... You woke up cold-blooded?

Imagine you woke up one morning and you realized that you are cold-blooded now. What would it feel like? How would it change your life?

In general, mammals and birds are warm-blooded (homoeothermic), which means that we have the ability to maintain a stable internal body temperature regardless of any external influences. But all the other animals, like fish, insects and reptiles, can’t influence their body temperature, they are cold-blooded or formally called poikilothermic. Their inner temperature only depends on the environment. So, what if you happened to wake up cold-blooded?

For one thing, you would not have to eat that much any more. That’s because warm-blooded animals need a lot of energy to keep the right temperature. If you did not change your eating habits it would all just go straight to fat.

Another advantage of being cold-blooded is that germs are attracted by the nice constant temperatures of warm-blooded bodies. This could drop your chances of getting sick significantly. But on the other hand a low body temperature also slows down your immune system, so you might still have a hard time fighting off the fewer viruses and bacteria that still enter your body.

Since you could not control your own body temperature your house would have to take care of it. Your thermostat needs to be set to the exact temperature you need for your body because you would be as warm as your house. Your heating system would need to be turned on all the time. So, the heating bills would eventually skyrocket, which negates all the savings from buying fewer groceries.

All in all, it’s extremely good that we are homoeothermic because our lives would be much more difficult otherwise. Being warm-blooded allows us to be more flexible in our everyday lives.