Why is there a sharp, severe chill without a temperature and what should I do?
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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In the absence of any disease, chills without temperature is a reflex reaction of cutaneous thermoreceptors, which protects the body from the effects of cold.
But is there a fever without temperature, not related to hypothermia? Happens, and often enough. And in such cases, narrowing of the heat-regulating blood vessels of the skin with a decrease in their blood filling, manifested by a feeling of cold, can be a sign of various physiological states. Also, doctors emphasize that, at first glance, an unreasonable chill without fever may be a symptom of some diseases.
Causes of the chills without fever
Immediately it should be noted the interrelation of such cholinergic processes as muscular tremor and chills without temperature: synchronous muscle contractions arising involuntarily, the body simply increases the generation of heat due to so-called contractile or muscle thermogenesis (by activating metabolism in the tissues of skeletal muscles).
And the causes of chills without temperature are quite numerous. The most common signs of a cold without fever are a runny nose and chills without fever, and then a cough and chills without fever. After this, fever may begin: a sharp rise in body temperature caused by pyrogens, which promotes the activation of immunity and the production of interferon.
Pain in the abdomen and chills without fever occur with food poisoning; chills and vomiting without a temperature with an intestinal disorder (diarrhea) can accompany irritable bowel syndrome in people with vegetovascular dystonia (somatoform autonomic dysfunction). In addition, due to vascular spasms with vegetovascular dystonia, chills are often observed at night without temperature, and cold hands and feet and chills without temperature during the day.
A similar combination of symptoms occurs with anemia - due to a reduced level of hemoglobin in the blood, as well as anemia with a low level of red blood cells. For the same reasons, and also because of insufficient body weight, chills often occur in a child without temperature.
Doctors note such risk factors for the development of anemia, as internal bleeding (with peptic ulcer disease of the stomach and duodenum, varicose veins of the esophagus, etc.), hemorrhage with hemorrhoids, helminthic invasion, vitamin B12 deficiency. In addition to chills, with anemia the head becomes dizzy, drowsiness rises, there is sluggishness and weakness in the whole body, appetite worsens.
In some cases, a fever without temperature is noted with allergy, which manifests itself in the form of urticaria-urticaria or atopic dermatitis (often chronic with relapses). Also, the first signs of anaphylactic shock, developing with allergies, include tachycardia, a fall in blood pressure, cold sweat, shortness of breath, sudden chills without fever, and severe dizziness with loss of consciousness.
Along with headaches and soreness of urination, chills and nausea without temperature, many patients complain of inflammation of the renal glomeruli - glomerulonephritis.
The most common fever without temperature in oncology is observed in patients with a tumor of the adrenal medulla - a pheochromocytoma that produces not only adrenaline, but also other vasoactive (narrowing vessels) substances. However, in most cases, especially after chemotherapy, leukemia or tumors of internal organs are accompanied by a fever with chills.
Among the possible causes of chills without fever, a special place is occupied by the pathology of the endocrine system. So, weakness, headache and chills without fever can be as in diabetes (due to a lack of insulin produced by the pancreas and the inability of the body to absorb glucose), and with problems with the thyroid gland - hypothyroidism or thyroiditis, for which the indicative sign is chills and sweating, especially at night. The main role in the pathogenesis of chills in patients with hypothyroidism is played by inadequate synthesis of the hormone of thyroxin and the weakening of metabolism and chemical thermogenesis associated with its deficiency.
According to clinical statistics, often the pathogenesis of chills against the background of normal body temperature lies in the violations of the hypothalamus itself (regulating the temperature homeostasis) with the development of the hypothalamic syndrome. Among the manifestations of this syndrome, endocrinologists distinguish a number of vegetative symptoms: chills without fever and without pain while lowering blood pressure; increased pulse and heart compression, as well as headache and chills with sympathic-adrenal crises with increased blood pressure. The hypothalamus is associated with chills and pain in the muscles without temperature, with a sharp increase in the level of adrenaline (narrowing the blood vessels of the skin) under the influence of various psychogenic factors, primarily stresses, hypochondria, senestopathies and neurotic disorders.
The defeat of collateral fibers or neurons in the upper part of the reticular formation of the brain stem - with concussion of the brain and other traumatic brain injuries, cerebral circulatory disorders (strokes), infections and neoplasms of the brain stem - can lead to the development of a syndrome that includes anxiety and unmotivated fear, heart palpitations, severe fever without temperature, with a pilomotor hyperreaction (goose-skin effect). Such attacks can accompany chills and diarrhea - due to overexcitation of peripheral spinal motoneurons.
Usually a fit of chills without fever - with nausea and vomiting - accompanies migraine.
What can be associated with body aches and chills without fever, more in the article - Lumblings in the body without temperature.
By the way, in addition to all the above reasons, chills without temperature in men with alcohol dependence is one of the symptoms of hangover or alcohol abstinence syndrome, as well as acute alcohol pancreatitis.
Chills without fever in women
The allocation of this symptom in women is due to the fact that it is not a pathology when it is caused by the special physiology of the female body.
In particular, cyclic changes in the ratio of sex hormones - estrogen, estradiol and progesterone - explains the chill without the temperature before the monthly.
An increase in the level of these hormones causes chills without fever during pregnancy in the first trimester. But at later times, chills without fever can be a sign of anemia.
With increased muscle energy consumption during labor, high levels of the hormone oxytocin in the blood and actually blood loss (up to 300 ml), chills occur after giving birth without temperature.
But the fever without fever after cesarean section is the result of the use of general anesthesia, as well as hemodynamic disorders during this operation.
Chilliness in a nursing mother without a temperature, but often with increased sweating, is associated with the action of the prolactin produced by the pituitary gland - the hormone that produces milk, and oxytocin - synthesized by the hypothalamus and facilitates the movement of milk through the mammary glands during infant feeding. But if the constant chill without lactation during lactation, then, most likely, the lactating woman has a low level of hemoglobin and anemia.
A sharp decline in the production of female sex hormones causes virtually all signs of impending menopause, including chills without fever with menopause.
In addition, when women, seeking to lose weight, for a long time adhere to a low-calorie diet, then after a while they may feel dizzy, general weakness and chills without fever.
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Diagnostics of the chills without fever
Frequently repeated or manifested long chills without fever require the recourse for medical help. And the diagnosis of chills without temperature, in the first place, includes blood tests: general (for uniform elements and ESR) and biochemical; to the level of hemoglobin, sugar, thyroid hormones, thyroid-stimulating hormone (TTG) of the pituitary and ACTH, adrenal cortex hormones, etc. Urine (including daily catecholamines) and feces (for latent blood or helminths) are also given.
Instrumental diagnosis is used, ranging from radiography, electroencephalography, angiography and ultrasound, up to CT and MRI of the relevant organs and brain.
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Treatment of the chills without fever
What to do with chills without fever? If chills are not associated with hypothermia, menstruation, pregnancy, lactation or menopause, you should go to the doctor - to identify the cause of this symptom.
It should be borne in mind that treatment of chills without temperature is not carried out separately from the underlying disease. Therefore, complex therapy is aimed at the above listed reasons.
Information on the treatment of diabetes mellitus, anemia, hypothyroidism, allergies, vegetovascular dystonia, hypothalamic syndrome, etc. Is available in the relevant sections of the site. In the same place you will find the basic medicines used for these diseases and conditions, as well as information on what vitamins to take, how physiotherapy is carried out, and what alternative treatment can help.
Complications and consequences
The chill itself without temperature has no complications, but all the diseases, in the symptomatology of which it is present, have certain consequences and complications. For example, in diabetes mellitus, the glucose level may drop dramatically before the development of hypoglycemic coma. The consequence of hypothyroidism can also be a coma - hypothyroid, and complication of anemia is coma anemic (or hypoxic).
Development of neurotic and chronic depressive states with physical exhaustion and panic attacks is fraught with vegetovascular dystonia, and with pheochromocytoma there is a threat of catecholamine shock.
Prevention
Similarly to treatment, the prevention of such a symptom as chills without fever is different for different diseases and is not possible in all cases. A full warning of the cause of chills without temperature can concern colds, anemia, allergies; partial - increased blood pressure, migraine, stress, alcohol dependence.
The prognosis of chills without temperature, or, more precisely, the frequency of occurrence of this symptom and its intensity, largely depends on the cause.