Why are your hands always cold?
You do not need a laboratory to assess your metabolism.
You need a thermometer and sixty seconds a day.
The test
Measure your temperature and pulse in the morning, immediately after getting up.
Then eat breakfast as usual.
Measure again thirty minutes later.
Two measurements, four numbers, no cost.
The interpretation
Ray Peat used these two values as a compass for decades.
His rough guideline: temperature around 37 degrees, pulse around 85 beats.
But the combination is more important than the individual value.
| Temperature | Pulse | What this means |
| low | low | energy production reduced |
| low | high | stress hormones take over the work |
| rises after eating | slightly higher |
your metabolism takes in the fuel
|
Why the hands specifically?
Your fingers are the first thing your body sacrifices.
Under stress, adrenaline constricts the blood vessels there.
The blood stays in the center and protects the organs.
Warm core, cold periphery.
Active thyroid hormone does the opposite.
T3 relaxes the blood vessels and boosts heat production in every cell.
That is why cold hands are rarely a circulation problem.
They are an energy and stress problem.
Why your feeling is not enough
A research team compared eleven people with well-controlled hypothyroidism with thirty healthy control subjects in 2024.
Both groups were in the same room at the same temperature.
And both perceived the temperature as equally warm.
But the palms were measurably cooler: 32.05 versus 33.10 degrees.
There was no difference on the forehead or chest.
Only the periphery revealed anything.
The only notable laboratory value fit the picture: the conversion of T4 into active T3 was poorer in the patient group.
So the feeling was lying; the thermometer was not.
And now
Measure for a week and write down the four numbers.
You will see how they respond to sleep, meals, and stress.
This is not a diagnosis.
It is a feedback channel that almost nobody uses.
And it costs you one minute a day.
Best wishes
Your Raw Animal Team
