Scientists explain why we get cold hands and feet

Female hormone Oestrogen makes women more sensitive to cold temperatures Ever wondered why your hands and feet are so cold? Well a leading British University has found the answer.Experts at the University of Portsmouth have explained that cold hands and feet reflect a natural process by which the body keeps your vital organs warm and safe.The skin is usually kept at a comfortable temperature due to blood pumping through the capillaries tiny, branch-like blood vessels that make up the body’s microcirculation.
When thermo-receptor cells, located less than a millimetre below the surface of the skin detect cold, they react by causing the capillaries to shut down, diverting blood flow and warmth to the heart, lungs and other internal organs. This process is called vasoconstriction.
As a result, the amount of blood flowing to the skin is significantly reduced, causing more exposed areas of the body, such as feet and hands to go continually cold.
“It’s the hands, face and feet that tend to be coldest and that’s partly because they’re exposed, but it’s also because the body will sacrifice these extremities to keep the internal organs warm, “says Michael Tipton, a professor of human and applied physiology at the University of Portsmouth.
Tipton also explains that women are more likely to experience the cold than men, because their blood vessels tend to shut down even in milder temperatures. Although their core temperature will remain the same, women tend to experience a colder skin temperature.
“We know from studies that if you lower people’s temperatures by placing them in cold air, vasoconstriction happens more quickly in women,” says Tipton.
“The blood flow to skin is shut down sooner and more intensely than in men, and afterwards it takes women longer to warm up,” he adds.
Tipton explains that in women, the female hormone oestrogen regulates the blood vessels, meaning that high levels of this hormone make them more sensitive to temperature. Consequently, a woman’s temperature varies during her menstrual cycles as levels of the hormone fluctuate.
In addition, people that are overweight have also been found to have a lower skin temperature. For those continually suffering from cold hands and feet, he recommends light exercise to restore bloodflow to the muscles and skin.
The more fat you’ve got, the more you’re defending the inner organs, but it also means you’re stopping heat from reaching the skin. If you cycle to work or jog while it’s cold, it takes four or five minutes to start to warm up,” concludes Tipton.