It’s funny what happened to me today.Ok. The truth is it has been happening for sometime now and I’ve stomached it all the while. But today? My stomach has become full, it’s not taking it in anymore. My people, it’s the issue of AC o. No now, I don’t mean Action Congress. I mean air-conditioner. Ehn. That’s what I’m saying. So are we cool? (this one that this brother is frowning his face and bringing out broom…abeg o!)

Yes. Let me ask you, have you ever been under the AC and contacted malaria before? No? What of headache? I can hear some ‘yeses’. Thank God. So today, while at the office, the two ACs were on and the cold that resulted was terrible! At first I thought something was wrong with me- I was having a terrible headache and the goose pumps on my open arms were as large as stones! Chineke! You needed to have seen my body hair stand on their toes! They were as alert as DSTV antennas. Omo, warris goyin on? Before I could call Jack Bauer, my teeth began to chatter. EEWO! I couldn’t take it anymore. I ran to the toilet.Atleast, AC no dey dey toilet.abi?

I stayed under the hand drier for a while, enjoying the hot air that emanated from beneath it. Gradually, my standing hairs began to sit and I could smile a little. But then, I couldn’t stay there forever. Sadly, I returned to the office, pausing for a while before going in. Then it began again. Oh no….!

One thing that seemed to baffle me was that everyone seemed very fine with it. Could they have gotten used to it already? How does someone get used to cold? I grew up in Jos, the coldest city in Naija, I have an AC in my room and a fan that complements it,yet I’ve never for once gotten used to cold. Is it me or them something is wrong with?

Anyways, I sat down there,body shivering, teeth chattering and ‘goose-bumping’! Then out of curiousity, I decided to find out why all these things happen to you when you’re cold, particularly the chattering teeth part. This is a summary of the explanations I got from the internet, you might find it useful too:

Why do our teeth chatter?

The body usually maintains a constant temperature of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit (or 37 degrees Celsius). At this temperature the cells of the body work best. If there is any significant change in temperature, it is sensed by an area of the brain called the hypothalamus. Get too cold and the hypothalamus sends nerve impulses to the skin and you get goose bumps, which do very little to make us warmer. When furry critters get goosebumps, the hairs lift up and trap air next to their skin, which acts like a blanket to keep them warm.

We’re hardly furry enough to use air as a blanket, so our bodies came up with a different strategy to regulate our body temperature. When you get cold, your muscles get a signal to start contracting – that’s the shivering and teeth chattering. The by-product of the muscle contractions is heat.

Shivering occurs when our muscles expand and contract rapidly to produce extra body heat. We know that when we exercise we get hot. When our muscles expand and contract they convert energy to heat. The muscles that support our jaw are not excluded from the exercise, hence, the chattering teeth.

So the next time you start shivering and chattering, you can thank your body for doing its job to keep you warm

This is what I got o. Atleast, I learnt something from my situation. haha…- the next time I’m going to work, I’m taking my blanket with me!