Interesting... could be another explanation for people with low body temperatures and normal seeming thyroid.

Insulin Linked to Core Body Temperature
A team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have discovered a direct link between insulin -- a hormone long associated with metabolism and metabolic disorders such as diabetes -- and core body temperature. While much research has been conducted on insulin since its discovery in the 1920s, this is the first time the hormone has been connected to the fundamental process of temperature regulation.

Very interesting also in relation to the stimulation of BAT. I am one of those people who has had issues with low body temp issues, and yet TSH numbers that are not ideal but considered within range. Food for thought.

From the article -


This makes me uneasy. Obese people are very well insulated. We don't need more heat (as a rule). I'm reminded of the cholesterol and statin situation. I fear a heat-statin that will "fix" things only to make them worse.

I'm one of those with a lower body temperature and normal thyroid numbers. But I also have slightly elevated insulin despite my low carb diet. According to this study higher insulin - at least in a part of the brain - seems to be related to higher body temperature.

It could be that you are insulin resistant, in which case the insulin isn't binding correctly to the receptors.

One thing this makes me think about is that ketones are an alternative energy source for the brain and I know when I've taken shots of MCT oil, or coconut oil, that I get quite warm. Maybe it works like the insulin?

Although our experience of warmth is different from actually raising your body temperature. Women with hot flashes don't have a raise (any? or very small?) in their actual body temperature, it's working on something else... it's described in McCleary's book.

Could be. They raise the question of whether insulin resistance effects the brain: "Are diabetics, who are insensitive to insulin in peripheral tissues, still sensitive to insulin in the brain ...?"

Edited to say: Actually my muscles are definitely insulin resistant, although my fat cells clearly aren't. I don't know about the brain cells.



I totally agree. Despite having a low body temperature, I'm very comfortable in cool environments; I'm keeping my thermostat below 60 degrees this winter and cheerfully run around the house in sleeveless t's and barefoot.

Thankfully I was spared hot flashes.

Well, I've wondered about this. I have a slightly lower than normal body temperature.

The article makes this statement: "Normally, core body temperature stays within a narrow range so that key enzymatic reactions can occur. When core body temperature goes outside this range for prolonged periods -- higher as in fever, or lower as in hypothermia -- the result is harm to the body."

This squares with Taubes, GCBC, pp. 142-3:

"All homeostatic systems ... must be amazingly interdependent to keep the body functioning properly. Maintaining a constant body temperature, for example, is critical because biochemical reactions are temperature-sensitive -- they will proceed faster in hotter temperatures and slower in colder ones. But not all biochemical reactions are equally sensitive, so their rates of reaction will not change equally with changes in temperature. A biological system like ours that runs ideally at 98.6 degrees F can spin out of control when this temperature changes and all the myriad biochemcial reactions on which it depends now proceed at different rates. ..."

So I've wondered if raising my body temperature to something closer to normal might be helpful.

Just reread McCleary's description of a hot flash. It just causes the skin to warm, not the rest of the body. And Dr. McCleary suggests that hot flashes are actually caused by a glucose shortage in the hypothalamus. Thus ketones help because the hypothalamus can use them as an alternative energy source. Perhaps not entirely related.

I was always a fat cold person, not one that was too warm all the time.