I do better in the cold!

[Mya Symons]

The nausea, dizziness, and breathing issues are definately better for me in cold weather. The pain is definately not. But, I also prefer the cold. Pain is easier to tolerate as long as you can get out of bed.

 

[taniaaust1]

Anyone who feels better when its colder, should make sure they havent got POTS as one of their CFS symptoms as the POTS part of CFS may be able to be treated some and POTS will give you or worsen CFS/ME symptoms.

POTS is one of my worst CFS/ME symptoms and Im far better when I can avoid POTS. (less brain fog, less headaches, less dizziness, less tired, better eye sight etc). Im best trying to do any kind of activity when its cooler.

 

[sleepy237]

I prefer the cold too, was just talking about this yesterday, in summer whether it be pollen or other allergens or just the heat itself, my breathing goes out of control, last year I sat in sweats not able to breathe properly and going outside is even worse, feels like you arent going to make it home, breathless, dry mouth, need to lie down is much more pronounced.

 

[Snow Leopard]

I do like colder weather, but within reason. 5 degrees celsius is OK, but -10 is clearly not good.

 

[Chakra5]

My 2 cents is that mold, air quality and weather in general all seem to be core attributes for me.

Mold is greatly reduced in the cold and perhaps mold is involved with some of folks symptomology. I have a very serious mold exposure leading to my latest flare-up (to put that event mildly) about 12 years ago, so I know it's an issue for me. There are still cold weather molds, but they are significantly less.

Also cold air will generally have less ozone, and promotes a dilution of pollutants, so there may be less crap in the air, and thus less irritant to an already pissy system.

That's all respiratory and makes sense to me. I also know that changes in the weather (perhaps barometric pressure changes, although I've never tested that out, and certainly inversion layers) some times have me floored. So perhaps something like that is happening in reverse as well.

 

[maryb]

I'm like June - Miss not happy anywhere, in any temperature:0
I love the summer though and feel much better just sitting outside in the shade, my back and neck are better in higher temperatures, the winter brings the prison that is my home and try as I might it is too big and old to make it a 'good environment' for someone as susceptible as me to dry heat, dust , mold etc. When I'm not well enough to go out the days are endless and I just pray for the winter to end.
I too am affected by the heating/blowers in the car, humidity, dry air...........what a pair we are June.
,

 

[urbantravels]

I guess I'm out of the mainstream on this issue - I can't stand cold. A deep, bone-chilling sensation of cold is one of my worst symptoms and was among the earliest to appear when I first got sick with CFS, along with muscle pains. Activity doesn't warm me up either - just makes me feel colder. In winter I have my heat on high most all the time and rely heavily on my electric mattress pad and electric couch throw - when I'm really tired, chilled, and/or PEM'ed I get the best relief from getting under the blankets with electric mattress pad turned up high.

Not saying I like the heat much either. We had an unusually chilly summer here in Los Angeles, which made me miserable, but then we had a weird spell of 100+ weather (Quentin Tarantino's film editor died of heatstroke when she went on a hike that one day it got to be 110 or so). I found I could get around OK in the heat as long as I moved slowly (although i did get light-headed and had to be very very careful about keeping hydrated), but then once I went inside to air conditioned places, I would get extremely chilled, really a painful sensation. Have to bring a sweater everywhere, especially to the market because I can't tolerate going past the freezer and chiller sections.

Before my CFS diagnosis, I was convinced that I must have suddenly come down with a thyroid problem because of my feelings of extreme cold - but thyroid testing always came back normal, and I didn't have any of the other symptoms - no dry skin, puffy face, hair loss, weight gain, etc. A thyroid condition would have been SO much more treatable, but it was not to be.

One thing I've noticed since I started taking Tramadol for my muscle and joint pain is that it also seems to lessen my feelings of cold; if I take two pills, sometimes I actually get a sensation of warmth in my limbs (which I normally never have unless I'm cooking myself in my electric bed!) This makes me think that there is some nerve signaling problem that's giving me these cold feelings and that the Tramadol is doing something to damp down that problem.

 

[Live And Let Die]

The only remmission I have ever had was when I worked construction in what was the coldest winter in Cape Cod, Ma history in 100 years. It was freezing and I was outside a lot but it was the best I have ever felt.

I too have thought to myself that I should move somewhere really cold (although I'm originally from Florida!)

 

[Cort]

Maybe it's because the cold temperature causes our bodies to tend to keep more blood in our 'core' and less in the extremities. Since people with our disease generally have a lower blood volume than 'normies', maybe our brains are enjoying a little more blood and oxygen in them. Just an hypothesis.

My guess would be that this is it! I just talked to somebody who was one of the working ill - who could do physical work - who, after he started working construction in Vermont in dead of winter improved ENORMOUSLY. He said he could carry beams up to the second floor effortlessly.....

Then he got drank too much one night and it was like his system reset and his energy tanked again....For a while he was in great shape - working outdoors in the freezing cold - hah!

 

[Cort]

Anyone who feels better when its colder, should make sure they havent got POTS as one of their CFS symptoms as the POTS part of CFS may be able to be treated some and POTS will give you or worsen CFS/ME symptoms.

POTS is one of my worst CFS/ME symptoms and Im far better when I can avoid POTS. (less brain fog, less headaches, less dizziness, less tired, better eye sight etc). Im best trying to do any kind of activity when its cooler.

It's certainly true that if you have POTs they say avoid hot weather.....

 

[Cort]

My 2 cents is that mold, air quality and weather in general all seem to be core attributes for me.

Mold is greatly reduced in the cold and perhaps mold is involved with some of folks symptomology. I have a very serious mold exposure leading to my latest flare-up (to put that event mildly) about 12 years ago, so I know it's an issue for me. There are still cold weather molds, but they are significantly less.

Also cold air will generally have less ozone, and promotes a dilution of pollutants, so there may be less crap in the air, and thus less irritant to an already pissy system.

That's all respiratory and makes sense to me. I also know that changes in the weather (perhaps barometric pressure changes, although I've never tested that out, and certainly inversion layers) some times have me floored. So perhaps something like that is happening in reverse as well.

I really wonder about this too. Could it be cleaner air? I think its possible that that's a factor. Colder air where I live is associated with storms from the north - probably really clean air....

I read about a man who became a famous mtn climber who was never really healthy and then up into an alpine area and he had loads of energy - it was all the allergens. He spent most of the rest of his life in the mtns....

I really don't look forward to the cold. because I can't handle central heating and sometimes I come down with a coldI think my body feels more relaxed in the heat but there's no question about ability to exercise there are times I can just walk and walk - no problem...I don't get the muscle tightening - it just seems natural...it has to be in the 40's I think - pretty cold, at least for me.

 

[jenbooks]

I prefer heat by far--and particularly if it's sunny. I love hot sunny days. Can't have enough of them.

On the other hand, I like fresh air, and I can deal with cold pretty well. A space heater, and/or a really good sleeping bag zipped up around me, with some warmed up bed buddies from Walgreens (I empty out the rice as it has a chemical that bothers me, and put in flaxseed and tie it closed again), I wake up sweating even when it's cold.

The worst, absolute worst for me, is damp cold weather. That is ruinous.

 

[taniaaust1]

I guess I'm out of the mainstream on this issue - I can't stand cold. A deep, bone-chilling sensation of cold is one of my worst symptoms and was among the earliest to appear when I first got sick with CFS, along with muscle pains. Activity doesn't warm me up either - just makes me feel colder. In winter I have my heat on high most all the time and rely heavily on my electric mattress pad and electric couch throw - when I'm really tired, chilled, and/or PEM'ed I get the best relief from getting under the blankets with electric mattress pad turned up high.

This may change for you... I was as you said for a few years with the CFS/ME .. even felt cold in summer.. I used to actually sit on my heater. My ability to feel temp correctly must of been very stuffed up there for a while.

Now thou being weller some, Im able to feel temperature and have my body respond to it correctly. This illness really chops and changes.

 

[SilverbladeTE]

EDIT FOR INFO I SHOULD HAVE ADDED!

For a while some years ago, after I got worse, I found likewise the cold was better
now though it's the reverse, and I need heat, but this is after getting testoserone injections which had a major change in how this illness affected me in certain regards.

cold clean hard frost makes pain worse, much "sharper"

but, cold AND damp together are much, much worse than just even a much lower temperature
being in Scotland we can have freezing fogs at -15C and OMG they suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck even if yer healthy :/

 

[valentinelynx]

I'm Amazed... or, Me, Too!

Until I read this, I thought I would be in the minority in preferring cold weather! Maybe because the health-care providers I go to for meds for my "fibromyalgia" (a subset of my ME/CFS symptoms) always think I should feel worse in bad weather, but I don't. It used to be I vastly preferred warm to hot weather. However, after we moved to Tucson (for a job I had to quit...) I discovered that hot weather is now very bad for me. We came here from Park City, UT, where I'd been taking long walks in the snow, at 7000 feet, and loving it! It would be 5 deg (F) and I'd be out hiking up steep slopes in my balaclava! Now, here in Tucson this winter we had a deep chill. It was 28 degrees one early evening a few weeks ago and I absolutely had to go out for a walk, and felt good, when just days earlier it was 80 and I could hardly do it. Funny thing is, in Tucson, when it's below 60, there's no one else walking outside at all! People even take their dogs inside.

Now I don't know whether it's just my relapse that keeps me from being fit again, or if I need to return to a place with consistently below freezing temperatures.

 

[Artstu]

I'm the same as Cort, cold winter temperatures especially sub-zero give me a turbo-boost, I get to very briefly do some extended walks around home that are simply out of bounds at any other time.

My body just works, and it feels fantastic to hammer up the hills with my heart beat getting above 80% of max, PEM is sometimes also none existent too.

I also manage some short intensive rides on the turbo-trainer, it's my only chance to get my heart-rate really high, 190bpm for short intervals if I'm feeling OK, I think it's important to work your heart hard at times if able, I know that not many of you may be able to though. Five years or so ago I was hitting 199 bpm walking up some of the local hills, I was 40 then so I also know I'm a fast beater.

I had thought that it was an increase in the oxygen level in the denser air, and that because we are always operating at our maximum capacity we notice the very subtle change. The blood to the core also sounds good too.

It's also just like a switch, the temperature rose a bit here this week and I'm suddenly feeling pretty rough, PEM has been a big factor again, I'll get used to it, and as I now know it will happen every year I don't get so down and depressed about going backwards again.

 

[Nico]

I get hypothermic symptoms when it's below mid-50's Fahrenheit. I have to be bundled up. 60's Fahrenheit is still pushing it. I do better in the heat. I'm prone to chills, mild hypothermia, and Reynaud's phenomena.

 

[lookinglass]

After reading all the comments on this thread it seems to me that we are all better off simply living in mild climates i.e. neither too hot nor too cold. No extremes in other words. I was looking for some tips on how to adjust to regularly moving from the warmth all year round of the Canary islands back to the UK sometimes in the winter. I freeze in the UK unless its the height of summer. I long to go back under the duvet. I borrow my daughters woollies. I need cosy bedsocks and a electric blankets Equally distressing is dealing with the temperatures soaring into the high 30's here in tenerife in the summer. Breathing is hard. Walking is like walking against the tide. No energy. hate to go out. I have POTS, I take thyroid meds, have a history of fainting, nausea. Nausea tip BTW! My anti anxiety and little sleeping pills 1mg Lorazepan DO calm down the IBS and nausea. I have read others say this only recently. tried it and it worked for me when I had to catch a flight back home to Canaries. But I have now accepted that warmth is good but not heat. Cool is good but not cold. It makes sense. I have bought my bedsocks and a small elex back pad. layers are good to wear in cold. It's about adjusting. I have to go back to UK now and then. Island life is not easy.