Body temperature and activity?!
Question:
Body temperature and activity?
A question for all you science majors/professionals/those in the know. I play basketball quite a bit. The last few times I've played, it was outside on a court that absored heat. It was extremely hot and almost felt like we were cooking at times. Question is, I get extremely hot, sweating, and tired...but I nocticed for some reason, my stomach will get cold. Right after we're done (and I'm sure while we're playing as well), my stomach is cold.
It's an interesting phenomena where the rest of my entire body is hot as can be, but that one area, the skin of my midsection (abs) is ice-like. It doesn't hurt or anything, just feels like a different temperature. Any explanations or observations?
3 weeks ago
BTW, it's the surface temperature...when my hand touches it. I don't feel it inside or anything.
Answers:
When you are hot the blood is diverted so that more passes nearer the skin (that's why your skin becomes red when you are hot). The blood will lose more heat faster by passing near the skin which gets cooled by the evaporation of sweat. Areas such as the abdomen are areas which can support less blood flow over a short period. Because blood is diverted away from the area it will feel cooler than the areas where the blood is close to the surface.