For years, I have always felt cold.
My hands and feet especially feel cold.
I always put the heat on, even when it is a warm day outside. When I am outside in the cold in the winter, it takes me a really long time to heat back up when I go inside. I started to feel like something was seriously wrong with me one winter day. I was not outside for very long, but I was so cold that I was shivering. The central heat was already on in my house and I decided to light my fireplace. I turned my heat up super high, put several layers on, and sat in front of the fireplace. I still felt cold. I decided to go to the doctor. Feeling cold all the time was starting to affect my physical and mental health. This was also affecting me financially. Turning the heat up high all the time was causing my electric bill to significantly increase. When I went to the doctor they ran several tests to see if I had a medical condition that was causing me to feel cold all the time. After many blood tests and the doctor asking me several questions, I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. My thyroid was not working effectively, so my body struggled to regulate its temperature. Now that I had a diagnosis and an answer to the dilemma of why I felt cold all the time, I started to feel a little bit better. I started taking medications, and slowly my body regulated its temperature. I was able to turn the heat down and stop wearing so many layers.