Turn down the heat and live longer
Turn
down the thermostat and you'll not only save money, you might live
longer.
A
2004 study suggests
that as humans migrated out of Africa and into colder climates, these
more northerly people developed a mitochondrial mutation that allowed
them to turn more of the energy they took in as food into heat to keep
their bodies warm. However, this advantage became a disadvantage
when people of Eurasian descent hit the modern age and invented central
heating. Since our bodies no longer need to turn that food into
heat, the energy is transformed into free radicals, one of the factors
implicated in aging. According to one of the study's authors,
"When heat and cold are managed by technology, not metabolism, and
people from warmer climates are eating the high fat and calorie diets
of northern climates, there is a rise in obesity and the age-related
degenerative diseases."
I don't have any data to
back it up, but I've discovered that you can become used to much lower
temperatures than you might expect. Rather than turning on your
heat right away in the winter, why not add a few layers to your
wardrobe? You might discover, like I have, that 50 or even 40
degress Fahrenheit feels just right.
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