I’m wondering if the human body goes through any physiological changes when staying in a particularly warm or cold climate.
Other than skin color, I wonder if someone from Egypt, for instance, would be more physically resistant to heat, than an eskimo (or vice versa in a cold climate), or if it’s merely a matter of being mentally accustomed to the weather conditions.
If it is physiological, how quickly does such acclimation take? Over lunch I stepped outside and was freezing my butt off in the frigid 61 degree weather. Mind you, in a few months 61 degrees will feel sweltering.
There are a few changes that you go through. Cold weather triggers various respones in the brain that increase metabolic activity as well as stimulating apetite, partiularly for high calory foods. Basically things that help produce excess heat. Warm weather reverses the changes. There is also evidence of changes in behaviour, particularly movement and posture, associated with exposure to high or low temperatures.
Will a person form Egypt handle heat better than an Eskimo? Yep, but not because of better acclimation ability. Egyptians tend to b tropical in bodu form: Cylindrical, long limbs, long, broad noses. Eskimos are classic frigid: Round, short limbs, short noses. However an Eskimo born in Egypt won’t handle the heat any better than an Eksimo born in Alsaka after you give them both a few months of exposure.