19°C. So, temperature that the government enjoins you to keep at home this winter to better withstand the energy crisis. But is what makes sense both economically and ecologically also good for your body? “Let’s just say the health benefits are questionable,” replies Dr. Nogrette immediately. The fault, according to him, to certain received ideas.
The hot-cold myth
It is necessary, first of all, to attack the legend of the hot-cold. The one who would like sudden temperature differences between, for example, the overheated interior of a car and the cold outside to weaken the body: “However, certain populations experience this in a very usual way in the Nordic countries, and they are no more tired than us”, explains the doctor.
“It’s a bit like those widespread ideas that the cold makes us more vulnerable to viruses or that rheumatism is more violent when the weather is bad. These are things that come out of popular wisdom. There may be -be a true background, but it is not scientifically proven.
Lower heating = higher form
What is shown, however, is that overheating forces your body to regulate its temperature and therefore consume energy to maintain it at 37°C. A problem that also arises in summer. Gold: “the higher the temperature, the greater the work of regulation, and the more the body gets tired.”
The big difference with scorching weather? “When it’s hot and you’ve taken off all your layers of clothing, you can’t take anything else off.” In winter, on the other hand, nothing prevents you from maintaining a reasonable temperature to avoid suffering from this seasonal fatigue.
An exhaustion which, moreover, would be “partly psychological” according to the doctor. The guilty? The lack of sun and the shortness of winter days. Not the cold. In short: to stay on top of your game until the good weather comes, don’t let your own mind fool you and save your energy… in every sense of the word!
