WINTER BRINGS ON COLD AND RISING ENERGY BILLS
We need to keep our perspective about our energy bills and using the heat in winter. My wife always tells me to keep the thermostat down and put on some more clothes. It is said that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but that is not always the case. I am layering now, so I have learned.
I feel like an Alaskan Inuit native with my long underwear, my street clothes on, my sweats on over that and a small blanket that I wrap around my shoulders. When I get warm enough, then I start unwrapping myself; somewhat like a turban being removed from around one’s head. Well, we are trying to save money by keeping the heat off and the energy bills down. So far, it has not worked too well because we find ourselves cranking up the heat to warm up the house due to the cold, wet weather we are having, but then we turn it off after the chill is gone…only to find that it is probably too late and the bill goes up anyway.
Older people have an interesting phenomenon going on and that is their pituitary glands tend to diminish in function and their inner temperature control mechanisms tend to misfire in the medulla part of the brain subsequently. We lose our ability to feel thirsty causing dehydration. We may feel cold when it is hot and not only wear lots of clothes, but turn up the heat. If we over dress, we run the risk of elevating our body temperature and then going outside into the cold, we run the risk of getting chilled when it is cold outside. Getting chilled can cause our resistance to go down leaving us vulnerable to getting sick. So we need to undress from our layering, let our bodies get used to room temperature or cool down slightly, put a jacket on to insure that we don’t get chilled when we go outside and we will be fine. If you ever watch elephant seals or any kind of seal as a matter of fact, they tend to thermoregulate. That is, they throw up a flipper or two while laying in the sun to either cool down their bodies or if it is cold, to warm up from the sun. So learn to thermoregulate yourself and you will be OK in the long-run.