Are some people more tolerant of cold weather?

[GusNSpot]

The body can acclimate to some serious changes and conditions IMO.

1961, Ft Carson CO. Basic training. We were out playing with guns and mud for a week in January and they gave us no hot food nor anyplace to have a heater. We had shelter halves that we teamed with another soldier to make a pup tent. One wool blanket each. No, not even coffee. We started out with liners and ear flaps and glove liners and were miserable. Buy the third day, the ear flaps were up, the liners out and the coats hanging open and felt fine. They had a long reason why it worked but it amounted to not having to go back and forth between warm and cold places.

So, not only has my age factored in but the places and conditions have changed a lot over the years. A/C is everywhere, people do not have to stay out anymore in the weather for the most part.

Alaskan fisherman do and they can take a tremendous amount of cold.

It can be done over and above your natural body preferences. Just some are better at it than others…

[hlanelee]

About 15 or 20 years ago on a bitter cold winter morning when the temp was about 20 degrees below zero, I went out side to shove, wearing a heavy snowmobile suit. Down the street was a man who I guess was in his 30s at that time was out before me and was also shoveling the snow. Believe it or not, he was only wearing a t-shirt! About 40 minutes later I went inside and he was still out there shoveling. He would walk to the store about 5 blocks away and walk home carring a bag of groceries wearing just a t-shirt. I fould out later that he had a bad accident some years ago but if that had anything to do with it, I don’t know

lk1932 Hey did you see my post earlier:

I had a severe brain injury about 10 years ago and if I feel cold now, it is dangerously cold. Don’t know if there is any link and I’m not sure if I was always not sensitive to cold. It’s something my family has pointed out.

Maybe there is a correlation between tramtic brain injuries and sensitivity to cold.

[Johanna]

Last night at bedtime when it was really cold in the bedroom and I was taking my clothes off, I remembered the Tasmanian aborigines and the people of Tierra del Fuego.

Both the Tasmanians and the Fuegians lived in cold climates and yet went around all the time naked. That’s NAKED as in “not wearing any clothes at all.” OK, in winter they would drape animal skin cloaks over their shoulders, but still without wearing anything underneath. This does explain how Tierra del Fuego got its name, from the people needing to keep warm around the fire as much as possible. Tierra del Fuego’s sub-antarctic climate being much more severely cold than Tasmania’s they had a greater need for fire. The Tasmanian aborigines, by the way, were the only known population on earth that lacked the knowledge of how to make fire. They could only get it by finding naturally started forest fires and then keeping it going.

The experience of the Tasmanians and the Fuegians made me reflect how they got by with a different understanding of the human body’s needs than we have. Then it didn’t bother me to be naked in a cold bedroom, at least it was indoors. A lot of your ability to adjust to the cold has to do with how you think about it. If you trust yourself to tolerate it, you can adjust much easier. If you keep telling yourself, “Oh no! It’s c-c-c-cold! I’m gonna freeze my patootie off! I can’t take it!” then you reinforce your discomfort. I guess the Tasmanians and the Fuegians had just really gotten used to it to a level that most of us could never imagine.

[Annie-Xmas]

I’ve felt both sides of the coin. I’ve always had extreme tolerance to cold. Going out in 15 degree weather? A piece of cake. People would buy me warm clothes because they thought I couldn’t afford them.

Three years ago I hit menopause and suddenly felt cold. I couldn’t go out in 50 degree weather without a winter jacket. The winters of 2001 and 2002 were an agony to me. I wore my winter coat through May.

Last winter my tolerance returned, praise be. I still have a beautiful fur and suede coat I bought for the cold days that I’ll keep as a reminder.

[kimera]

I’m fairly skinny and I guess I don’t have much natural body heat because I’m always really cold in resturants. I grew up in Ohio and never really liked or adjusted to the winters. Now I live in Southern California which is a climate more suited to my tastes, but I still have to take a jacket to a resturant in the middle of summer because I’m way too cold. It’s mostly resturants that bother me, because in other types of buildings, I can walk around and/or do other activities. I’ve learned not to react to the cold and I don’t shiver anymore when in a resturant, but my fingernails turn purple.

The strange thing is, Cecil attributes their high basal metabolism rate as one of the things helping keep them warm. I have a really high metabolic rate and yet I can’t tolerate temperatures most people find perfect. Maybe my blood vessels just have extremely poor circulation.

[Mississippienne]

@Sunspace

So, how you doin’?

RWAAWR! splits skull with axe

Like ava, I’m skinny with a high metabolism, and I must not have anything in the way of circulation because I’m always cold. Right now, it’s 45 degrees outside. What’s my therostat set on? 89 degrees. Oh yeah, baby.

[ParentalAdvisory]

I for one am in favor of banning cold weather. There are simply no good uses for it.