It's bad for your body. Really.

It has gotten much colder in Osaka since last week. Many of my patients are experiencing acute pain. Lower back pain is also more likely to occur during the cold season. I am also wearing extra layers to make sure I stay careful.
I am Yasaburo Tanaka. I am an acupuncturist and massage therapist.

It's cold. Seriously cold.

Making house calls on a scooter is cold.

Since I visit patients' homes on a scooter to provide acupuncture and massage therapy, the cold is tough.
It's not just that it's cold; my hands get cold. I can't do my job with cold hands when touching a patient's body.
It's unpleasant for the person being touched by cold hands, and I lose my sense of touch and can't perform fine movements, so it's hopeless.
It's not just my hands that get cold. My lower body gets hit directly by the wind, so it gets cold too.
If my lower body gets cold, I have to go to the bathroom more often. This also hinders my work. It can even cause lower back pain. I can't do my job.
So, I wear a lot of layers.

Moisture-wicking heat-generating materials are cold.

Although moisture-wicking heat-generating materials are popular as warm innerwear, they don't seem to suit me.
Perhaps my dry skin type doesn't agree with them. I feel like they are colder than cotton materials.
I wear cotton innerwear and then layer the moisture-wicking heat-generating material over it, which keeps me warm, so that's how I wear them.

It's cold when your back is exposed.

Since my job involves acupuncture and massage, I often squat or sit on a bed. This causes my undershirt to come out of my pants. When that happens, my back and lower back get cold. It's cold.
Even if I tuck my shirt back in each time, it's still freezing, so I started wearing a belly warmer, which solved the problem.
Now, I love wearing a one-piece jumpsuit-style inner layer. It takes time to go to the bathroom because I wear so many layers, but when I'm properly warm, the way my body gets tired is completely different.

Cold and chills are bad for the body

Cold hands and feet are for life maintenance

I think many people are troubled by cold hands and feet, but it seems that cold hands and feet are a necessary phenomenon for maintaining life.
This is because it is necessary to maintain the body temperature (core body temperature) of the torso to sustain life.
The hands and feet (from the wrists and ankles down) have many blood vessels and thin muscles and fat, making them susceptible to the influence of outside air. Blood that has circulated to the extremities of the hands and feet returns to the heart chilled to the bone. If that were to happen, the core body temperature would drop immediately.
By intentionally reducing blood flow to the hands and feet, the amount of heat escaping from them is kept to a minimum.
If you try to warm your hands and feet and they don't warm up easily, it might be because your torso is not warm enough.

If it's for life maintenance, that means

The fact that the body is reacting to maintain life means that it can be said to be a situation where life is threatened.
I'm sure no one likes being sensitive to the cold, but the body is constantly under load.
Since your physical strength is being drained without you knowing it, you could end up feeling unwell from a single bad trigger.
Since I started layering, the way my body gets tired has changed completely.
I want you to think about what you can do instead of just saying it's your constitution and it can't be helped.

If you warm your torso

I mentioned a belly warmer earlier, and a belly warmer is indeed convenient for warming the torso. For those with severe cold sensitivity, it might be better to layer vests rather than just a belly warmer, but even one belly warmer makes a big difference.
Even if you layer up, your hands and feet are parts that get cold easily, so I think they will get cold if you walk outside. However, if your torso is kept properly warm, your hands and feet will warm up immediately once you enter a room.
You can take off a belly warmer immediately in the bathroom if you get too hot, and it's not something that becomes a burden to carry.
It feels good when your stomach is warm. Your hands and feet will naturally warm up too.

My winter style (lol)

Cold is cold!! So,

I hate the cold, so I've adopted a style of layering as much as possible.

Long-sleeved undershirt (cotton material)
Long-sleeved compression wear (lightly brushed)
Jumpsuit inner layer (moisture-wicking heat-generating material with brushed lining)
Short-sleeved waffle fabric shirt

I wear a belly warmer over this, and then my short-sleeved white coat.
So, I am dressed in all these layers when I perform acupuncture and massage therapy at patients' homes.
If I'm dressed in all these layers, I'm fine even when riding my bike. My hands get cold, but if I'm allowed to warm them by a heater for 30 seconds, they become nice and toasty immediately.

I wear 2-3 layers of outerwear over this, and I also layer on heated items as needed.

I'll skip the details about my lower body, but basically, I layer up. I'm probably protected enough that I wouldn't even get hurt if I fell off my bike.
Cold is cold, so there's no helping it, and I don't want to make a driving error because the cold has sapped my energy.

And above all, I can't stand being cold and hungry at the same time. It makes me feel so pathetic I could cry.
It's not just physical damage; it starts to take a mental toll as well.
It's no joke. It's bad for both body and mind.

Keep both body and mind warm

This is just my attire for riding a moped, and I do dress extra warmly on purpose for work.
I dress a bit lighter on my days off. Though I still tend to layer up.
When I was younger, I didn't even feel the cold, and I never caught colds. Now, by the time I feel cold, I've already caught a cold.
Just this season, while I was doing paperwork at the office, my nose wouldn't stop running and I almost caught a cold...
I made sure to stay warm, took some cold medicine, and went to bed early, so I was able to recover by the next day. That was a close call.

You can find belly warmers in the underwear section of supermarkets or workwear stores. They are sometimes stylishly called waist warmers or body warmers.
My recommendation is the one from the outdoor brand mont-bell. They come in a variety of thicknesses, making them easy to choose from.
Please stay healthy and well during the cold winter.