Shivering Response
Shivering Response Information
Shivering is a randomized, locomotively inefficient quivering of muscles, and can produce heat at a rate five times greater than the basal metabolic rate. Our first line of defense against cold, shivering occurs when temperature receptors in the skin and brain sense a decrease in body temperature and trigger the shivering response.
As with all forms of physical action, the price of shivering is fuel. How long and how effectively we shiver is limited by the amount of carbohydrates stored in muscles and by the amount of water and oxygen available. In order to shiver, warm blood must be pumped into the muscle, which creates an additional cooling problem - Warm blood flowing close to the surface reduces our natural insulation and increases heat loss.
Shivering response also hinders the ability to perform the behavioral tasks necessary to reduce eat loss and increase heat production, and may render even simple manual tasks difficult or even impossible.
Vigorous physical activity can override the shivering response, causing a person to cool past the point of shivering without experiencing the response.
From a fitness perspective, the shivering response can be utilised to lost weight, since it burns up energy at up to five times the basal metabolic rate. Lately, fitness and weight-loss supplements have begun to make use of the shivering response, and some have synergycally used it together with conventional thermogenesis.
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