My 86-year-old mother has been experiencing extreme chills in the evenings. Does anyone know what might cause this? We can’t get her warm.

There can be an underlying health issue other than thyroid going on with mom to cause severe chills, such as anemia, especially if she looks pale and wakes up tired. Low blood sugar with diabetes, certain cancers, Lyme disease and some medications can also cause such chills. Bring mom to her PCP for a full medical workup to see what may be going on.

Best of luck.

This is indeed a question for her doctor. Perhaps her iron stores are low as she is possibly anemic. When was the last time she had blood work done? Your mother needs to see her PCP ASAP.

While you’re getting more info from her medical team, my late father, who would get chills as part of his paralysis sometimes, loved a blanket warmed up in the dryer. It warmed him right up.

Along with the suggetions given I have a question
When she gets the chills have you looked and felt the effected areas? If they feel cold or cool to you this might be a circulation problem and maybe a gentle massage might help. A massage will stimulate blood flow.

Thyroid was going to be my first guess. I would have to tell you that this is really a question for her MD. I am an old retired RN, and could not fathom a guess as to what this may be.

I hope the doctor visit went well. I am a retired nurse-midwife. I hope that they checked for UTI as well as anemia and thyroid. She could have a subclinical UTI that makes her a little feverish/chilled for a short time, but her body may mostly recover from this by itself. Also check hydration, not only water, but electrolyte replacement. A little orange Gatorade, either straight or cut with water will help keep her hydrated.

My mother had similar symptoms. It turned out to be low blood sugar caused by Metformin. Ideally, people over 80 shouldn't be on that medication.

When my mom started needing help to get up for bathroom trips she started not drinking as much and experiencing cold spells. The doctor thought she's was probably mildly dehydrated at times so I started tracking how much she drank (including popsicles, cucumbers, watermelon, etc.) and the cold spells went away.

Also, a thin woolen cap. Lots of heat escapes from the top of the head.

Other possible causes:

Medication side effect
Hypoglycemia
Poor diet/malnutrition

Shortly after my first son was born I began experiencing extreme chills down my back intermittently, but it also came with swollen glands. I felt like I had a frozen rod in my spine. I had to take steroids to get the gland swelling go away. I had scads of tests and the cause was never found. Eventually it stopped happening. Just saying they may never find a cause.