How does living in an extremely cold room affect your body?

When I think of extreme cold, I think of people at the North Pole with ice on their beards or climbers who reach the heights of Mount Everest.

 I can also imagine their fingers turning black from frostbite and cringe at the thought of them suffering from hypothermia.

 So I was quite surprised when I was invited to experience a cold room as the temperature here was only 10 degrees Celsius.  Yes, 10 degrees Celsius.

 For me it's a very balanced temperature, not blood curdling at all.  It's not even close to freezing in the Arctic.  Surely we would need much colder temperatures to put our bodies in any kind of trouble?  I was wrong.

 "It sounds balanced aurally, but it's a big physical challenge," Professor Damien Bayley from the University of South Wales told me.

 He invited me to his laboratory to investigate the effects of cold houses on our bodies and to find out why such balanced temperatures can be dangerous for our bodies.

 "10 degrees is the average temperature people will have to live in if they can't afford to keep their homes warm," Professor Bayley said.

 And before long I was to learn how bad 10 degrees Celsius can be on our heart, lungs and brain.

I was taken to an atmospheric chamber in a corner of his laboratory.  The walls of this room were made of iron and heavy and thick doors were installed on them.  In this airtight room, scientists can set the temperature, humidity and oxygen levels as they wish.

 The first 21 degree breeze greets me upon entering.  The plan is to start at 21 degrees and then gradually drop the temperature to 10 degrees Celsius to see how my body reacts.

 At first, a number of highly sophisticated devices were installed on my body so that my body could be analyzed in great detail.

 Numerous monitors were attached to my chest, arms and legs to measure my body temperature, heart rate and blood pressure.

 Professor Belle told me, 'You look like a character from Star Wars.' He then attached another sensor to my body with a wire attached to it.

 I was also fitted with a headset to monitor blood flow to my brain.  Meanwhile, drops of sweat appeared on my forehead.  An ultrasound checked the carotid arteries in my neck.  (The sound of blood rushing to the brain was very encouraging) and meanwhile I was being breathed out into large tubes and that too was being examined.

All these measurements were completed.  Scientists now know how my body works at 21 degrees Celsius.  Now the fans start running and the temperature of the chamber starts to decrease.

 'Your brain is tasting your blood and it's checking its temperature and now your brain is sending signals to other parts of the body,' Professor Belle told me.

 Their purpose is to keep the temperature of my major organs, liver and heart, around 37 degrees.  I still didn't know what effects it was having inside my body, but the signs were starting to be seen outside the body.

 By the time the room temperature dropped to 18 degrees Celsius, I had stopped sweating and the hair on my arms was standing on end to keep my body warm.

 "Science tells us that problems will start after 18 degrees, that's the limit," Professor Belle shouts over the rising sound of the fans.  Now your body is trying to defend that core temperature.'

 Now my fingers started turning white and cold.  The blood vessels in my hands constrict, so that they can preserve my warm blood for my most vital organs.  This process is called vasoconstriction.

 It would have happened faster if I had been of a different gender.  Dr Clare Eglin from the University of Portsmouth explains that 'Women feel colder more because estrogen hormones cause the blood vessels in their hands and feet to constrict.  This is the reason why we get cold early.

I got shivers for the first time at 11.5 degrees Celsius.  It was my muscles' way of moving and generating heat.

 At 10°C the fans stopped.  Now I was feeling uncomfortable but I wasn't too cold either.  The scientists also took all the measurements again and it soon became clear to me that my initial opinion about the effects of 10 degrees Celsius on my body was wrong.

 "Your body is pretty busy at 10 degrees," says Professor Bayley.

 What shocked me the most was how much the blood flow to my brain had changed and I was now taking an inordinate amount of time to complete a pattern recognition game.

 I would never want to do my schoolwork in that cold room, or even go near one if I had dementia.

 "You're sending less blood to the brain, so the brain is getting less oxygen and less glucose, and the downside is that it's having a negative impact on your mental capacity," says Professor Bayley.

 However, my body is managing to achieve its main goal and has maintained its core temperature.  It's just taking more work to do.

 My body is pumping warm blood throughout the body and doing so with greater intensity.  Meanwhile, my heart is beating fast and my blood pressure is sky high.

 "Elevated blood pressure increases the risk of stroke, which can lead to heart attack," says Professor Bayley.

During this time, your blood also changes and becomes "thick like blood," which increases the risk of artery blockages, he explains.  This is why heart attacks are more likely to happen in winter.

 Professor Bayley told me that fortunately I have 'excellent heart health' but these internal changes are a risk for those who are older or already have poor heart health.

 "We know from evidence that cold is much more dangerous than heat, with more deaths from cold than heat," says Professor Bayley.

 So I think there should be more awareness about the dangers associated with cold

Cold also provides an ideal temperature for viruses

 Winters usually provide support for infections that thrive in the winter months, such as colds.  Similarly, an infection in the lungs can lead to pneumonia, which is very common in cold weather.

 Viruses also spread quickly during this season because we live mostly in closed rooms and are huddled together, so there is usually no fresh air to get the viruses out.

 Cold weather allows viruses to survive outside the body, and cold air also reduces the humidity that traps viruses.

"Air without humidity helps viruses travel farther," says Akiko Owasaki, an immunobiologist at Yale University.

 They have also done experiments that show how if you breathe in cold air, it affects the immune system in your nose.

 "At such cold temperatures, your immune system becomes less effective and it becomes easier for viruses to grow in your nose," Professor Owasaki told me.

 What to do to keep your body warm?

 In an ideal world we would like our room temperature to stay at 18 degrees.  If that's not possible, says Professor Bayley, then you should prepare like you would before climbing a mountain.

 The caveats mentioned by them are as follows:

 Use clothes that help keep you warm, such as woolen clothes

 Gloves and warm socks are more important than a hat (but a woolen hat can also help).

 Eat foods that are high in carbohydrates

 Movement should be done to generate automatic body heat rather than sitting in one place and watching TV