hypothyroidism. An endocrinologist or our NatureDoc women’s health clinical team can run wider panels to look at autoimmune thyroid antibodies.

The most common cause of an underactive thyroid is an autoimmune condition called Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, where the immune system gradually attacks the thyroid leading to multiple symptoms including feeling cold all the time. In the early stages of developing Hashimoto’s your thyroid antibodies can be raised, while your TSH is still within the normal range. This is why we like to look at the full thyroid picture and here is more information about how diet and nutrition can help your thyroid health.

Not eating enough

To keep you warm, your body needs to be fuelled by enough food across the whole day. If you are on the lean side or you have recently lost a lot of weight, having very little body fat means you have less insulation against the cold. You don’t need to be underweight to feel the cold though, and ensure you have enough to eat whatever your size or shape.

If you have recently been unwell, you might be feeling the cold more. It is also so easy to fall into the habit of grabbing a few bits of food here and there rather than sitting down for a proper meal when your appetite is low or you are recuperating from an illness. A few smaller meals and snacks throughout the day can all help to make sure you’re getting enough. Mugs of soup are a good way to get some nourishment and heat into you.

What about Raynaud’s syndrome?

Do your fingers always become pale and numb when you head outside in the autumn or winter, or even when you reach into the freezer to grab some food? If your fingers change colour and become painful or tingly when they get exposed to the cold, it could be Raynaud’s.

Raynaud’s is a different feeling from being cold all over as it is only felt in the extremities. If you live with this problem with your circulation, the small blood vessels supplying your fingers and toes narrow more than they should, and more so when you’re cold or stressed. The tell-tale signs are your fingers turning white or blue and feeling numb or painful, then tingling as they warm up again.

Interestingly, in a small study, beetroot juice has been specifically found to help with thumb blood flow in people living with Raynaud’s and in another study omega-3 fish oil supplements can delay the onset of a primary Raynaud’s attack.
Something I learnt early on in my naturopathy studies which has worked well for me over the years is to sprinkle some cayenne pepper in my socks which makes my feet feel warmer (but remember not to use on broken skin or get it in your eyes). Let me know if this works for you too.

Another tip if you feel cold all the time and you feel it is poor circulation, is to consume plenty of warming spices such as ginger, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Also eat plenty of garlic and horseradish, which have been traditional home remedies for circulation.

Round up

If you are always the one reaching for another jumper, the cause is often low iron or B12, an underactive thyroid, not eating enough, poor sleep or sluggish circulation. Start with regular, nourishing meals rich in iron and B12, keep moving through the day, protect your sleep and cook with warming spices, and ask your GP for a blood test if feeling cold is new or comes with tiredness or other symptoms.

Our our NatureDoc clinical team can run a full blood panel including a complete thyroid profile, recommend the right supplements for your results and work alongside your GP, so get in touch using the form below.

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