There are several physiological differences between men and women. Generally, the functioning of the entire body of a woman is more complex than man. This is owing to the fact that the fairer sex can bear a child. While research studies have provided explanations for several of the bodily differences in men and women, some of the observations are more intriguing than others. One such observation is the feeling of cold being more in a woman than in a man.
Reasons behind Women Feeling Colder Than Man
The human body is made up of cells. These cells are driven by the powerhouse of cells known as the Mitochondria. It uses fat in our body as fuel to generate heat. There are primarily two types of fat cells. They are the white and the brown fat cells. The mitochondria burns the white fat cells to produce the energy currency of our body, the ATP. The brown fat cells are burnt to keep our body warm.
Generally, it was believed earlier that brown facts were mostly present in infants and they were absent in adults. But, in 2009, researchers from the the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston used an advanced imaging technique of positron emission tomography and computed tomography and found that brown fat cells are present in the front portions of neck and chest in adults too.
The study found that young women had twice the amount of the brown fat in them compared to the men. An explanation provided by the experts cited that women have an overall less muscle mass. Owing to this reason, they feel colder than men and require more amounts of brown fat to generate heat and keep themselves warm.
There are others observations from the past which support the presence of more brown cells in women than in men. According to a research study published in the Lancet Medical Journal in the year 1998, the temperature of hands and feet of women is 2.8 degrees lower than that in men.
Moreover, women have 20- 25 percent of body fat whereas men have 15 percent of fat. This allows the distribution of the fat cells below the layer of the skin to be more evenly in women than in men. This is a technique to conserve the core body temperature by constricting the flow of blood through the vessels present in these organs.
The core body temperature in women is 0.4 degrees more. It implies that they have a warmer interior but a colder exterior. As most of the biological sensors of temperature are present in the skin, a cold exterior leads to experiencing of more chill too.
While the core body temperature in men remains steady at 37 degrees Celsius, it fluctuates in women owing to their menstrual cycle as well. Depending on a phase of the cycle, a woman can experience temperature fluctuations anywhere between 36. 9 to 37. 4 degrees Celsius. This in turn makes her feel cold abruptly.
However, less production of thyroid hormone, diabetes and presence of low blood levels in the body can make any human experience cold on a regular basis all along the day.