Medical Questions » Other Problems Questions » Question No. 763
| Question: | What organ in the body controls one' s personal body heat? My husband feels the cold far more than I do. |
| Answer: | The body' s temperature is controlled by balancing the heat produced by the body with the heat lost. Heat is produced by the exertion of muscles, the breakdown of food in the liver and the basic functioning of the body' s organs (the metabolic rate). Heat is lost by the evaporation of sweat, radiation from the skin (a person feels hot or cold to the touch), loss of heat in breathing out warm air, and in the warmth of the urine and faeces.
The balance of these inputs and losses is maintained by an area at the base of brain known as the hypothalamus. If the hypothalamus perceives that you are too hot, it will increase heat loss by making you sweat. If it perceives that you are too cold, muscle activity will be increased by shivering. In between these ranges, the individual will also sense heat or cold, and adjust their clothing or environment accordingly.
An individual who feels the cold (or heat) more than another is reflecting that person' s variation in basic metabolic rate (the rate at which the bowel, kidneys, heart, liver and all the other organs work) from another' s, or their learned experience of temperature change (eg. a Tasmanian can swim in winter in Queensland, while a local finds it far too cold to do so).
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