Every person’s body always signals problems in a certain way. However, some body conditions may seem completely normal to a person. In this article I would like to tell you why and depending on what there may be cold extremities of the hands and feet.
Why might a person have cold feet and hands? The reasons are very diverse. However, this symptom is often a consequence of a disease such as vegetative-vascular dystonia. It is worth saying that residents of cities are more susceptible to this disease than rural areas. Associated symptoms are: frequent headache, absent-mindedness, rapid heartbeat, drowsiness. Various vascular problems may occur. With this disease, blood circulation in the body is disrupted, which leads to the fact that a person’s hands and arms can be constantly cold.
Cold fingers and toes may indicate a disease such as iron deficiency anemia. In this case, a person’s body has a deficiency of a microelement such as iron. And this, in turn, leads to the fact that the body loses heat much faster.
If a person has very cold feet and hands, the reasons may even be hidden in poor nutrition. Namely, in the consumption of predominantly low-calorie foods. This symptom is especially often observed in women who constantly exhaust their bodies with all kinds of diets. It must be remembered that for normal functioning of the body, you need to consume a sufficient amount of carbohydrates, proteins and fats, as well as microelements, daily. If a person eats little fat, his body loses heat faster than usual, which becomes the cause of cold extremities.
Those people who have problems with the thyroid gland (thyroid gland) can have constantly cold feet and hands. In some disorders, this organ produces insufficient amounts of hormones for the normal functioning of the body. As a result, a person has little energy and often gets cold for no reason. The following symptoms will help you understand that a person has problems with the thyroid gland:
If you experience at least some of the symptoms listed above, you should definitely seek medical help. Indeed, in addition to cold extremities, thyroid diseases can also have a more negative effect on the body.
Those people who have poorly developed muscles or whose body is not physically developed enough always have cold hands and feet. Everything is simple here. After all, constant loads lead to improved blood flow. Otherwise, the blood does not sufficiently supply the organs. Therefore, there may be a constant feeling of cold extremities.
If a person has cold feet and hands, the reasons may even be hidden in clothes. In this case, normal blood flow again plays a role. If clothes or shoes are too tight, blood cannot fully nourish certain parts of the body. Which is what causes this symptom.
If a person constantly has very cold hands and feet, this may be evidence of the following diseases:
It is worth saying that these are autoimmune diseases, the causes of which are malfunctions of the immune system.
The next reason why a person has cold hands and feet is a hereditary factor. So, if a similar phenomenon occurred in some family members, there is a risk of its occurrence in representatives of subsequent generations.
A person who is sick with even the most common cold can have cold hands and feet. In this case, the patient often experiences temperature changes, when he feels either cold or hot. The limbs in this case also react to this condition and are often constantly or alternately cold.
Cold fingers and toes can also occur in people who are being treated with immunomodulatory or hormonal drugs. This symptom occurs due to the effect of certain substances in the medicine on the human body.
It often happens that young children have cold feet and hands. The reasons for this are simple: the whole point is that before the end of the first year of life, children have not yet adjusted their thermoregulation regime. This is what can cause such a problem as cold hands and feet.
Before taking certain measures, you need to figure out why a person has cold hands and feet. So, for this you need to go to see a doctor. First you need to consult a therapist. Next, he will redirect the patient to the necessary specialists. After all, only by eliminating the cause can you cope with the problem itself.
If a person has passed all the necessary examinations and realized that cold hands and feet are not caused by certain diseases, you can also try to cope with this problem yourself.
If your fingers get cold and cold while walking in low air temperatures, this is a completely normal phenomenon: the body first of all sends more blood and, accordingly, heat to vital organs (heart, brain, lungs). However, constantly cold fingers that do not warm up even in the heat may indicate the presence of certain diseases or problems. Estet-portal.com will tell you more about the reasons for constantly cold fingers in this article.
Cold fingers are a typical symptom of Raynaud's syndrome, which involves narrowing of the blood vessels in the fingers, toes, ears, and nose in response to cold or emotional stress.
In this case, the fingers may turn white or blue, and the blood flow to them decreases or stops altogether. However, as blood flow is restored, the fingers turn red. During an attack, you may feel cold, numbness, tingling, or pain in your fingers.
The cause of Raynaud's syndrome has not been established, but this disease is not life-threatening.
Sometimes the cause of Raynaud's syndrome, the symptom of which is cold fingers, may be another disease. For example:
This type of Raynaud's syndrome is called secondary; you can get rid of it by curing the disease that caused the syndrome.
Anemia and associated cold fingers are the result of a lack of red blood cells or low levels of hemoglobin in the blood. With anemia, the supply of oxygen to the body is reduced, causing the hands to become cold. Possible causes of anemia:
In addition to cold fingers, anemia is also manifested by the following symptoms:
Low blood pressure
Hypotension, i.e. Low blood pressure can occur for various reasons, including:
When blood pressure is lower than needed, blood vessels direct blood from the extremities to the internal organs, resulting in cold fingers.
Other symptoms of low blood pressure:
You should definitely consult a doctor with this problem.
If the thyroid gland is malfunctioning, cold fingers are not uncommon. If the thyroid gland, which can be called the body's thermostat, is not active enough, most body functions slow down and appear:
Impaired blood circulation
This cause of cold fingers is the most common. Poor circulation occurs when the flow of nutrient-rich blood is reduced because the heart does not pump well (in heart failure), or because there is a physical obstruction to the flow of blood (cholesterol plaques in the blood vessels), or other reasons. If the heart cannot pump blood properly throughout the body, the legs and arms may feel cold, numb, or tingling because the extremities are furthest from the heart.
Vitamin B12 deficiency
Vitamin B12, which is found in meat, eggs and dairy products, is actively involved in the formation of red blood cells. A deficiency of this vitamin leads to suppression of red blood cell production (and subsequently to anemia). This cause of cold fingers is most often typical for vegetarians, as well as people over 50 years of age (due to deterioration in the absorption of vitamins from food).
Stress leads to a sharp surge in adrenaline, causing the blood vessels in the extremities to constrict and the fingers and toes to become cold. After the stressful situation disappears, the temperature of the fingers returns to normal.
Cold fingers are often the result of taking medications that narrow blood vessels, namely arteries. Such drugs include, for example:
Smoking also causes blood vessels to narrow, and cold fingers may be a result of plaque forming in the arteries.
Cold fingers can be a completely harmless, non-life-threatening phenomenon, but in some cases this symptom can hide quite serious disorders of the body. A doctor can most accurately determine the cause of cold fingers.
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Why do my feet get cold? For me this is far from an idle question. Ever since my early youth, as soon as the ambient temperature dropped below 25 degrees (whereas to the notorious comfort temperature of 18 degrees, mentioned every now and then in medical books of Soviet times), my feet and hands froze.
Before and in general, it is necessary to understand the cause of the phenomenon in order to cope with it, because it is far from simple that at a generally normal temperature the limbs begin to freeze. The answer is simple - poor circulation . Unfortunately, this very disorder occurs in many diseases, which we will now consider:
In general, needless to say, there are many reasons why feet get cold even when it’s warm. It is clear that if you cure the cause (your chronic disease), then there will be no problems with freezing, cold extremities. But, as always in our world... Most often, a person prone to freezing hands and feet has not one reason, but two or three. Women are much more likely to suffer from cold feet; this is due to hormonal characteristics and, as a rule, regularly reduced physical activity.
The advice in this case is quite obvious - start training your blood vessels, activating general blood circulation. Will help with this:
As is clear from the above, if your feet are constantly cold, you need to approach the matter comprehensively, and not just simply warm the cooling limbs, this will only give a short-term effect. Cold hands and feet are just a signal from the body about poor circulation and it is this that needs to be restored.
According to surveys, every third person has ever encountered such a problem as constantly freezing feet. For some, this is just a period that passes after a while, while others live with it almost their entire adult life and underestimate the danger of ignored symptoms. Both men and women are susceptible to the disease.
Causes of constantly cold feet
These are many diseases:
1. VSD (vegetative-vascular dystonia). This is an imbalance in the functioning of the sympathetic and parasympathetic parts of the nervous system. When adrenaline is released into the blood, this leads to vasospasm. The disease is diagnosed in most young people and children.
2. One of the reasons is the consequence of frostbite. If a limb is injured in this way, then the slightest decrease in air temperature will be reflected on the legs.
3. High or low blood pressure. Both cases negatively affect blood flow. Treatment begins with normalizing blood pressure.
4. People who smoke are susceptible. Nicotine provokes vasospasm. The same thing happens as with VSD.
5. Constantly cold extremities can occur due to the presence of parasites in the gastrointestinal tract. This has a bad effect on blood vessels, and a person often gets “frozen.”
6. Extensive fungal infection (candidiasis). It often occurs after undergoing a course of antibiotic treatment. With cold extremities, the body sends a signal about foreign bacteria.
7. Anemia. If there is little iron in the blood, it supplies little oxygen to the vessels and as a result the person freezes.
8. Hypothyroidism. A decrease in the functionality of the thyroid gland occurs in people after 40 and leads to a slowdown in all body processes. Increased fatigue, apathy, and a feeling of cold appear.
9. Taking drugs that cause vasospasm of the peripheral nervous system: Atenolol, Anaprilin and others.
10. Diathesis in childhood. The consequences of allergies are felt already in adulthood, and the body’s reaction is expressed precisely by cold extremities.
11. Diabetes mellitus. Due to impaired capillary circulation.
12. Varicose veins. Due to their low tone, blood circulation in the legs is impaired.
13. Often, any illness accompanied by elevated body temperature affects the vessels of the peripheral nervous system and causes the sensation of cold hands and feet. In this case, before reducing the fever, it is necessary to warm up the limbs.
14. Age-related ailments. After 50, a person’s hormonal levels change, the immune system and the body as a whole weaken, and blood circulation worsens. This all leads to the fact that your feet are always cold.
15. Lack of magnesium. This essential element is a participant in all biochemical processes.
16. Heart diseases. Shortness of breath, numbness of the limbs, cold fingers are reasons to consult a doctor as soon as possible.
17. Obesity. Due to the fact that the legs bear the entire weight of the body, they suffer the most.
18. Diseases of the endocrine system, hyperhidrosis. With it, your feet are constantly cold and sweaty.
19. Physical inactivity. If a person is used to spending most of his time sitting at a computer and does not often get his blood pumping with physical activity, this leads to a deterioration in the condition of blood vessels and slow blood circulation.
It happens that this is simply an individual characteristic of a person, or the manifestation of symptoms is caused by external catalysts (overwork, stress, hypothermia). In this case, the disturbing signs should go away after some time. Anatomically, the feet are designed in such a way that there is practically no fat layer on them, which is responsible for maintaining the correct temperature, and the heat transfer area is large enough for the feet to quickly become cold.
A child’s body is more susceptible, and the younger the child, the more acutely it reacts to environmental changes. A baby can get sick from a slight decrease in air temperature outside - and heat in the body will appear after overheating.
If a child has cold hands and feet at normal temperatures outdoors or indoors, this also indicates a sluggish form of rickets. In this case, the doctor prescribes vitamins (the most important is D) and prescribes a special diet.
First, you need to take into account the presence of chronic diseases related to the above areas. If nothing raises suspicion, and there are no other symptoms, and cold extremities are bothering you more and more often, this condition must be treated, it is advisable to consult a therapist. He will prescribe a series of examinations and blood and urine tests.
Based on their results, he will make a preliminary diagnosis and send you to a specialized specialist. Most often this is a cardiologist, phlebologist or endocrinologist. They will prescribe adequate treatment for concomitant diseases, which will prevent the occurrence of cold feet syndrome.
In addition to following instructions from a specialist who will determine treatments and the cause of cold feet, it is helpful to do the following at home:
1. take a contrast shower and foot baths with salt and mustard;
2. make sure that your feet are dressed appropriately for the weather, try not to expose them to hypothermia (this also applies in the summer);
3. if your feet are about to become cold, you need to rub them, massage them, and put on warm socks. There are many nerve endings and points on the toes and feet, massaging which improves not only blood flow, but also the condition of the body as a whole; in this case, it is good to use essential oils or special warming ones for massage;
4. in summer, walk barefoot on the ground or grass.
Yoga recommends doing the following exercise: sit down, straighten your legs, and bring your feet together. Inhale, and as you exhale, slowly bend towards your legs, reach for your feet, sliding your hands over the entire surface of your thighs and calves. Try to keep your back straight. It is advisable to stay in this position for about 30-40 seconds.
Traditional medicine has found its own ways to combat cold hands and feet:
Chinese traditional medicine advises:
If you lead a healthy lifestyle and take into account the following recommendations, then the problem of cold feet may never arise.
1. Quitting bad habits, especially smoking (more often applies to men).
2. Normalization of weight.
3. Daily exercise, moderate exercise.
4. Well-chosen shoes, according to the season. One that retains the warmth of your feet, but at the same time is ventilated and does not compress. Your feet shouldn't sweat in it.
5. Taking venotonics for preventive purposes (tablets, creams, ointments). This is especially true for women, who are more likely than men to experience varicose veins.
6. Self-massage of feet. It’s enough to just warm up all your fingers, joints, and feet.
7. Use warming foot balms.
8. If there are no contraindications from the gastrointestinal tract, add hot spices to food - varieties of peppers, mustard and others. They will help dilate blood vessels and improve blood circulation.
9. Normalize the consumption of coffee and strong tea.
10. Dress warmer in winter, and begin hardening in the summer with water procedures.
It is important not to ignore the symptoms and rid the body of the constant struggle to conserve heat. Most often, cold extremities are a secondary sign of disease, and only after curing them will you be able to count on positive dynamics in thermoregulation of the legs.
The human body is designed in such a way that to maintain normal functioning of internal organs, a constant body temperature is required - about 36.6 ° C.
To maintain it at approximately the same level, the human body has thermoregulation mechanisms, due to which, at low ambient temperatures, the peripheral vessels in the body narrow, thereby slowing down blood circulation in the extremities. Thus, a person’s palms and feet become cold, but the temperature of the internal organs remains unchanged.
When a person moves from a cold environment to a warm room, reverse thermoregulation processes are launched, and the limbs become warm again. However, despite such adaptive mechanisms, many people's hands and feet are constantly cold.
This happens especially often in women, since their body’s thermoregulation is weaker compared to men. In this regard, a fair number of women have cold feet and hands in any condition and in any weather. Sometimes this can cause very significant inconvenience, to the point that a woman has to warm herself up and wear gloves and shoes that are not appropriate for the season.
Many people believe that often cold hands can be “passed on” by inheritance, attributing this to the fact that some of their relatives also suffer from a similar problem. However, this is not always the case. For example, constantly icy limbs may indicate the development of diseases of the cardiovascular or endocrine system in a person.
In addition, hands can remain cold at any ambient temperature if the following disorders are present:
If a person does not receive enough healthy proteins (for example, during strict diets for weight loss), which are the building blocks for all cells, carbohydrates and fats, and also provide the body with energy, then the internal organs begin to function inadequately. This results in improper thermoregulation.
Smoking and abuse of caffeine-containing products can cause constriction of blood vessels in the hands. In this regard, for those people who smoke a lot or drink coffee, the blood flow to their extremities worsens, so they are always icy. Giving up bad habits quickly returns the blood vessels to their previous tone, and the problem of perpetually freezing limbs disappears.
The cause of cold palms and feet can also be blood loss, lack of iron intake from food, abnormalities in the structure of red blood cells or their increased destruction. With any type of anemia, the peripheral circulation suffers first of all - the limbs do not receive enough oxygen due to low hemoglobin, so in people with this diagnosis they are always cold.
Vascular tone in the extremities is controlled by two types of nerve fibers. The former dilate blood vessels (parasympathetic nerves), the latter constrict them (nerves of the sympathetic system). If a person has a disruption in the functioning of these types of fibers, and the sympathetic nervous system begins to predominate, then the limbs will be cold all the time.
In addition, people with vascular dystonia are often accompanied by periodic headaches and nausea, rapid heartbeat, increased weakness and drowsiness.
Due to a lack of thyroid hormones, metabolism slows down, blood in the extremities begins to circulate at a lower speed and hands become cold.
The diseases listed above can also be the cause of cold hands in children. However, this does not mean at all that all children who periodically or even constantly have a low temperature of the extremities are a priori sick.
For example, in infants heat exchange is not yet fully developed. Therefore, their hands and feet may be cold even if they are completely healthy. If, despite cold extremities, the baby has good appetite, digestion, normal activity and body temperature, then there is no cause for concern.
At the same time, parents should be wary of the situation when, during a cold, at a body temperature above 39°C, the baby has cold hands and a marbled skin color. This may indicate a severe course of the disease and a lack of defenses in the child’s body, and in such cases you should definitely invite a doctor to see the baby.
Constantly cold feet, in addition to genetic predisposition and the diseases mentioned above, can be a symptom of chronic endarteritis, diabetes mellitus or chronic venous insufficiency.
These conditions require detailed examination and long-term consistent treatment. Therefore, if your feet feel cold regardless of the time of year or the shoes you wear, sign up for a consultation with a specialist.
Particularly dangerous is sudden coldness of one leg that begins for no apparent reason. This is how thrombosis of the arteries of the legs begins, which, if not treated in a timely manner, can result in amputation of the limb. If you encounter this, immediately seek help from a doctor!
The treatment regimen for constantly freezing extremities depends on the cause of this symptom (a disease due to which the legs and arms are cold, regardless of the ambient temperature) and should be selected by a medical specialist.
If during diagnosis it turns out that there are no special health problems, but your legs and arms are still cold, you need to reconsider your diet, include more physical activity, and make it a rule to regularly exercise the vessels of your extremities.
So, in order to improve thermoregulation, it is necessary to perform light exercises every day, which will prevent blood from stagnating in areas distant from the heart, give up bad habits, and, most importantly, eat properly and nutritiously (there must be a hot meal at least once a day).
Folk remedies can also help improve blood circulation in the extremities: ointments and body rubs, which you can either purchase at a pharmacy or prepare yourself. One of the recipes for a warming tincture for rubbing hands and feet with a local vasodilating effect is presented in the video below:
In addition, it is very advisable to undergo a preventive course of massage and increase your physical activity during the day. For example, replace your daily commute to work with a walk or sign up for a swimming pool.
In addition to the measures listed above, if the body has insufficient thermoregulation, it is very useful to periodically visit the bathhouse (in the absence of contraindications). It will tone the peripheral blood vessels and allow the body to become completely warm.
Hello, dear blog readers! Today I would like to discuss with you one very interesting topic and at the same time give an answer to a question that has long interested many: “why are my hands and feet cold?” I don’t know about you, but I often suffer from this illness. Especially in winter: you seem to be sitting in a warm room, wearing woolen socks and a sweater, but your hands are still cold. As I was told, this is a completely appropriate phenomenon for a growing organism. Like, I’m stretching out, but the capillaries don’t keep up with the general pace and don’t always deliver blood to the extremities correctly and in full. Maybe so, because recently my hands and feet are almost always warm - they have stopped growing. Well, or have you slowed down?
So what am I talking about? Moreover, cold hands and feet are most often a symptom of some kind of illness, rather than an “independent” disease or deviation.
This means that we will work according to the following scheme: first I give the cause of the illness, and then I describe all the possible ways to solve it.
1. Poor circulation or a sedentary lifestyle.
Seemingly banal, but at the same time the most common answers to the question: “why are my hands and feet cold?” Ways to solve this problem and eliminate the symptoms are familiar to everyone.
2. Often cold hands and feet are the result of smoking and constant stress (I know from myself - when I’m worried before an exam, my hands are cold as ice, and my whole body becomes hot).
Nicotine is known to cause vasospasm. Stress has the same effect. Well, if you have been smoking for several years and are nervous a lot, then cold hands and feet syndrome may be caused by this.
Sometimes cold hands and feet are just a symptom or side effect of some serious illness. Let's briefly look at just a few of them (I am not a doctor myself, so I borrowed the information for this point from other resources).
Symptoms: sudden changes in blood pressure, hot and cold flashes, dizziness. Such a person complains of rapid fatigue and unreasonable pain in the heart, tingling in certain parts of the body.
What to do: consult a doctor (especially pay attention to seeing a neurologist and endocrinologist).
Symptoms : frequent dizziness, noise in the head, dry skin, weight loss, back pain and others.
What to do : first of all, consult a doctor; improve your diet, remove excess salt from the body, cleanse it of toxins and get rid of bad habits.
Here is an excellent article that contains not only a detailed description of this disease, but also a whole list of recommendations.
Symptoms: impaired blood circulation due to deformation of the intervertebral discs. The result is back pain, dizziness, a feeling of aches throughout the body and numbness.
What to do: of course, consult a doctor (neurologist), who will draw up a plan for subsequent treatment.
Symptoms: due to a lack of hormones (thyroid gland), the patient experiences constant lethargy, drowsiness, and some inhibition in all activities. The pulse also slows down, the skin becomes dry and flaky.
What to do: the answer is still the same - see a doctor (first of all, do an ultrasound of the thyroid gland, and also see an endocrinologist).
Symptoms: dizziness, pale skin. Also added to all this is increased fatigue and increased heart rate.
What to do: see a doctor, take a blood test.
4. Well, the last, most primitive and “understandable” factor is the weather.
Personally, my hands got cold much less often in summer than in winter or autumn. Why? I think the answer is obvious??
As you can see, dear readers, there are many reasons for this disease. Moreover, this is not always the banal “forgot to put on gloves” or “it’s cold outside.” Sometimes the answer to the question “why are my hands and feet cold” can be very unpleasant. But you shouldn’t despair, because modern medicine, in tandem with folk medicine, can bring anyone back to their senses. Just remember to add a pinch of mental health to this recipe and you'll be fine.
That's all. Good luck to you, dear readers, and all the best. Take care of your health, both physical and mental, and do not forget to visit my blog pages.
Anyone can experience cold toes in the fall or winter. But we will not consider this natural phenomenon, but will move straight to the medical aspects.
Most often, the main cause of this rather unpleasant condition is considered to be poor circulation. And not only diseases, such as Raynaud's syndrome or angiopathy, but also the use of certain medications, especially those prescribed for high blood pressure, may be to blame.
Another reason is a sedentary lifestyle or being overweight. Surely everyone who has sat at a computer for a long time has noticed that their feet are freezing.
Vascular ischemia of the lower extremities is precisely the most common reason why a person’s legs become cold even in the most intense heat. Most often, this condition has a chronic course, so it is not always possible to get rid of it.
Ischemia usually appears against the background of vascular atherosclerosis, that is, cholesterol plaques are deposited on their walls, which cannot be dissolved by any drugs, teas or homeopathic remedies.
As a result, the vessels become narrow and not enough blood flows through them. And the vascular wall itself is no longer so elastic. It is this disease that at the very beginning of its development has such a symptom as cold toes.
Cold toes can also appear for another reason - obliterating endarteritis. This autoimmune disease of an allergic nature is very dangerous and is expressed by cramps, pain, and the inability to move.
The most serious complication is soft tissue necrosis and the development of gangrene. This usually results in amputation of both the toes and the entire foot.
Anemia may develop, in which the level of hemoglobin in the blood is so low that the body's tissues simply do not receive enough oxygen. In addition, the human body is designed in such a way that in case of any problems with the internal organs, it is the periphery that suffers from lack of blood circulation, that is, the fingers, the tip of the nose and the ears. This is where the blood comes last, and if they are cold or have a bluish tint, then you should definitely look for the cause in the heart or blood vessels.
Another danger is increased blood viscosity. In this case, it begins to flow more slowly than expected. This happens with a lack of fluid, with a deficiency of certain vitamins, with smoking, with a lack of iron, ascites, kidney disease, lung disease, diabetes mellitus, leukemia.
Therefore, if a symptom such as cold toes appears, especially in summer, you should definitely consult a doctor and find out exactly the cause of this phenomenon. To do this, you will need to undergo some diagnostic procedures.
You need to contact a therapist who will write a referral for:
Based on these studies, a diagnosis will be made and treatment will be prescribed.
Treatment for cold toes will depend on the reasons that caused this pathology.
If this is a disorder of the autonomic nervous system, then treatment should be started by a neurologist. If atherosclerosis is to blame, then you should take special pills that will help reduce cholesterol levels in the blood and start eating right, eliminating everything fried and fatty from your diet.
If the cause is increased blood viscosity, then trental or pentoxifylline is prescribed, both in the form of tablets and in the form of intravenous systems. But it cannot be used for problems with the retina.
To improve blood circulation in the periphery, you can take a course of the drug alprostan. Before use, be sure to consult your doctor and never self-medicate.
You can use physiotherapeutic treatment, for example, start doing hot foot baths, ozokerite, massage, diathermy, diadynamic currents.
If the cause is obliteration, then surgical treatment is performed, in which shunts are installed or vascular prosthetics are performed.
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