Chills Overview

Chills are feeling of coldness accompanied by shivering, shaking and tremble. These conditions may arise with or without fever. Without fever, chills typically arise after exposure to a cold environment.

The term “chills” refers to a feeling of being cold without an apparent cause. You get this feeling when your muscles repeatedly expand and contract and the and the vessels in your skin constrict. You get chills when the muscles in your body squeeze and relax to try to make heat.

Essentially any condition that may produce fever, including infection and cancer) can result in chills along with fever. Fever and chills are common symptoms of influenza infection (the Flu).

Exposure to a cold environment can result in chills. With prolonged or constant exposure to cold, serious injuries related to hypothermia (a lowered core body temperature) can result. Chills in pregnancy are due to the same causes (hypothermia, infection) as chills in general.

Causes of Chills

Some chills occur after exposure to a cold environment. They can also occur as a response to a bacterial or viral infection that causes a fever. Chills are commonly associated with the following conditions:

Other Causes of Chills

As many as two in three people experience chills and shivering after receiving general anesthesia for a surgery. Even if you aren’t feeling cold, a drop in body temperature may cause you to shiver as you come out of the anesthesia.

Some people tremble from a surge of adrenaline after a traumatic event like an accident or near accident. Psychological trauma, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PSTD), may also make you feel shaky.

Chills and COVID-19

Since the appearance of the novel coronavirus, people may be concerned that their symptoms are due to COVID-19.

Chills can be a symptom of a fever, which is one of the primary symptoms of COVID-19. Other symptoms include a dry cough and shortness of breath.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), symptoms of COVID-19 most often appear 2 to 14 days after exposure to the novel coronavirus.

Signs and Symptoms of Chills

Chills are a sign that your body is trying to regulate its core temperature. When you have chills, you may experience the following conditions:

  • Shiver or tremble
  • Shake
  • Have chattering teeth (your jaw feels like it’s rattling, sometimes with your teeth bumping together).
  • Have goosebumps (small rash-like bumps on the skin), also known as gooseflesh or goose pimples.

These are involuntary body responses. Involuntary means you can’t consciously control them. Shivering causes your muscles to contract and relax, which warms up your body.

Sometimes you might get cold chills from being exposed to low temperatures. Shivering can also be a sign that your body is fighting off an illness, infection or another health problem.

Diagnosis of Chills

If a person is experiencing persistent chills, a doctor can help diagnose the underlying cause. To do so, they may:

  • Review a person’s vital signs by taking their blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and temperature readings
  • Take a complete medical history, covering preexisting conditions, travel, medications, and other medical treatment
  • Ask about other symptoms, such as coughing, digestive issues, rashes, or other concerns
  • Conduct a physical examination, covering key areas such as the eyes, ears, nose, throat, neck, and abdomen

Doctors may conduct following additional tests if they suspect a particular underlying condition:

  • Blood tests
  • Chest X-rays
  • Urine cultures 

Treatment of Chills

Chills are a symptom, not a disease, so treating chills largely depends on what is causing them.

If chills occur due to a mild infection, home treatment with bed rest, plenty of fluids, and OTC pain relievers can provide relief.

If chills are bothersome, it is best to wear layers and keep warm.

Patients with diabetes should discuss their risk and possible symptoms of low blood sugar with their healthcare provider, and they should make plans for handling these issues if they occur.

Chills that occur due to other underlying health conditions should resolve when a person receives treatment for that condition.

If an illness, infection or another health problem causes chills, treating the condition should get rid of the symptom. Treatments vary depending on the underlying cause. They may include:

  • Antibiotics for bacterial and parasitic infections
  • Antiviral medications for viral infections
  • Over-the-counter medicine, such as acetaminophen (Tylenol) or ibuprofen (Advil), for conditions like influenza (flu) that cause fever and chills

Prevention of Chills

You can prevent cold chills by dressing warmly when you know you’ll be in the cold. Wearing layers allows you to adjust your clothes for the temperature so you don’t get sweaty. Sweating and then getting cold can lower your body temperature too much.

You can also take steps to safeguard your health against medical conditions that cause chills. Avoid misusing drugs or alcohol. If you have a condition like diabetes, take care to control your blood sugar.

Biospecimens

biospecimens

Bay Biosciences is a global leader in providing researchers with high quality, clinical grade, fully characterized human tissue samples, bio-specimens, and human bio-fluid collections.

Moreover, human biospecimens are available including tumor tissue, serum, plasma and PBMC Samples from most other therapeutic areas.

Furthermore, Bay Biosciences maintains and manages its own biorepository, the human tissue bank (biobank) consisting of thousands of diseased samples (specimens) and likewise normal healthy donors for controls. Additionally, available in all formats and types.

In fact, our biobank procures and stores fully consented, de-identified and institutional review boards (IRB) approved human tissue samples, human biofluids such as serum samples, plasma samples from various diseases and matched controls.

Also, all our human tissue collections, human biospecimens and human biofluids are provided with detailed, samples associated patient’s clinical data.

In fact, this critical patient’s clinical data includes information relating to their past and current disease, treatment history, lifestyle choices, biomarkers, and genetic information.

Additionally, researchers find the patient’s data associated with the human biospecimens extremely valuable and use it to help identify new effective treatments (drug discovery & development) in oncology, as well as in other therapeutic areas and diseases.

Bay Biosciences banks wide variety of human tissue samples and human biological samples, including fresh frozen human biospecimens cryogenically preserved at – 80°C.

For example fresh frozen tissue samples, tumor tissue samples, formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE), tissue slides, with matching human bio-fluids, whole blood and blood-derived products such as human serum, human plasma and human PBMCs.

Bay Biosciences is a global leader in collecting and providing human tissue samples according to the specified requirements and customized, tailor-made collection protocols.

Please contact us anytime to discuss your special research projects and customized human tissue sample requirements.

Types of Biospecimens

Bay Biosciences provides human tissue samples (human specimens) and human bio-fluids from diseased and normal healthy donors which includes:

  • Firstly, peripheral whole-blood
  • Secondly, amniotic fluid
  • Thirdly, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BAL)
  • Next, sputum
  • Also, pleural effusion
  • Moreover, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)
  • Likewise, serum (sera)
  • In addition, plasma
  • Moreover, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) 
  • Furthermore, saliva
  • Next, buffy coat
  • Accordingly, urine
  • For example, Stool samples
  • Also, aqueous humor
  • And, vitreous humor
  • Lastly, kidney stones (renal calculi)
  • Finally, other bodily fluids from most diseases including cancer.

Moreover, we can also procure most human biospecimens and human biofluids, special collections and requests for human samples that are difficult to find. All our human tissue samples and human biofluids are procured through IRB-approved clinical protocols and procedures.

In addition to the standard processing protocols, Bay Biosciences can also provide human biofluids such as  human plasma, human serum, and human PBMCs bio-fluid samples using custom processing protocols. you buy donor-specific collections in higher volumes and specified sample aliquots from us in multiple format and sets.

Bay Biosciences also provides human biospecimens from normal healthy donors; volunteers, for controls and clinical research, Contact us Now.