OK, I know that as we get older, we get more sensitive to cold.

[raccoon]

But how 'bout heat? Do we get more sensitive to it too? Or does it seem "less hot" to an older person than a younger one?

[zipplewrath]

1. Hot too

We get more sensative to heat as we get older, far more than to cold. When you get cold, mostly you're just cold. There is some danger to extremities, but that's about it. When you get hot, you can get heat stroke, it raises the blood pressure which can lead to a real live stroke and or heart attacks. It can cause dehydration as well, which can cause stress on the heart.

[raccoon]

3. Oh, nice! I'd rather deal with cold than heat. nt

[zipplewrath]

5. You can always warm up

Put on a sweater, wear a blanket, get physically active, there are things you can do to "warm up". Cooling down on the other hand is tough when the air temp is 95F. You can only get so naked.

[T Wolf]

9. The image that "naked" and "getting older" together in a thread is a little scary.

And I speak as a man who is nearing the dreaded 60 (twice as old as the age I should stop trusting people at) who sleeps with a woman almost as ancient.

But to the question... cold and heat are realities that we have to deal with, as opposed to ignoring as in our youth.

I too would rather be cold because you can warm up. To cool down in the extreme (and dangerous) heat of summer, we must do great harm to the environment.

Or move to Norway.

[zipplewrath]

10. Or go in the basement

In some parts of the world, they have basements, where it is always a nice cool 60 something.

[raccoon]

13. Not many basements in SC, especially when you get away from the Upstate.

Rest of the state is at a low elevation, and the basements would flood.

But I agree, my uncle in upstate SC has a basement, not livable but used as a workshop. It's so much cooler there.

[elleng]

14. I live in one (kind of), and its great! Don't need a.c.

(Really, rear of old house, built into hill, so kind of like basement.)

[raccoon]

15. "Or move to Norway." And become a citizen--I'd like to ask my fairy godmother about that.

Or should I say "fairy goddaughter?"

[barbtries]

2. i'm getting older

55 in a month...i moved from CA to NC 2 1/2 years ago, and the HEAT and HUMIDITY are killing me! growing up i used to love the summer - used to swear i'd rather be hot than cold. no more. no, no more. when i'm cold i can put on a sweater. in this heat all i can do is hang around inside and watch the electric bill rise. and sweat. ohmigawd i never knew one person could sweat so much.

so that's my two cents. as i've gotten older i've found it easier to deal with the cold and harder to deal with the heat. especially the heat in NC.

[raccoon]

4. I feel your pain. I have endured 50-something summers in SC.

Wish I could retire to Canada...

[barbtries]

6. you don't get used to it huh?

that's discouraging.

when i get rich (HA!) i'll summer in the west and come out here for the seasons. the ones that don't make me sweat that is.

[raccoon]

7. Well, for one thing, I've put on some weight in my middle age.

Which hasn't helped.

I used to think I'd love to move to the Southwest. It's a dry heat, right? But now I'm not so sure...dry heat is still hot.

But I agree it's nice when you don't sweat. One thing I really liked about NM.

[kestrel91316]

8. I have a tendency to gain as I get older. So you know what happens when

I get to my supposed perfect weight in an effort to avoid heat stroke in the summer? Winter comes and my hands and feet freeze because I have insufficient insulation.

You can't win. I know firsthand.

[barbtries]

12. i have put on a lot of weight

since arriving here. i'd always been chunky but it's much worse since i moved to NC. i believe it's because in CA i was riding the bus which meant a lot of walking, and here i work 10-11 hours/day and have to drive to and from. oh, yeah, and bojangles.

point being that i should admit that the weight may have some bearing on the unbearableness of the summers here. but i know i'd be sweating regardless.

[valerief]

11. Summers are like that all along the east coast. Sticky as hell! nt

[barbtries]

16. as hell!

as my co-worker said when i asked her what it was like outside on Friday, "the devil's mouth."

[valerief]

21. Ha! nt

[Thirtieschild]

17. It probably depends on what you mean by older. My mother, in her late 90s, couldn't get warm.

And that was in Dallas, early May, 97 degrees, humid. I was in my almost-70s and finally had to wrap her in a quilt and turn on the air conditioner.

[HockeyMom]

18. I am more sensitve to heat than cold

I also moved to Florida 3 years ago, not by choice. I cannot take the heat here. Anything over 80 degrees bothers me. Yet, when I go back north I can walk around in below freezing temps with less clothes than I used to need.

I really think what your internal "temperature" is when you are young, will just increase when you get older.

[SheilaT]

19. I have always hated hot weather.

Several years ago when I realized I could now live wherever I wanted, I decided to move to Santa Fe. People from San Diego complain about the weather here in February and March (I was in school with a couple of them this past winter), and admittedly it was a tad snowier than usual, but it's vastly better than summers in DC, or Kansas, or Phoenix, just to name some other places I've lived.

Here's something else about sensitive to the cold as we get older: Now that I'm 61, and well past menopause, I think that maybe some women, maybe many of them, get used to feeling warm all the time while their experience those delightful personal moments of summer, otherwise known as hot flashes. Alas for me, the worst of my hot flashes were during the summer. Maybe if I'd had them in the winter I'd have appreciated them more.

[Historic NY]

20. I like my a/c at hanging meat temp on hot days...good thing I got a new one in.

I hate the cold in the winter.