Temperature sensitivity is on the symptoms lists for both fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. Some of us are especially sensitive to cold, while for others heat is the worst. Some of us have problems with both.
As things heat up outside, my hands and feet puff up and ache, and I tend to overheat and have trouble cooling down. I frequently soak my feet in cool water (but not too cold -- that makes them hurt, too!) Last summer, I discovered some great products that help cool the body, thanks to an article from About.com Multiple Sclerosis Guide Julie Stachowiak: Top 10 MS Cooling Products.
I try to dress in lightweight, natural fibers in the summer, and I keep extra layers or a change of clothes handy, especially in the evening. Are you temperature sensitive? What helps you stay cool in hot weather? Take the poll, and leave a comment below!
I am always hot. I work in a big bakery, at the cool end of the building. In winter it’s below zero outside and I have to have the fan and aircon on. In summer it can be 45 degrees Celsius outside and I have to have a bucket of iced water and a cloth to wet myself down, or I’m sure I’d pass out.
I cannot tolerate either heat or cold. Cold causes me fever and several myofascial pain which can last for weeks after just minutes of cold exposure (even with five layers of clothing). Heat makes me worn out and can trigger a life-threatening adrenal crisis.
Luckily I’ve been somewhat helped by baclofen, a muscle relaxant which has some temperature-stabilizing properties (and also helps the trigger points).
I also have extreme intolerance to either heat or cold… haven’t gotten any help from my doctors so far… who prescribed baclofen to you? I am hoping to find a doctor who is familiar with treating temperature change intolerance, any suggestions on how to go about finding one?
did u ever find a doctor
My aunt (my mom’s sister), my mom and I all three have fibromyalgia. I have also been diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome.
My aunt and I are EXTREMELY sensitive to heat. Heat makes both of us terribly sick. We run ceiling fans even in the winters (she lives in FL and I live in the central South). I try to keep the temp in my house at a constant 68 – 70 degrees year round…above that I get deathly sick.
My mom on the other hand can’t tolerate the cold and wears long sleeves even where it 90+ outside. My aunt and I nearly pass out when we go in her house! She keeps her house at 78 degrees.
If it’s over 55 I am too hot. I wear cotton clothes and natural fibers. I frequently wipe my wrists and ankles with cool water, and or mist my hair and let it evaporate. I use a cuddle-ewe pad all year round, it seems to keep me cool in smmer and warm in winter. If I get too overheated, I take a warm shower then turn the water cooler. My doctor says that for some of us in the heat the blood vessels expand so as to expose more blood to cooling air. This leads to dizziness and headaches and other things so the best thing to do is cool down and contract the blood vessels gently. Humidity really makes me ill, and I try and make sure I drink a LOT of water and stay hydrated.
I have a very narrow comfort zone. Below 50 and my hands and feet are like slabs of meat in a cooler – such a pretty array of colors, too. Above 75 I go into heat prostration. Every bit of me throbs, swells and sweats. I get headaches easily above 75, too.
I’m always running hot from the knees up and cold from the knees down. So, I dress appropriately – half warm and half cool. Sometimes in bed at night, I lie almost naked from the knees up, with a heating pad on my feet and piles of covers.
I am very sensitive to any extreme temperatures, but I do much worse in the heat. I cannot garden nor do outside activities for any long period of time. I pace myself in everthing when it comes to doing outside anything in the heat. Also extreme cold is very difficult for me. I am a native floridian who has had to live in Maine for over 5 years now due to not being able to tolerate Miami Heat!
I miss home ofwhich I will return this summer for my kids sake 
but I need all the prayers I can get to make it through the heat I will have to deal with. All our family & support is in Florida & its my kids turn now to flourish, so I want to be close to them even if I have to suffer some heat! Thanks for your site! love, Ana
I’m sensitive to both ! The worst part of it…I live in the Southern Nevada desert and my air conditioning on my SUV isn’t working this year ! Can’t afford to fix it either. This means trying to run errands really early, or at night. Biggest problem, I don’t see to well to drive at night ……UGH !!
I feel better in the heat. Cold or constantly fluctuating temperatures make me feel horrible! I get migraines when the temperatures constantly go up and down. Unless I’m having a hot flash, I’d rather be out in the heat. Even our air conditioning is set at 76 degrees. Any colder and I’d have to bundle up.
edward 29, we are almost the same!
My feet get cold when I sleep, so I need to put a comforter on them, even in the summer. However, I can not stand to sleep in socks! Go figure.
I never understood this pnenomenon. I am hot, I am sweating, but my legs and upper arms are cold! When everyone is grabbing for a sweatshirt, I don’t want one. However, if I were out in that weather for an extended period, the cold would hit and I would be in pain. It is so weird, and I have NOT been able to figure this out!!!!
How can I have hot and cold spots all over my body and be sweaty at the same time???!!!!! If I do get very chilled the consequence for me is achey joints.
I am going to look at one of those vests in the related article. I do very poorly in the heat, but need to take my kids outside!!!
I am usually hot. I know we should raise the temp of the a/c in the summer but I just can’t. I keep the house cool, sleep with a ceiling fan on and big fan on a stand going. I also go in the pool before bed. I feel really sick if I have to go out in the heat and the humidity is really bad here in Southern Ontario.
The humidity makes me extremely ill. I live in Orlando and the humidity is horrible here. It is especially bad on days when the rain is going to begin but hasn’t started yet. I feel fatigued, my eyes swell and my throat tightens. I can get bad headaches, I feel dizzy and nauseous and have no idea why the humidity does this to me.
I’m sensitive to both. When I move from a cool spot to a heat spot, I always feel nausea. In a bat physical condition, I vomit.
But in Japan, temperature sensitivity is not a symptom of fibromyalgia or CFS. So, doctors determine that I’m not a CFS patient.
Are there people who have temperature sensitivity like me, and is a CFS patient?
The heat and humidity make me extremely ill. I have noticed it more this summer, but we live in central Texas where the 100+ temps started in early June.
I get dizzy, nauseated, headaches, and hurt all over.
We’re building a house and living in a travel trailer so keeping cool AND staying sane is a challenge.
There’s really not much to do in the RV and I have to come in after about 10-11 in the morning.
I drink a lot of fluids…mostly water, and I’ve found that adding a little apple cider vinegar to the water is a good thirst quincher as well as just being all around good for you.
Pain pill and muscle relaxers!!!! And Rest!
Any other ideas would be welcomed…
I became allergic to cold spontaneously when I was 28 yrs. old. Hives, urticaria and angioedema. I am now 53. In the last 5 years or so, I’ve become increasingly intolerant of heat and humidity… mostly humidity. I start sweating and can’t stop until I get into a more moderate environment. I also feel nauseous and dizzy.
I have some autoimmune problems that my rheumatologist will not put a name on. I’ve had joint problems since I was 16, have had lumbar fusion and knee replacement. I am in chronic pain, and I never know what will hurt next. But I think my worst symptoms are cold and heat intolerance!! I have lived in CT all my life but feel I need to move to Southern California. I built my house to accommodate my needs, but I am still miserable because of this limitation. Luckily my kids are grown, but I am a woman alone and I need to find a way to take care of myself. I often feel it’s not worth it.
I am sensitive to both cold and heat. But the heat seems to be worse because I find it is easier to warm up than to cool off. The Heat gives me really bad headaches and makes me feel sick to my stomach. The high and low pressures coming in are a problem for me too. Especially if they are large systems approaching. I will be laid up in bed from days before storm hits to a couple of days while storm is moving out.
My body flips from cold to hot all the time too. Even in winter I will need to open a window when it will be 30 and below. Then I wake up all cold and will need to turn the heater way up. It is weird.
I finally got the dx of fibro from my pain doc. Who sent me to this site. Finally, a lot of things make sense. So my feet can feel like block ice. My skin is cool to touch, but they feel like I’ve run barefoot in snow. They hurt from the coldness. In winter I use a heating pad. And I sweat, more than I ever did. And just for more funzies, I’m diabetic, when I start to crash, the first symptom is sweating. Lucky me! I’m dreading hurricane season, just the rainy season makes me want to live in Phoenix.
Great site, thanks
I was so glad to read this. My body has been swelling up and I’ve had pins and needles pain shooting through my body worse than normal. I couldn’t put my shoes on the other day and I couldn’t take my rings, which are normally very loose, off my finger. The swelling was what had me concerned so I’ve increased my water intake. Glad to hear it’s just another symptom of yet another trigger, extreme heat!
The heat of this summer is really taking its toll. What I find strange is I don’t seem to be able to deal with heat and humidity weather wise, but I wrap my body with heat wraps to loosen the muscles and stop the pain and that makes me feel better.
I was just diagnosed with Fibromyalgia after a horrible flareup of pain. Seems that I have had this for many years and just not diagnosed. I work in a prison and must walk 1-3 miles a day in the weather. We believe the trigger was the excessive heat wave. I had pain last year but brushed it off. Cold does not affect me, but heat and humidity do. I also have problems with excessive sweating, lower than normal body temperature, and in the winter if I layer too much you can literally see the steam pouring out of my clothing. The diagnosis is somewhat of a relief because it explains all the other ailments I’ve been dealing with for 17+ years.
I don’t know what I may have but when I walk to work (40 mins walk) I sweat from my forehead and drips it is very upsetting I get out of the shower and my forehead is sweating yet again it always seems to sweat at the most awkward times I sweat ehen it’s snowing outside and people just think I must be really fat and unhealthy
Oh, my gosh- today, I noticed that half my face was red, the other white- this is bad, meaning that I have an autonomic problem! It was 80 degress, but I was in my husbands hot garage, then five minutes in a storage container, then pulled a couple of weeds, walking out to the back of my house. I got very ill like aI was going to throw up when I got into my car, which I had rollled down the windows, starting the car with fan on before-hand even. The AC saved me! I had a black T-shirt and thick baggy jeans on before that- NOT GOOD! I needed to have a thin cotton shirt and shorts, and a wide-brimmed hat on, which I thought about and skipped on. forgetting a baseball hat, too. Planning is important, and plenty of fluids- NO Coffee on hot days, I would say. At night, keep your hands and shoulders warm- especially if it is winter, or it is going to rain, because the barometric pressure change makes my hands and feet Very achy, and they keep locking up.
I just now realized, that if I put a pillow between my legs on a winter night, after being chilled slightly while on the computer that my legs start to cramp up, and jerk! My ankles continually have to be snapped out of contorting pain! The coldness of the pillow sucks all of the warmth OUT of my legs! I have to also wear high warm socks.
BUT- after reading some comments like this, maybe we need to see if there is a problem also with a bad back- like a pinched nerve that makes our feet cold, as well. Not as much circulation to the legs. I do have a terrible back, with numb feet, from that.
Heat makes me crabby, especially direct sunlight. Living in Hawaii, this is difficult and my kids never understand why I hate going to the beach. If I had to work in the sun, I would be the biggest B… in the world simply because of how miserable it would literally make me feel, completely painful! I’m so thankful that I’ve now run into a group of people who can relate to that somewhat. All this time I just thought I was cranky!