Complaints & connections · borters.ch
Inner heat and sweating can be hormonal — measurable rather than only felt.
Also known as: heat intolerance · heat sensitivity
Open in the tool — with search and all the links →This compilation is for information and replaces neither medical diagnosis nor treatment. If you have symptoms, see a doctor.
A constant feeling of heat others don’t share — a T-shirt in winter, barely bearable above ~25–30 °C, often with sweating. This is a symptom, not a single disease: the body either makes too much heat or sheds it poorly. The most common medically important cause is an overactive thyroid — so have TSH checked first. Related conditions with a similar picture: Graves’ disease, low testosterone, pheochromocytoma, chronic stress/anxiety, diabetic neuropathy and hyperhidrosis.
An overactive thyroid is the most common cause that can be treated. TSH alone is enough as a first step; if it is low, the free values follow.
In bed in the morning, before getting up. A resting pulse steadily above ninety together with the feeling of heat points in a different direction than heat alone.
Thyroid hormone at too high a dose, certain drugs for depression, cortisone, amphetamines, and also iodine-containing preparations and contrast media: they all belong on the list before the search goes on.
Sudden heat with sweating and chills afterwards, above all at night, speaks more for the menopause than for a constant inner heat. That too can be treated.
Wrists, neck, arch of the foot: the vessels lie near the surface there. Cool water at those places works faster than cold drinks.
Heat intolerance with palpitations, weight loss and moist skin points to an overactive thyroid; basal metabolism can then rise by thirty to sixty per cent. In the menopause a hot flush lasts one to five minutes and occurs in some women up to ten times a day; the phase runs on average over seven years. Medicines such as SSRIs, tamoxifen and opioids are a common and easily overlooked cause.
In an overactive thyroid, beta blockers act at once on palpitations, tremor and restlessness, while antithyroid drugs need two to six weeks — which is why both are often given at the start. In the menopause, hormones work most strongly; low-dose SSRIs and SNRIs work within one to two weeks and halve the flushes. What no drug replaces: layers rather than one thick garment, and cool drinks in small amounts.
The classic overactivity pattern — the more of these together, the more urgent to check.
TSH-receptor antibodies — prove Graves’ disease as the autoimmune cause.
Building block of thyroid hormone — do NOT self-supplement iodine if overactivity is suspected; it can fuel it.
Drives basal metabolism and thus heat production — the central lever behind inner heat.
Thyroid hormone makes the body more adrenaline-sensitive: sweating, palpitations, tremor, heat.
Chronic stress and high sympathetic tone can add to heat and sweating.
Falling sex hormones trigger hot flushes — menopause in women, low testosterone in men.
If overactivity is suspected, avoid large iodine loads (esp. seaweed) until the thyroid is clarified.
In an overactive thyroid basal metabolism rises by 20–40 % — the inner heat then has a measurable cause. TSH belongs measured first, rather than changing the diet.