Chills

1987/08/01 Agirre, Jabier - Medikua eta OEEko kidea Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Osasuna

It is quite difficult to describe in words the feeling that it is a kind of descending electric discharge in the back or a kind of handful that is noticeable in the gastric area. However, there is an appearance that is linked to the sensation: the skin rises or rises, and that is usually called chicken snakes. Another fundamental sign is the steaming and uncontrollability of the chills. It appears without warning when we are cold or when we feel fear, nervousness or some emotion of relatively hard love: the shiver appears and little we can do.

After all, what is erected or erected is not the skin itself, but the skin hair, although the latter causes are not yet very clear. Why does this fine skin granulation and hair erection occur? The feeling generated by fears, cold, etc. reaches the heart centers of the nervous system, which send a nervous signal especially aimed at every hair covering the skin.

This is proven, but there are authors who not only refer to the nervous character but also to the role of hormonal factors in erection. Immediately after the sensation, the adrenal medulla secretes adrenaline and spreads through the blood. On the other hand, at the end of the nerve fibers flows another chemical mediator similar to the adrenaline of the blood. When these two reactions occur simultaneously, the chills begin.

And why the shiver, more than one will ask? In general, we can accept chills as a way to experience some heat when the body is cold. Different tests and experiments with animals show that when animals are cold, the hair automatically rises as a defensive mechanism. Thus they try to maintain the thermoregulation of the whole body, h. d. They prevent the cold outside and even more the cold they feel on the skin from entering the body. They help protect your body from low outside temperatures.

Air is a very bad conductor of cold and heat. When the animal's hair rises it stops the air circulating on the skin, creating a kind of camera that prevents the loss of body heat. In short, upright hair forms a barrier that prevents the outside cold from entering the inside of the body.

However, cold is not the only agent causing this reaction. Who hasn't seen the cat because he has a dog in front with a domed back and all the hair fully upright? When the hairs stand up, the cat acquires a larger size and appears stronger and more threatening to its enemies.

For one reason or another, the mechanism is there and the shiver has come to this day. And XX. 20th century human beings faced with an unsafe situation or for fear, cold, etc. with chills and cold sweat, the skin is shaped like chicken buttocks.

As has already been said, the shiver appears unexpectedly: it is a reflex mechanism that is launched before three main types of sensations: by cold, first; when we are in danger or by fear, second and related to some feeling of love.

The prevention of chills, therefore, would mean avoiding these three situations, which is practically impossible, and in the third case also not recommended. Keep in mind that chilling is nothing worrying. It does not cause any damage and in the worst case it is only an annoying but fleeting sensation that goes as fast as it appears.