Always Hot? Here’s What Your Body’s Trying to Tell You

If you're always asking yourself, ‌Is it hot in here or is it just me?,‌ you may be wondering if there's a reason your internal thermostat seems to be set to tropical temperatures at all times.

A higher-than-average temperature doesn't always mean there's something strange going on. "Everyone's body is different," says Deena Adimoolam-Gupta, MD, a New York City-based endocrinologist and internist.

Sometimes what some consider "running warmer" is just your normal baseline. That may especially be true if you carry more weight or have obesity, per a 2018 review in the ‌Handbook of Clinical Neurology‌.

But if feeling hot is a new symptom (or one of many symptoms), and it's affecting your quality of life, it could be a sign of an underlying issue.

Here, Dr. Adimoolam-Gupta covers the most common reasons you're always hot.

If you frequently feel like a furnace, you might have hyperthyroidism, a condition where your body makes too much thyroid hormone. Symptoms of hyperthyroidism include excessive hotness, inability to withstand warm temperatures and/or increased sweating, Dr. Adimoolam-Gupta says.

"The exact reason for why excess thyroid hormone leads to these symptoms is unclear, but it may be related to a higher basal metabolic rate or an increase in hormones called catecholamines, which cause vasodilation [a widening of the blood vessels that leads to increased blood flow and a rush of warmth]," she says.

Other symptoms of an overactive thyroid include the following, per the Mayo Clinic:

• Unexplained weight loss
• Fast and/or irregular heartbeat or heart palpitations
• Feeling nervous, anxious or irritable
• Feeling tired and/or weak
• Increased hunger
• A tremor (shaking) in the hands or fingers
• More frequent bowel movements
• Problems sleeping
• Warm, moist skin
• Brittle, fine hair

Sometimes stress is the source of your sweltering. When you experience a stressor, your body flips into "fight or flight" mode, and your adrenal gland secretes catecholamines (specifically epinephrine and norepinephrine), Dr. Adimoolam-Gupta says.

Catecholamines, which prep your body for the fight-or-flight response, both enhance your mental alertness and muscle strength while increasing your heart rate, blood pressure and breathing rate, which results in a warmer body temperature, she says.

Ever noticed a spike in sweating during your monthly cycle?

"During the time of ovulation, there is an increase in the hormone progesterone, which leads to an increase in temperature," Dr. Adimoolam-Gupta says.

Indeed, shortly after ovulation, progesterone spikes basal body temperature between 0.5 to 1 degree Fahrenheit, according to a July 2020 peer-reviewed article in ‌StatPearls‌.

While one measly degree might seem like an insignificant amount, it's still enough to make a difference in your comfort level.

If you're regularly sweating in your sleep, you might be experiencing menopause.

"Hot flashes and night sweats occur before and during menopause because of changing hormone levels, including estrogen and progesterone, which affect the body's temperature control," Dr. Adimoolam-Gupta says.

Estrogen tends to increase temperature mainly by way of vasodilation (causing more blood flow to the skin and other organs) while, in this case, progesterone lowers your body's thermostat.

"It's the imbalance between these hormones that leads to hot flashes," Dr. Adimoolam-Gupta says.

Believe it or not, your cup of coffee could be the reason you feel hot. Yes, caffeine can make you sweat.

Caffeine stimulates the release of catecholamines (the same hormones involved in the "flight or fight" response), Dr. Adimoolam-Gupta says.

Again, catecholamines boost your heart rate, blood pressure and breathing rate, which can all make you feel warm.

Morning sickness isn't the only unpleasant side effect of pregnancy — feeling hot is also a common symptom when you're expecting.

For starters, "estrogen is at its highest levels during pregnancy," Dr. Adimoolam-Gupta says. Remember, when estrogen is released, it widens the blood vessels and generates more blood flow to the skin, which will warm you up.

Pregnancy also leads to an increase in blood volume, which makes the heart work even harder (by the eighth week of pregnancy your heart rate is 20 percent faster), Dr. Adimoolam-Gupta says. And with this sped-up pulse comes hotter body temps.

And if all that weren't enough, your body also absorbs the heat that the baby produces, Dr. Adimoolam-Gupta says.

Many types of medications can predispose you to heat-related issues, including the following, according to the National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health (NCCEH):

• Antidepressants
• Antihistamines
• Antipsychotics
• Diuretics

That's because drugs can interfere with your body's normal thermoregulation. For example, some medications affect the hypothalamus (the region of the brain that sets normal body temperature) while others can disrupt your capacity to sweat (which impedes the body's ability to cool itself), per the NCCEH.

If you've ever noticed you start to get a little warm as the alcoholic drinks flow throughout the day or night, it's not just in your head.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, alcohol causes your blood vessels to dilate and send more blood to your skin. This causes that "flush" look and feeling you might get when you drink.

This can make you feel like you're getting warmer the more you drink and can even cause hot flashes after drinking alcohol.

When you turn up the heat on your plate, you turn up your body temperature, too.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, spicy foods can trigger sweat glands, making you feel sweaty when eating.

Foods like jalapenos, hot peppers and cayenne and chili pepper contain a chemical called capsaicin. Capsaicin can trigger heat receptors in your skin, causing your nervous system to believe you're overheating, per the Cleveland Clinic. Once that starts to happen, your body tries to cool itself (enter: sweat!).

If you're always hot and excessively sweat regardless of exercise or heat, you may have hyperhidrosis.

According to the Mayo Clinic, it's a condition that causes episodes of heavy sweating that can be disruptive to daily life.

Hyperhidrosis could simply be the result of overactive sweat glands, or it might be a symptom of another condition, such as diabetes, hyperthyroidism, an infection, a nervous system condition or certain types of cancer.

Heat-related illnesses like heat exhaustion or heat stroke happen when your internal temperature rises to dangerous levels, according to the CDC.

Heat exhaustion can be serious and is the body's natural way of reacting to losing water and salt, per the CDC. In addition to feeling hot, symptoms include headache, nausea, thirst, dizziness, heavy sweating and weakness.

Heat exhaustion can progress to heat stroke, which is the most severe heat-related illness. In this case, you may actually stop feeling hot and feel cold and clammy instead. Other symptoms include being disoriented, profuse sweating, losing consciousness, seizures and extremely high body temperature. It can be fatal if it isn't immediately addressed.

Cold sweats are different from the kind of sweating that happens when you exercise or on a hot day. According to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, sweating when you're cold could be a sign of physical or mental distress.You may be reacting to severe stress, anxiety or having a panic attack.

Cold sweats also happen when your body is fighting viral and bacterial infections, like the flu.

Feeling hot every day could be a normal response to your environment — especially if you've recently moved to a warmer climate — or it could be a sign of an underlying condition, per the Cleveland Clinic. Whether or not it's a concern depends on what's causing you to feel hot.

Try tracking your symptoms and when they happen, then see a doctor for further testing and diagnosis.

Night sweats can be an uncomfortable symptom of menopause or a sign of a serious condition like an infection or diabetes (especially if your sweat smells sweet), per the Cleveland Clinic. Overheating at night is usually related to hormone changes that make it hard for your body temperature to regulate.

If night sweats are regularly disrupting your sleep, make an appointment with your doctor, who can help you find relief based on the cause.

If feeling hot is a new symptom that's getting in the way of your everyday life, it's worth setting up an appointment with your doctor, who can run tests based on your other symptoms and lay out your treatment options.