AS ,Chrons etc - suddenly feeling cold all the time .Cause for concern ?

[rileynexttime]

Friend ,mid 70s ,Chrons,UC, and AS plus a host of other things ,many neurological like numb.painful feet ,trigeminal neuralgia has now suddenly found it impossible to get warm .This is very unusual for him .

What on earth could cause this ? Any ideas ?

It could be an infection or possibly anaemia? Definitely worth speaking with the GP.

Thank you .I've googled now so I'm a little worried .It could be that he's due a Vit B injection next week .

Has his temperature been checked? He might be having a rigor due to high temperature.

I hadn't thought of that ! Thank you for the suggestion .

Hypothyroidism is also something that can cause that. As he has other autoimmune diseases, it should definitely be considered if other options aren't the cause

Yes ,I'd wondered about thyroid issues .He does have blood tests to check the effect of meds on his kidneys I think .Would a specific blood test be needed for thyroid function ?
Unfortunately due to a variety of reasons - so many symptoms ,so much wrong in different parts of his body ,continual medical response of "it's neuropathy and we can't do anything other than shove gabapentin at you ",and a personality that would rather accept than push for better care - he's largely given up .Getting him to report stuff to GP is an uphill struggle as it mainly leads to blood tests ,scans etc but no treatment .

Yeah it's a specific thyroid function test. Usually though, it'll just measure a TSH and only the T4 levels if TSH is high. This can mean many suffer subclinically without treatment when they need it. Luckily (!!) my TSH was extremely high and T4 very low so I got treatment straight away. I was essentially told to pull myself together and try yoga prior to my diagnosis when I kept visiting the GP or just telling people how crap I felt. Autoimmune issues are like the ultimate form of body shaming! I read that once and it's so true. Because it's your bodies incorrect response there's so little treatment possible but crucially, so little research into why autoimmune is becoming so prevalent. It's your fault and that's it!! All the best x