It's been freezing for two days now. Chills without fever in women: causes and treatment. Severe chills at night without fever in women

Not only girls, but also men can experience the feeling of chills, constant cold and the desire to wrap up warmer. In addition to hypothermia, chills can signal problems. Therapists note that muscle tremors and sweat are a manifestation of the body’s protective reaction to activate blood circulation.

A feverish state indicates that the body is trying to balance body temperature.

Chills without fever: what is it?

Fever occurs when the body tries to normalize its temperature. During a spasm of blood vessels and muscles, a person feels a feeling of cold, sweating and trembling at the same time. After the muscles begin to actively contract, blood begins to circulate faster and the feeling of trembling goes away.

But doctors warn that if it is freezing without fever and you sweat often, this signals the development of pathology. For example, hormonal and circulatory system disorders, the consequences of severe fright and trauma, neurosis, infections. It's important to know that heavy sweat- not a specific disease, but the body’s reaction to changes in temperature or pathological processes.

Causes of chills without fever

There are several possible factors when you actively sweat without a rise in temperature. More often, this reaction of the body manifests itself during colds, ARVI and flu. At first, this is a signal of an onset of illness. Fever is accompanied by aching bones. If the trembling does not go away after a while, this may indicate the development of pneumonia, scarlet fever and other dangerous diseases.

Another common reason why you sweat is hypothermia. In this case, it is easy to remove the unpleasant feeling; just dress warmly, take a warm shower or drink tea. It freezes in a stressful situation, emotional overstrain, or fear. Doctor Konstantin mentions this in his video.

Intestinal infections and intoxication of the body are also accompanied by chills. To restore the body, you should take medications that remove toxins. The cause of hyperhidrosis without fever may be high blood pressure(hypertension). Failure to see a doctor in a timely manner will provoke a stroke or hypertensive crisis.

Malfunctions endocrine system may cause frequent chills. Exactly thyroid responsible for thermoregulation of the body. Among women frequent hot flashes Colds and shivering occur during menopause. First trembling, and then heat and sweat.

Endocrinologists warn that chills without fever occur in diabetes mellitus. This is due to poor circulation. With this disease, blood vessels form cholesterol plaques. Subsequently, they become thin, which leads to problems with thermoregulation.

Chills and cold sweats without fever in women

The hormone estrogen is responsible for thermoregulation of the body. But during menopause, its level decreases. This is the cause of frequent chills and... False signals about overheating that the hypothalamus receives provoke vasodilation peripheral part. The consequence is fever and active work of the sweat glands. After such a tide, fever often sets in.

Attacks of severe chills and trembling can last from several minutes to several hours. All conventional methods are ineffective: hot tea, bath, warm blanket. Stress, smoking, and alcohol can trigger the feeling of sweating. The number of occurrences of hot flashes can be reduced only by following the rules:

• reduce consumption of nicotine, coffee, alcohol;
• dress warmer in the cold season;
• If you feel any discomfort, keep your hands and feet warm;
• If you cannot reduce the frequency of chills on your own, it is recommended to consult a doctor to prescribe special medications.

Chills and sweats at night

Active sweating and muscle tremors without fever at night can be symptoms of serious diseases. It is difficult to immediately determine why it freezes.

The most common ones include:

• Stressful situations - constant pressure, in which a person is during the day, at night it manifests itself with chills and sweating. This is a signal that the body can no longer cope with emotional stress.
• Changes in the level of hormones in the body are typical for women during menopause. After the body has adjusted to a new hormonal level night chills gradually passes.
• Neurological disorders.
• Tuberculosis.
• Hypertension, pressure changes.
• Taking some medicines- antipyretics, antidepressants, vasodilators.
• Heavy sweating and fever during colds and flu, when the body gets cold, is a protective reaction of the body that activates the immune system.
• Post-traumatic syndrome.
• Idiopathic hyperhidrosis.
• Diabetes.

If the symptom and fever have been bothering you for a long time, then you should not put off going to the doctor. For healthy person severe chills are not typical, so to determine the exact cause, it is necessary to undergo a diagnosis.

In order to understand what the reasons are for shivering without fever, first of all, it is important to know what chills are.

Chills are strong feeling cold, even with normal temperature air. For people with this manifestation, neither warm clothing nor increased ambient temperature. In most cases, this symptom occurs along with fever, however, relatively common conditions are when there is a chill, but there is no temperature.

Why do I feel chills without fever?

Chills can often occur with various disorders that are not of a threatening nature. These conditions include the following:

• menopause include the causes of chills without fever in women, which occurs due to a lack of certain hormones - over time the condition normalizes; sometimes, however, specialist help is required;
• Often women feel chills before menstruation - this is also due to hormonal imbalance, arising during this period;
• circulatory disorders, in turn, contain the causes of chills without fever in a child, but such a disorder often occurs in adults; in a good way improving the condition is physical activity;
• vegetative-vascular dystonia – next factor risk; with this diagnosis, a person experiences chills and sweating without fever, the disorder is characterized by almost constantly cold extremities; good decision there may be hardening (for example, a contrast shower).

In any case, it is important to contact a specialist who, based on research, will indicate the cause of the symptom. Some women need to determine why they feel chills before menstruation - whether the basis of this condition is hormonal levels, or some pathologies that require intervention.

Common Causes

In the case of chills, the underlying disease causing the symptom may be quite serious. In this case, immediate medical intervention is necessary!

Angina

Many people tend to consider this disease “banal” without paying enough attention to it. It is not right. Sore throat, which includes the reasons why a person gets cold without fever, can lead to serious complications, such as an abscess!

The disease occurs either independently or as part of another disease. Often occurs during periods of climate change - in autumn, spring, during sudden cooling.

There are several types of this disease:

• catarrhal tonsillitis (angina catarrhalis) - within a few hours, the tonsils increase in size by 2 times, sometimes a fever appears, or there is no temperature, but the body shivers and breaks down, as with the flu;
• Lacunar tonsillitis (angina lacunaris) is the most common type of disease; typical mainly for children and young adults, often recurrent in nature; basic inflammatory process occurs on the surface of the tonsils (they are called lacunae), weakness and chills may appear without fever or with fever;
• simultaneously with lacunar angina, follicular angina (angina folicularis) can develop, in which small abscesses appear in the tonsils, then appearing on the surface of the tonsils;
• Previously, there were also frequent cases of pseudomembranous tonsillitis, in which large bleeding lesions appeared on the tonsils.

As part of the underlying disease, sore throat occurs with infectious mononucleosis or herpetic infection, often in children preschool age during the summer viral infections. It is with a herpetic infection that it is often freezing without fever.

For bacterial sore throat, antibiotics are administered to which the causative agents of the disease are sensitive. For sore throat with infectious mononucleosis and herpes infection, it is prescribed symptomatic treatment(for example, painkillers).

Decreased thyroid function

This disease, related to the causes that can cause constant chills without fever, often occurs in childhood. Children grow more slowly and may lag behind in psychomotor development compared to their peers (begins to walk, talk, etc. later). Some of these disorders may persist into adulthood. Light forms reduced function thyroid gland, as a rule, are detected by chance, because do not show any symptoms. In severe hormone deficiencies, the symptoms are comprehensive and involve all organ systems. The entire metabolism slows down - fats are stored (a person may gain a little weight), cholesterol levels in the blood increase and, therefore, the risk of developing atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) and myocardial infarction increases. Severe chills accompanied by a number of other symptoms:

• dry skin;
• sometimes – slight yellowness skin due to slow metabolism of vitamin A;
• dryness, brittleness and hair loss.

Intestinal motility slows down, as a result of which the frequency of bowel movements decreases and constipation occurs. The respiratory rate is lower than that of healthy individuals. If left untreated, the disorder has a poor prognosis.

In deciding what to do if you have chills without fever due to decreased thyroid function, the first-line method is replacement hormone therapy– by directly administering the missing hormone. Used medicines include:

• Letrox;
• Euthyrox;
• L-thyroxine.

If a decrease in hormones and, accordingly, the manifestation of accompanying symptoms ( headache, nausea, chills, weakness, etc.) is caused by insufficient iodine intake; its supplement is prescribed by taking tablets containing this element. If the condition does not improve, hormonal therapy is introduced.

Severe hypothermia and frostbite

In the first stage of frostbite, the skin becomes pale and cold, followed by redness and severe pain. In the second stage, blisters filled with blood appear on the skin. The third stage is characterized by cell necrosis; after some time, the affected area turns black. All stages of frostbite can be the reason why it is freezing, but there is no temperature (but fever may also be present).

“Frostbite does not have to be limited to one part of the body; hypothermia may occur throughout the body.”

In this case, treatment for chills is to treat the underlying problem. At the first stage, it is enough to use painkillers, slow warming, disinfection and a sterile dressing. These frostbites should not be exposed to radiant heat.

At the second stage, the lesions are treated with physiological solutions at temperature human body, open wounds are disinfected, and if there is a risk of bacterial penetration, antibiotics are administered.

At the last stage, it is necessary to remove necrotic areas surgically.

In case of hypothermia, it is necessary to warm up as soon as possible. As heat enters the body, chills and other symptoms subside. You should not drink alcohol!

Hormonal disorders

An imbalance of hormones, as mentioned above, causes chills during menstruation, before it, during menopause. But also a hormonal disorder causes this symptom during puberty or after childbirth. Often a pregnant woman has a headache, colds and nausea - and hormones may be responsible for this condition.

In such cases, consultation with a specialist is necessary. Mostly, unpleasant condition(chills and nausea) normalizes on its own. Sometimes physical therapy is prescribed. Hormonal treatment is not advisable.

Intestinal disorders

Problems with the intestines can cause diarrhea and chills without fever (in inflammatory processes, fever is usually present). The most common disorder is irritable bowel syndrome.

In addition to such manifestations as chills without fever, nausea, weakness, the disorder is accompanied by the following symptoms:

• cramps or pain in the stomach;
• constipation;
• feeling incomplete emptying intestines;
• alternating diarrhea and constipation;
• mucus in stool;
• flatulence.

Often the disorder manifests itself to its maximum after a busy day, so irritable bowel syndrome is one of the reasons why you feel chills in the evenings.

For treatment, as a rule, dietary adjustments are sufficient. If necessary, medications are prescribed to reduce diarrhea and cramps, and antidepressants. Many people suffering from irritable bowel syndrome are also under psychological stress, experiencing anxiety, panic and depression. In this case, psychotherapy is an integral part of treatment. After the underlying disease is cured, the chills also disappear.

Shock

If a person has chills and body aches, but there is no temperature, there are symptoms such as behavioral changes (mostly mild, with moderate and severe conditions loss of consciousness occurs), thirst and cold sweaty skin (vessels constrict and sweat glands produce more sweat), shock is most likely occurring.

Treatment depends on the type of shock and its underlying cause:

• In case of hypovolemic shock (occurs due to trauma with severe external or internal bleeding), in which most often nausea and freezing occur, it is necessary to control urination, monitoring the patient’s condition is carried out in the department intensive care. The bleeding must be stopped and lost blood compensated.
• Treatment cardiogenic shock(occurs in the case of a serious disturbance of cardiac activity, the person does not have a fever, but is very chilly) is carried out by a cardiologist and cardiac surgeon.
• Anaphylactic shock is monitored in the intensive care unit. The main goal is to prevent changes in organs, stabilize circulation coefficients and eliminate the underlying cause.

Chills without fever are, in any case, a sign of illness. If such a symptom appears, you should consult a doctor to determine the cause and prescribe appropriate treatment.

What do you know about chills without fever? Share your opinion in the comments!

In winter, most often you want to wrap yourself in a blanket and do nothing. But it happens that the question is not at all about the time of year, but about the state of the body. Today we will figure out in what cases a feeling of cold may occur, if not visible reasons, such as low ambient temperature, and what should be done if the body temperature does not rise during chills.

Signs of chills

The main sign by which you can tell if a person has chills is a feeling of cold. There may be a desire to wrap yourself in a blanket or dress warmer, as well as weakness. If you are sure that the ambient temperature is warm enough, but the feeling of cold does not disappear, this is definitely chills.

First of all, you need to understand that this is just a symptom of the disease, not a disease. Secondly, it is important to know why the body reacts this way and what caused the reaction itself.

When a person feels cold, the following happens: the peripheral vessels go into spasm, due to which they decrease - this is how the body controls the evaporation of heat. In addition, trembling may appear, with the help of which the body produces that same heat. which he now lacks.

Did you know? The muscles of mastication are the first to be affected by trembling, hence the saying “tooth does not touch tooth,” which means a feeling of extreme cold.

Also, at the moment of hypothermia, a person’s metabolism begins to accelerate intensely and a reflexive desire to curl up appears.

Thus, we understand that chills are directly related to a lack of heat in the body, and its characteristic symptoms are aimed at increasing the temperature and producing the missing heat.

Causes

Now that we understand what happens in our body when we get cold without a rise in temperature, it’s time to figure out why exactly the symptom arose. Knowing what caused hypothermia, you can choose the most suitable one for you. the right way elimination unpleasant symptom. Let's look at the main reasons why you may feel cold.

Flu and SARS

When the disease is in initial stage development, you may not observe an increase in body temperature, but feel a feeling of frost. If there is a virus in the body, such a symptom can be a tool to combat harmful bacteria.
In addition, it is through the feeling of cold that the body notifies you that there are health problems. The best way to cope with the symptom in this situation is to drink warm teas, to which you should add honey or raspberries - these products reduce fever and warm the body. You can also take a warm foot bath.

Violation of the circulatory system

It often freezes those people who have problems with blood circulation. Thus, poor blood circulation leads to a lack of heat. You can cope with this problem by increasing physical activity. If you move a lot and your blood circulation is not working properly, seek help from a doctor.

Hypothermia

Prolonged stay on the street or in a room with low air temperature subsequently results in the blood vessels narrowing, and you feel extreme cold. The best thing to do in such a situation is to drink a cup of warm drink and cover yourself with a blanket.

Important! You shouldn't crawl under a warm blanket if you feel cold. After all, the body is already producing heat and your “help” to yourself can result in overheating internal organs.

Stress

Situations that are uncomfortable for a person or a change in environment often become causes of stress. This is displayed primarily on the status nervous system person.

At the same time, it is the nervous system that monitors the body’s temperature and the amount of warmth, so a feeling of chills can occur if a person is very nervous or is experiencing a stressful situation. For the same reason, weakness appears, accompanied by a feeling of cold.

You will not be able to cope with this cause with heat alone, but you can minimize the symptoms. To do this, drink warm chamomile tea or lemon balm tea. These plants have a beneficial effect on the nervous system and have a calming effect. Video: methods for eliminating chills

Hormonal disorders

This cause of heat loss usually occurs in women. It is associated with a lack of certain hormones in the body, which often occurs during menopause.

A feeling of heat may also occur during this period. To normalize the functioning of the body, seek help from a doctor - treatment is carried out through hormone therapy.

Important! It is prohibited to carry out such procedures on your own. Therapy that uses hormones is carried out exclusively under the supervision of a specialist, otherwise you can harm the body.

Infection

Infectious diseases are characterized by the appearance of not only a feeling of cold. In addition, the body becomes exhausted, nausea may occur, and the skin will turn pale.

In this case, it is unsafe to take any measures on your own: you need to determine what kind of infection is causing this state of the body. Contact your doctor for help, who will prescribe the treatment that is right for you.

Disruption of the gastrointestinal tract

Stomach diseases can also be expressed through a symptom such as chills. This particularly applies to people who have gastritis or stomach cancer.

If you have not previously been diagnosed with one of these diagnoses, you should consult your doctor and get diagnosed. In addition, you may have pain in the abdominal area, as well as heartburn or diarrhea, which are associated with increased production of of hydrochloric acid.

Diabetes

This disease negatively affects the condition of the blood vessels located under the skin. As a result, the reaction to changes in air temperature slows down.

Those vessels that are directly connected to the temperature regulation center and the brain also suffer from the development of diabetes. Patients with this disease also experience deterioration in nutrition of the extremities. All these changes in the body can lead to frequent feelings of cold.

The main characteristic of this disease is a malfunction of the pituitary gland, in particular a decrease in the level of hormones that the pituitary gland is supposed to produce. Important role plays the presence of adrenal hormone. With its deficiency, a feeling of cold will be observed, as well as a deterioration in mood and the appearance of weakness.

The disease manifests itself in attacks, during which a person may feel cold, that is, vasospasm. The chin, fingers, ear cartilages, and the tip of the nose are subject to this effect. An attack occurs in two cases: a person is in a place with low air temperature or is very nervous.

This is a disease in which the functioning of the thyroid gland is impaired. The level of hormone production decreases, which affects the metabolic process in the body and slows it down.

This disease can be either an independent diagnosis or accompany inflammation or cancer of the thyroid gland. Hypothyroidism can affect both adult men and women, as well as children.
Symptoms of hypothyroidism

Increased blood pressure

A sharp change in blood pressure also leads to a feeling of chills. Hypertensive patients most often experience cold, since their blood pressure is unstable - it either drops sharply or rises sharply. In this regard, this symptom arises.

Treatment consists of timely regulation of indicators with the help of medications prescribed to you by your doctor.

Important! If you are hypertensive, track your readings blood pressure and accept necessary medications during. If you neglect your condition and do not regulate your blood pressure, you can get a stroke.

People suffering from vegetative-vascular dystonia live with cold extremities most of the time, and the effect of any warming disappears quite quickly. This is due to the state of the blood vessels themselves, their low tone.
This problem can be solved with medication, but we suggest paying attention to means that strengthen the immune system - exercise, washing with cool water. With this, you will simultaneously strengthen the walls of blood vessels, which means you can get rid of the feeling of chills.

Shock

There are several types of shock, but with each of them the following happens: either there will be less blood in the vessels than usual, or the vessels will dilate, but the amount of blood will remain the same. A person can experience anaphylactic (caused by an allergen), pain (caused by physical trauma), infectious-toxic and hypovolemic shock.

Did you know? Despite the fact that alcoholic drinks help dilate blood vessels, we do not recommend using it as a warming agent. As a result, your condition may worsen, even fainting states. But if the cause of chills is a stressful situation, you can drink a sedative - valerian or motherwort infusion.

Alcohol intoxication

Due to consumption alcoholic drinks the vessels expand, and the heat they generated evaporates very quickly. Then the body temperature drops and the person feels cold.

Taking medications

Permanent consumption also leads to cooling of the body:

These medications help dilate blood vessels, which leads to rapid evaporation of heat and equally rapid cooling of the body. In this case, you can consult your doctor and change the drug.

Severe illness

A long illness leads to exhaustion of the body - immunity decreases, adrenal glands suffer, exhausted long-term treatment. It is important to note that if the level of hormones produced by the adrenal glands drops, your body temperature will drop, your blood vessels will constrict, and you will feel chills.

In this case, the body temperature when measured will be below normal, that is, 36.6°C.

If the disease has not yet developed, the person will feel weak, lack strength, will be irritated more often than usual and suffer from poor concentration. Periodic insomnia, drowsiness in daytime days, noise in the ear or ears, and headache.

In children

All of the above reasons are also typical for children and adolescents, but one cannot help but pay attention to the characteristics of the young body. During this period, the body is prone to vegetative-vascular dystonia.

It is also impossible to exclude the possibility of the teenager using alcohol or drugs that dilate blood vessels. It is not uncommon for adolescents to experience a feeling of cold due to the presence large quantity stress. Chills can also be caused early pregnancy in girls under 20 years of age.

Among women

The female body is somewhat different from the male one. In this regard, we indicate the causes of chills that are characteristic only of women.

A woman may feel cold if:

Night chills in women

The feeling of cold that disturbs a woman at night is a sign of a disease such as hypothyroidism.

How to fight or what to do

Since chills occur when there is a lack of heat, you can help the body warm up as quickly as possible. All you need to do is drink warm tea, wash your hands in warm water or take a warm foot bath.

You can wrap yourself in a blanket or blanket if it is not too warm. Then you can cause the temperature inside the body to become higher than necessary, your internal organs will overheat.
If you develop chills due to shock, call a doctor. Independent actions can only do harm. We strongly do not recommend drinking warm liquid after shock.

If a child under three years old experiences a feeling of cold, you should urgently call an ambulance. You should not treat your child on your own - you can also harm the baby without knowing the reason for the decrease in body temperature and the characteristics of the child’s body.

One of the signs that a person is sick is the appearance of chills. This occurs due to spasm blood vessels, penetrating the entire skin and located close to its top layer. Chills mean a feeling of cold, accompanied by muscle tremors and spasms of the skin muscles, which lead to the appearance of the so-called " goose bumps" It can appear at any time of the day and last different period time, it depends on the reasons that caused it.

In this article, we will find out exactly why body chills appear: permanent and short-term (only in the evenings or at night), and what to do when it appears.

Causes of chills in humans

Doctors identify a large number of reasons for the appearance of such a phenomenon as chills. These include:

• mild hypothermia and overheating in the sun;
• trauma accompanied by shock;
• stress, nervous tension, extreme fatigue, anxiety, excessive agitation, lack of sleep;
• hormonal disorders(climate syndrome or diabetes);
• increase or decrease in pressure;
• ARVI, influenza and other diseases accompanied by high promotion body temperature;
• poisoning and intestinal infection;
• a long-term diet that provoked a slowdown in metabolism in the body.

To get rid of this condition, you must determine its cause and carry out the necessary treatment.

When is chills a sign of illness?

It is very important to determine in a timely manner that the appearance of chills is a symptom of a disease, and not a temporary condition of a person. Therefore, you should pay attention to accompanying signs.

The cause of severe chills, accompanied by vomiting, nausea and diarrhea, is most often an intestinal infection, intoxication or disruption of the intestines, in which an inflammatory process occurs. This condition can also occur as one of the symptoms food allergies, after taking an allergen product.

If this condition is accompanied by fever, cough, runny nose, then most likely it is viral or infection. Particularly severe chills are observed with malaria; it also causes headache, lack of appetite, insomnia and weakness. People most often get sick with it after visiting exotic countries, and when the first signs appear, you should immediately contact an infectious disease doctor.

If for a long period, every day at the same time, there is evening or night chills in the sternum area, then the cause is an increase in blood pressure, which can subsequently lead to the development of hypertension or provoke a stroke. In this case, you need to consult a doctor who will examine the heart and prescribe medication.

Causes of chills in women

Since women are more emotional than men, in stressful situations or after severe nervous tension, they may begin to become cowardly. In such cases, you should take a sedative, listen to calm music, drink tea or lie down in a hot bath, in general, do something that helps relax the body.

If the state of chills alternates with hot flashes, it is noted increased sweating and, then this is a sign of the onset of climatic syndrome or menopause. You need to contact a gynecologist or endocrinologist to determine disorders in hormonal background and treatment prescriptions.

To deal with the reasons that caused the chills, you should not self-medicate, but immediately contact a therapist or family doctor, who will then clinical tests and inspection will determine which one narrow specialist will be able to prescribe the necessary treatment.

Update: October 2018

Chills are popularly called a sensation when the whole body begins to feel cold, which causes trembling to appear in it. This condition is described with the words “chills” or “freezing”, and this is not at all the same as just trembling, not accompanied by a feeling of cold.

When chills are accompanied by fever, everything seems clear: you have a cold. But what could be the reason that chills appeared without fever? This is what we will look at here.

What determines the formation of chills?

The feeling of cold is “dictated” to a person by the thermoregulatory center - special nerve cells located in the hypothalamus. When he feels that the body has cooled down, he “turns on” the sensation of chills - a defensive reaction, which consists of:

• spasm of peripheral vessels (cutaneous, subcutaneous, localized in mucous membranes in contact with the external environment). Thus, by reducing the diameter of blood vessels, the body limits the evaporation of heat from the body;
• muscle tremors, which are needed in order to increase the amount of heat in the body. Trembling begins from the masticatory muscles, so the first sign of chills is described as “tooth not touching tooth”;
• reflexive desire to “curl up into a ball”;
• increased metabolism.

Based on the ability to maintain a constant temperature, the human body can be divided into 2 parts:

1. "Core" or "core". These are muscles and tissues that lie deeper than 2-2.5 cm from the surface of the skin, internal organs, and organs of the central nervous system. The task of the thermoregulatory center is to prevent the “core” from cooling below 35.5°C (the temperature of the “core” is judged by the readings of a thermometer in armpit, under the tongue, in the rectum or external auditory canal).
2. "Shell". This is skin, subcutaneous tissue, muscles lying superficially (for example, on the face). The temperature of the "shell" partly depends on the temperature external environment. In addition, it is not the same everywhere: on the skin of the toes and hands it can be 25°C, on the chest, back and stomach covered with clothes - up to 35°C.

The thermoregulatory center scans the body temperature every second: even a change of 0.01 degrees does not escape it. He learns about temperature with the help of special nerve endings that record the temperature in the arteries that supply the brain with blood. And when the surrounding air becomes cold enough, the blood in the vessels of the “shell” also cools, and this is reflected in the temperature of the entire blood. Then the thermoregulatory center gives the “command” to constrict the vessels of the “shell”, activate muscle tremors and “turn on” non-contractile thermogenesis - energy production in brown adipose tissue (this is present in children and very rarely persists into adulthood).

There is the concept of a “set point” for thermoregulation. This is the level of body temperature to which the body will strive; When it is reached, thermoregulatory mechanisms are practically switched off and “rest”. If the actual body temperature is below this “set point”, heat production increases (through the work of muscles and brown fat) and heat transfer decreases (the vessels of the superficial tissues narrow). The “set point” can change in some brain diseases, and then the hypothalamus can trigger severe chills at normal body temperature, considering it low. Such diseases include brain tumors, craniopharyngomas, hemorrhages in the hypothalamus, Gaye-Wernicke disease, as well as neurosurgical operations.

The formation of the “setting point” is influenced by:

1. the amount of sodium and calcium in the hypothalamus, which depends on the concentration of these ions in the blood. The latter depends not only on how much calcium and sodium a person gets from food. What is important is how this balance will be affected by the endocrine organs and kidneys;
2. balance in the work of sympathetic and parasympathetic systems. If it changes (including under the influence of drugs), either heat production or heat transfer begins to increase;
3. concentrations of norepinephrine and serotonin;
4. psychogenic factors, stress;
5. pyrogens are substances produced by pathogenic microbes that have entered the body.

Commands from the thermoregulatory center, which compared the actual blood temperature with the expected one, reach not only the nerves. They are partially carried out by hormones. These are thyroid hormones, which control metabolism, as well as adrenal hormones: adrenaline and norepinephrine, which control vascular tone. During pregnancy early stages Progesterone “connects” to them, which shifts the “set point” slightly upward to provide the embryo with the opportunity to develop.

Causes of chills without fever

Considering the mechanisms by which thermoregulation occurs, chills without fever may indicate the following diseases and conditions:

Hypothermia

This is the first reason to think about. If you are freezing indoors during the unheated season, or for a long time spent in cold air/cold water, then with the help of chills the body tries to raise body temperature to the “set point”.

Stress, fear

If you are very nervous or scared, then this upsets the balance between the parasympathetic and sympathetic system in favor of the latter. In this case, the hypothalamus “commands” to increase body temperature. This phenomenon is temporary; cough, not accompanied by any pain.

Alcohol intoxication

Ethyl alcohol, found in various drinks, causes dilation of the “shell” vessels, as a result, heat evaporates from the surface of the body and it cools. A decrease in temperature leads to the development of symptoms of chills.

Taking medications

If you are constantly taking Phenothiazine, Phenobarbital, Barboval, Sibazon (Relanium, Valium), Gidazepam, Reserpine, Droperidol or Haloperidol, as well as an anti-nausea drug “Motilium” (“Domrid”, “Motorix”, which are based on domperidone), keep in mind: they dilate blood vessels. As a result, the body cools down and chills occur.

Severe illness

When a person was seriously ill for a long time or seriously, the body threw all its strength into curing him. This depleted him and worsened the functioning of the adrenal glands (a similar effect is observed with stress). Decreased production of adrenal hormones leads to a decrease in body temperature and, accordingly, activates the symptoms of chills. The body temperature is below normal.

Diseases accompanied by intoxication

These are mainly infectious diseases:

• respiratory diseases;
• intestinal infections (what is called poisoning);
• pneumonia, especially atypical forms, occurring at normal temperature;
• inflammation urinary tract;
• tuberculosis of any localization.

The fact that this disease is caused by one of the types of microbes can be assumed based on the fact that weakness suddenly appears, appetite disappears or decreases, and there may be slight dizziness and nausea (these are symptoms of intoxication).

The following symptoms will indicate the localization of the source of inflammation: in case of acute respiratory infections - sore throat and runny nose, in case of pneumonia - cough, pain in the throat. upper sections sternum, with inflammation of the urinary tract - lower back pain, difficulty or pain when urinating.

Food poisoning is usually accompanied by nausea, diarrhea (even once); it occurs after eating foods with cream, meat, dairy products, and dishes with mayonnaise.

Tuberculosis is characterized by weakness, night sweats, cough. They may not be observed too much long time. Gradually, if the tuberculosis process changes its localization, the cough may disappear. Then other symptoms appear: headaches (with tuberculous meningitis) or pain in the lower back (if it is kidney tuberculosis), pain in the bones (with a bone process). Intoxication remains the same.

Of course, a feeling of chills with signs of intoxication in the absence of an increase in temperature can also manifest other diseases. So, in men it can be exacerbations chronic diseases testicles, epididymis, prostate. But in this case, they will come to the fore discomfort in the organs of the scrotum or lower sections abdomen, urination and erection disorders.

In women, chills without fever, accompanied by intoxication, may accompany inflammation of the breast tissue (mastitis) and lactostasis in nursing women. Breast cancer also manifests itself. But in most cases, pain in the mammary gland comes to the fore.

Vegetative-vascular dystonia

This is an outdated diagnosis, which, however, is used to designate disorders of the autonomic nervous system without signs of damage to its structures. The diagnosis is usually made after examining a person with one or more of the following complaints and ruling out more “serious” diseases: hypertension, heart pathologies, diabetes mellitus, mental disorders.

The disease manifests itself:

• pain in the heart;
• feeling of palpitations or irregular heartbeats;
• chills;
• feeling of inner trembling;
• coldness of hands and feet;
• swelling;
• migrating pain in joints and muscles.

Increased blood pressure

Body chills without fever may be a sign of increased blood pressure. It is not a sign of illness if high pressure was measured while you were very nervous or had just worked out physically. But if chills are accompanied by pressure above 140/100 mm Hg. was noted at rest or during usual physical activity, you need to make an appointment with a therapist and start monitoring this indicator. Before you see this doctor, stop drinking alcohol, strong black teas, coffee, and reduce your salt intake by half.

Hypothyroidism

This is the name of the condition when the thyroid gland begins to produce less hormones, which slows down metabolic processes in the body. This disease can develop in both women and men. Hypothyroidism may be separate disease, but also occurs with inflammation of the thyroid gland (including autoimmune), as well as with its cancer.

In children, hypothyroidism is often congenital and life-threatening, causing a critical slowdown in the development of brain structures.

Manifestations of hypothyroidism can be noticed by the patient’s relatives only when hormones become too low. In children over 3 years of age and adults this is:

• lethargy;
• swelling of the face, while it acquires a yellowish tint;
• slowdown thought processes and attention;
• the skin becomes dry;
• increased chilliness;
• frequent headaches;
• fast fatiguability;
• loss of appetite;
• nausea;
• flatulence;
• constipation;
• in women - a violation menstrual cycle, usually characterized by delays and scanty periods.

Raynaud's syndrome

This is the name of a disease in which in the cold or when nervous tension in the fingers or toes, in the chin, in the ear cartilage or in the tip of the nose severe spasm vessels. The attack is accompanied by successive changes: first, the affected tissues turn pale, then become violet-blue, then turn red.

Stomach diseases

Gastritis, stomach cancer can be manifested by feelings of malaise, chills, profuse sweating, dizziness. If the diseases are accompanied by the production of large amounts of hydrochloric acid, pain is felt in the abdomen, heartburn is often felt, and there may be diarrhea.

Hypopituitarism

This is called a decrease in the pituitary gland's production of its hormones. Chills without fever will develop when the function of the pituitary gland in relation to the adrenal cortex is reduced. The adrenal cortex produces little hormones - weakness, bad mood, chills associated with a decrease in blood pressure appear.

In a similar way it appears insufficient output hormones of the adrenal cortex, when it is not the pituitary gland that is affected, but the adrenal cortex. This condition is called hypocortisolism. It may be caused by tuberculosis, sarcoidosis, or amyloidosis of this part of the organ. Chronic hypocortisolism can become a complication of any operation, radiation therapy carried out on the organs of the retroperitoneal space (kidneys, pancreas). It can develop as a result of such rare diseases, such as adrenoleukodystrophy or adrenomyelodystrophy. In some cases, hypocortisolism develops for unknown reasons.

Atherosclerosis of cerebral vessels

At the initial stage, this disease is manifested by weakness, increased fatigue, irritability, and difficulty concentrating. Periodically there are attacks of insomnia or drowsiness during the day, headaches, and noise in one or two ears.

Diabetes

In diabetes mellitus, there is damage to the blood vessels of the skin, due to which they become unable to respond at normal speed to changes in ambient temperature. In addition, the vessels that supply the brain, including the thermoregulation center, undergo changes. Diabetes can impair nutrition in the hands and feet. Each of these can provoke the development of frequent chills.

Shock

This is the name for a condition in which the diameter of the vessels no longer corresponds to the amount of blood in them: either there is too little blood, or the vessels become too wide.

Shock may develop due to a severe allergic reaction ( anaphylactic shock). In this case, symptoms appear 5-120 minutes (less often, more) after an insect bite, taking some kind of drug, or eating some kind of food. Less commonly, anaphylactic shock occurs after heat/cold exposure or after intense physical activity.

Shock may be caused by strong pain. It occurs as a result of trauma, injury, inflammation of any organ or structure.

If you have felt a sore throat, cough, nausea - any symptom indicating microbial inflammation for some time, and then it begins to get worse, you begin to feel chilly, your pulse quickens, this may be an infectious-toxic shock requiring emergency medical attention.

In case of excessive vomiting or diarrhea, chills without fever may mean the development of hypovolemic shock - from the loss of a large amount of fluid. If you feel chills during heavy periods, against the background of pain in any part of the abdomen, or during diarrhea with blood, this may be hemorrhagic shock - shock from blood loss.

At the slightest suspicion of shock, especially in a child, you need urgent call"Ambulance". There is no question of inviting local doctors or visiting them at the clinic.

Causes of chills in children

Often, chills in children occur due to acute respiratory infections, poisoning, and urinary tract diseases.

IN adolescence most often vegetative-vascular dystonia “raises its head”, but the symptom can be caused alcohol intoxication, taking drugs that dilate blood vessels. Teenage girls may shiver from freezing and stress. In some cases there is no need to discount possible pregnancy teenage girls.

This is the most common reasons sensations of cold and muscle tremors in children. In general, chills in a child can be caused by any of the reasons (except atherosclerosis) that are mentioned for adults.

Selected causes of chills in women

In addition to the above reasons, a feeling of chills in women can be a manifestation of:

• premenstrual period;
• migraine;
• increased sweating (hyperhidrosis), the causes of which can be both diseases of the sweat glands and endocrine diseases, and diseases of internal organs, and tuberculosis.

In all these cases, chills can occur at any time of the day. Appearing at night in women, it is more characteristic of hypothyroidism than of other conditions.

During pregnancy

Chills without fever during pregnancy can occur due to any of the reasons listed above. Thus, a pregnant woman may become nervous, develop ARVI, and worsen vegetative-vascular dystonia and diabetes mellitus. The development of any type of shock is also possible.

• appeared only in the first weeks of pregnancy;
• not accompanied by abdominal pain, a feeling of panic, cough, diarrhea;
• does not occur simultaneously with the release of blood from the genital tract (even if this is the day on which menstruation previously occurred).

The cause of chills during pregnancy can also be a spontaneous miscarriage. It is accompanied by cramping pain in the abdomen and bleeding from the vagina.

Another reason for the feeling of cold and trembling, characteristic only of pregnancy, is frozen pregnancy. In this case, chills are a sign of intoxication resulting from the absorption of tissues of the dead fetus into the blood. In addition to chills, the condition is often accompanied by nausea, weakness, and body aches.

In the second half of pregnancy, chills may be accompanied by an increase in blood pressure. This means that a complication called “preeclampsia” has developed and requires treatment.

During menopause

The next cause of chills, which is typical only for women, but not pregnant women, is hormonal changes during menopause. You can think about this if a woman is over 40 years old; in addition to chills, there are hot flashes, increased sweating, and insomnia. Such symptoms can bother you during the day and wake you up at night.

During feeding

Causes of chills after childbirth:

1. the same as before pregnancy;
2. lactostasis: in this case, you can feel painful lumps in your breasts that need to be expressed to improve your condition.

Often, after childbirth, various endocrine diseases “raise their heads.” In most cases, this is hypothyroidism, which causes chills at night, or diabetes mellitus. If in postpartum period noted profuse bleeding, constant freezing may indicate damage to the pituitary gland, leading to hypopituitarism.

Therefore, if a nursing mother is not frozen or nervous, no lumps or pain are palpable in her breasts, and her nipples are not injured, she needs to donate blood for glucose levels, TSH and free hormone T4. If there are no abnormalities in these tests, we recommend visiting an endocrinologist and neurologist for further examination.

Possible causes of chills depending on accompanying symptoms

If you have nausea and chills, it may be:

• gastritis;
• food poisoning;
• any of the diseases that cause intoxication, including tuberculosis;
• stomach cancer;
• hypothyroidism;
• any of the shocks;
• early stages of pregnancy.

If the chills are constant, then this is most likely the manifestation of diabetes mellitus, hypothyroidism, and vegetative-vascular dystonia.

Headache and chills are typical for:

• overwork;
• prolonged fasting;
• lack of sleep;
• vegetative-vascular dystonia;
• stress;
• ARVI, pneumonia and other diseases with intoxication, including helminthic diseases;
• a brain tumor.

If there are aches and chills, this may indicate various diseases and states like:

• food poisoning;
• thyroid diseases;
• tumors of any location;
• most infectious diseases;
• diabetes;
• pneumonia;
• diseases of the urinary system (mainly pyelonephritis);
• fibromyalgia;
• panic attacks.

When they describe a runny nose and chills, it is either ARVI (not the flu, which always occurs with high temperature), or, which is less common, allergic reaction on pollen, particles of animal saliva remaining on their fur, drugs or household chemicals produced in the form of an aerosol.

If your condition can be described as “cold chills,” then most likely due to various reasons available increased sweating. It could also be endarteritis lower limbs when the nutrition of the legs is disrupted, and the whole body freezes.

What to do if you have chills

The first thing to do when you have a chill is to wrap yourself up and warm your hands in warm water. If symptoms resemble shock, call " Ambulance“, you don’t need to drink hot tea before this, so as not to aggravate your condition.

In all other cases, you can drink hot tea with raspberries or lingonberries, cover yourself with a blanket and warm your feet in warm water. A visit to the doctor is mandatory.

If chills are observed in a child under 3 years of age (and especially under one year), calling an ambulance and hospitalization are mandatory.