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Cold Intolerance

Did any of these chronic symptoms start or worsen with your CFS/SEIDS? (select all that apply)

  • Black outs

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    10
  • Poll closed .

Wolfcub

Senior Member
Messages
7,089
Location
SW UK
I live in UK where it gets cold in winter, and we have "cold snaps" when it goes sometimes 0-10 below in my area.
So yes I find it a bit hard at times. I have to wear more than I did before. 2-3 layers. Also have no central heating, only a log fire in one room (where I keep the door closed in the evenings), and a stove in the other, with all the doors to rooms in the house open, so that nothing gets too icy elsewhere. (There used to be ice sometimes on the inside of the windows in those rooms until I got the stove in 2011!)
I am finding it harder to manage with the cold than I did -even last year!

I have to be careful about what I wear on my feet. Hard to keep them warm during the day (OK in the evening) Can't wear flimsy little fashion boots, or wellies without 2 pairs of 3-tog socks.
I never used to bother much with gloves unless we got -10 outside! But I have to wear them now.

I'm lucky as I can get out, exercise most of the time (walks) and can move around, so circulation helps.
It must be horribly hard to keep warm enough for someone who is unable to exercise. Being able to move helps.

Heating pads/hot water bottles are helpful.

The weird thing is, a sudden coldness was one of the initial symptoms I couldn't understand. It literally happened out of the blue the first hour or two I began to feel unwell, on the first day.
 

Wishful

Senior Member
Messages
5,741
Location
Alberta
I can't tell whether my temperature dropped, because I wasn't measuring it pre-ME. When my other symptoms aren't high, my body temperature is below typical (typically 36.65C [yes, it was consistently at that .05 precision on different thermometers]). I can't vote 'none of the above' because I don't know whether the first question isn't 'yes'.

My sleep quality didn't decline until 10-15 years into the ME, so I can't say that it started or worsened with ME.

I blacked out once, and came close a few other times, but that too didn't happen until 5-10 years into my ME, and that issue only lasted a few months. My guess is that my late symptoms were due to long-term changes due either to ME or to changes in diet and activities.

While my hands are fairly sensitive to cold, I chose to live in Alberta (54th parallel) because I prefer cold winters to hot summers. After a few days of acclimatizing, I can spend many hours outside at -40 and enjoy it (as far as I can enjoy anything with ME). Temperature doesn't seem to affect my ME.