Feeling a bit like a bear? As much as I love winter, and I just got done shoveling 6 inches of wet snow in March, I am ready, so ready to come out of hibernation. And it’s supposed to snow until 7 in the morning. 9 more hours of snow. I’m ready for the temperature to warm up a little. I’m ready to hear the birds sing. I’m ready for the flowers and the grass to start to grow. I’m ready for the leaves to come out on the tress. I’ve been in dormancy in my house long enough, I think.
I have heard that our body’s mimic the seasons so I thought I would do a little bit of research.
Based on the article I read, which you can find here, colder weather changes our DNA. Apparently, we store more fat, lovely. And the body becomes inflamed easier. And apparently the blood vessels are more restricted which can create more headaches.
They talk about the science behind this in the article.
You can read it if you want. The link is above. And you can find many more if you want to really dive in. But I have wondered why every winter my head screams. I was just noting a couple of weeks ago that every January, I have several weeks of steady headaches and I’m always scratching my head, literally and figuratively, trying to figure out what the hell I’m doing differently to cause these headaches. Well, there might be a few things that I will get into shortly, but it really is just winter apparently.
And because the body is more apt to choose inflammation as protection to the effects of winter, people with inflammatory diseases like autoimmune are going to have more autoimmune flares in winter.
Hallelujah.
I now know why the hell I feel so crappy in winter. Why my numbers are worse in winter.
Well, it could be due to changes in my food which I will talk about now. For some reason, my comfort foods are needed much more in the winter than the summer. As a matter of fact, I’ve had Crème Brule twice in two weeks.
Now, what could be wrong with that.
Maybe the cream, the dreaded dairy. And maybe the fact that there is so much sugar in those spoonsful of love that they actually set it on fire to make it even more of a loving spoonful. And I appreciate every grain of sugar in it. So does my hippocampus. You know, the part of my brain responsible for emotion and memory. Ya, it loves Crème Brule.
That isn’t the end of my food digressions. I didn’t mention the gluten free pizza I have also had twice in the last two weeks. And seriously, will I be able to fit into my shorts on the next warm day. Hmm. I don’t know. Because all of us with autoimmune understand the ability to gain 5lbs of inflammation over night after eating the wrong food. I am lost down a bunny trail of autoimmune trials and tribulations.
Let me get back to topic.
The point is winter actually affects our body differently than in summer. And winter does actually boost our metabolism, likely making us hungrier. It can also increase our blood pressure. And the body can also generate more brown fat to help keep us warmer. Thanks winter. Haha.
But summer is coming, and it brings with us its own list of changes to our body.
Higher energy levels are a thing in summer. Yay. But hands and feet can swell. I know mine do when it is really hot outside. Add humidity to that and I look like I have sausages for toes. Allergies are a thing in summer. Hot weather can lead to fatigue because the heat widens our blood vessels dropping our blood pressure. Makes you tired.
But there is the sun, and it is so much easier to get our vitamin D which we need to help make our world all right. It is so important to our existence as you can find in my blog here.
The health of our gut generally improves in the summer because we aren’t interested as much in our comfort foods. We prefer fruits and veggies, meaning that layer of fat we got in the winter might dissipate. The increased vitamin D helps with the gut health as well. Something positive, yay!!!
And one last little tidbit about summer. Warmer weather means an increased opportunity to get pregnant. Joshua Gonzalez, the sexual health doctor, says that balls hang lower when the weather is warmer. Better sperm production. Haha. Just had to share. Cracked me up a bit.
Hope you have a wonderful week.
