How Temperature Affects Your Health and Wellbeing

When you are healthy, you will likely be more productive than unhealthy. Therefore, you need to always do things that will impact your health positively. They include eating a balanced diet, exercising, and getting enough sleep. Maintaining an optimal room temperature can also impact your health and wellbeing positively.

What is an optimal room temperature? According to the U.S Department of Energy, the ideal room temperature is any temperature between 68 degrees Fahrenheit and 76 degrees Fahrenheit. However, these figures can vary depending on the season, location of your home, and your home design.

How High Indoor Temperature Can Affect Your Health

High indoor temperature can negatively affect your health. It can cause heat exhaustion, a heat-related illness. This illness is usually characterized by a rapid heart pulse and heavy sweating. Dizziness, blacking out, nausea, fatigue, and vomiting are other symptoms of this condition. You are likely to experience these symptoms when the indoor temperature is above 105 degrees Fahrenheit.

Severe heat exhaustion can lead to heat stroke, the most serious heat-related illness. This condition is usually associated with the inability of one’s body to control its temperature. It usually occurs when the body temperature rises beyond 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Below are more details on how high indoor temperature can affect your health and wellbeing.

High Indoor Temperature Can Exacerbate Mental Health Disorder Symptoms

According to the American Psychiatric Association (APA), a high indoor temperature can negatively impact your mental health, especially if you suffer from a mental health disorder. It can lead to increased aggression and irritability and worsen depression symptoms. A high indoor temperature can also alleviate stress symptoms.

According to research, such temperatures can cause sleeplessness. If you have a mental disorder and you fail to get enough sleep, symptoms associated with this condition will likely worsen.

High Indoor Temperature Can Lead to a Rise in Blood Sugar Levels

High indoor temperature can negatively affect your body’s ability to control blood sugar. That, in turn, can raise your risk of suffering from diabetes. If you already suffer from this condition, the high temperatures may worsen your condition. They can make you sweat a lot, leading to dehydration. When you become dehydrated, your blood sugar levels will likely rise. Dehydration will also reduce the supply of blood to your skin. That means that your body will not effectively absorb any insulin that you inject into your skin. The medication may also break down as a result of the high temperatures.

How Low Indoor Temperature Can Affect Your Health and Wellbeing

Low indoor temperature can also negatively affect your health. For instance, it can increase your blood pressure. That is usually associated with the fact that cold temperatures can narrow your blood vessels, increasing the pressure required to pump blood through the vessels.

Therefore, if you suffer from high blood pressure all year round, you should ensure that your indoor temperature does not go below 68 degrees Fahrenheit. A good quality HVAC system can help you ensure this. If you already have this system in your home, but it is not working effectively, you should have it repaired. You should, however, request a furnace repair estimate before requesting the repair services.

Cold Temperatures Can Diminish Your Resistance to Different Respiratory Diseases

Very low temperatures can trigger bronchial inflammation. That, in turn, can cause different respiratory infections such as common cold and pneumonia. If you already suffer from these conditions, their symptoms may worsen when you keep your indoor temperatures very low.

If you are asthmatic, such temperatures will trigger bronchoconstriction, the constriction of bronchitis. That can lead to reduced oxygen supply to the lungs, causing an exacerbation of your asthma symptoms. To avoid all this, you should invest in a central heating system with a thermostat to monitor and control your indoor temperature. An HVAC system with a heating timer can also help.

To remain healthy, you always need to ensure that your indoor temperature is between 68 degrees Fahrenheit and 76 degrees Fahrenheit. Temperatures higher than this can cause heat stroke and exacerbate mental health disorder symptoms. On the other hand, very low temperatures can cause high blood pressure and worsen respiratory diseases symptoms.