Often a person does not pay attention to the fact that his feet often get cold; his legs can hurt even in favorable weather conditions. Cooling of the extremities during the cold season is a completely normal and understandable phenomenon. In autumn and winter, a person can simply catch a cold.
It is worth being wary and understanding the reasons why your legs and feet feel slightly cold indoors or in warm weather, more seriously and in detail.
This disease often appears with age in both men and women. The reason for this may be either poor circulation or disruption of the nervous system of the human body.
In humans, the legs are a kind of body temperature regulator, which is why it is worth paying attention if the operation of this heat exchanger is disrupted.
It is quite difficult for the heart to pump blood, delivering it to the legs. From childhood, doctors advise you to harden yourself, walk barefoot on the grass and earth. Buy and wear shoes according to the season, based on weather and climatic conditions. Even in hot weather, when feet are in cold water or on cool ground, a person runs the risk of frostbite. If a person sits in a cramped position or squat for a long time, blood circulation is impaired. The person begins to experience discomfort and numbness in the legs. Your feet may start to get cold.
Freezing of the extremities may be a consequence of previous frostbite. A person who has previously suffered severe frostbite on the foot will experience discomfort even at a comfortable temperature of up to 15 degrees.
Another reason that limbs may begin to freeze is strict diets, mono-diets. The shortage of plastic material and energy resources first affects the body's heat exchange.
One of the reasons for cold feet and legs in general may be a problem with peripheral blood vessels. The disease affects the circulatory system from the heart to the limbs and back.
This is a disease characterized by the fact that the vascular walls become very fragile, and the vessels themselves are prone to the formation of thrombosis. A decrease in the temperature of the legs and feet in diabetes mellitus may be a harbinger of diabetic foot. With this disease, the walls of the vessels of the lower extremities are severely destroyed, and tissue nutrition becomes worse over time. The result of such a complication can be gangrene of the limb, necrosis and amputation of the foot or part of the leg. All this can be avoided if you undergo treatment and follow the recommendations of the endocrinologist.
Anemia is a blood disease characterized by low hemoglobin levels in the blood.
Hemoglobin is responsible for saturating the body's cells with oxygen; the lower its content, the worse this process occurs. This slows down all metabolic processes, as well as the formation of heat in the human body for normal functioning.
Freezing of the feet can be a consequence of severe blood loss .
Raynaud's disease with vascular neurosis leads to spasms of small and large arteries. As a result, a person experiences a strong decrease in the temperature of the feet and hands when in contact with cold and cold water. When a person’s feet and hands are cold at home at room temperature, it is worth contacting a vascular surgeon for advice and undergoing examination, and subsequently treatment.
Stagnation of blood in the veins and problems with the veins are often the reason why a person’s feet become cold in warm weather. In addition to the low temperature of the extremities, a person with problematic blood circulation in the veins often has swollen legs and experiences pain in them.
Vegetative-vascular dystonia (blood pressure and its fluctuations) can also cause the legs and arms to become cold and cold. With low pressure, the first thing that suffers is the peripheral circulatory system, which is responsible for the blood supply to the human limbs. This disease is often seen in people between 20 and 30 years of age.
If everything is normal with a person’s blood supply and blood vessels, then the causes of cold feet may be age-related changes in the body . Hormonal changes, changes in the ratio of muscle and fat tissue, decreased metabolic rates, the presence of intervertebral discs, excess growth, the presence of parasites in the body, obesity, smoking, diseases of the nervous system, pregnancy, irregular and unhealthy diet. All this can cause a person’s feet to get cold both in hot weather and in warm clothes.
If you have the slightest feeling that your feet are freezing or if you have an unpleasant feeling of chilliness, you should get a massage. The massage begins with the feet. The skin of the feet is rubbed and kneaded, then proceed to the toes.
It is worth massaging your feet for at least 10 minutes each; after the massage, you must put on socks. The socks can be heated beforehand.
You should not carry out the following treatment for frozen feet if a person suffers from varicose veins. If there are no problems with varicose veins, then you should prepare two containers of water, one hot, the other cold. One by one, the legs are first immersed in a basin with hot water for 10 minutes, then in cold water, also for 10 minutes. When the legs are in a container with hot water, the feet should be massaged. Such dives are done until the hot water cools down. The last time the feet are immersed in cold water.
The fact that your feet are very cold can be a harbinger of a serious illness, so it is better to prevent the disease than to undergo long-term treatment. Regular physical activity, such as dancing, cycling or long walks, has a good effect on the nervous system and strengthening the vascular walls.
Contrast showers, like contrast baths, have a beneficial effect on the human immune system and blood circulation.
Do not neglect the rule of drinking at least 1.5 liters of water per day.
The diet should include fruits and vegetables high in vitamins C and E. These vitamins strengthen the walls of blood vessels and make them more elastic. Vitamins C and E are found in rose hips, citrus fruits, kiwi, nuts, wheat germ, and cranberries.
It is worth forgetting about such a habit as sitting cross-legged. Just 15 minutes of being in this position cuts off the blood flow, and the blood deficit is about 20 liters. That is why this particular position often causes the development of varicose veins in the legs in women.
Any problem should be approached comprehensively. Ask why? Not only warm clothes or a massage will relieve you of leg pain. The use of one of the treatment methods will help eliminate the problem only for a short period of time. Cold legs or feet are a signal of problems in the circulatory system, which is what needs to be restored and treated.
If a person’s feet are cold all year round, the reasons may be different. Most often, complaints about eternally cold extremities and even an unpleasant feeling of numbness can be heard from people who have problems with blood circulation. Disruption of the vascular system is the most common, but far from the only reason for cold feet and hands.
It is common for every person to experience varying degrees of discomfort from a drop in temperature indoors or outdoors. However, some people feel temperature fluctuations especially acutely. Their feet and hands are constantly freezing, even if everyone else thinks the room is hot. By finding out the true reasons why cold feet and palms cannot warm up, a “frozen” person will be able to make his life easier.
When visiting a doctor with a symptom such as constantly cold feet, the patient can learn about the likelihood of having diseases such as:
All these diseases cause changes in the functioning of the vascular system, which leads to deterioration of blood flow and malfunction of capillaries. Thus, with vegetative-vascular dystonia or pressure surges, vascular spasms occur, with osteochondrosis, the vessels can be pinched, and with anemia, the periphery of the circulatory system experiences significant oxygen starvation. Hypothyroidism and other diseases of the thyroid gland cause uncoordination of metabolic processes in the body and changes in hormonal levels. Varicose veins lead to changes in vascular tone and blood circulation rate. Often patients suffering from this disease complain that their knees hurt.
When determining the reason why your feet are constantly cold, it is important to rule out Raynaud's disease. This dangerous disease is characterized by paroxysmal numbness and the appearance of cyanosis of the toes and hands under the influence of stress factors. These may include cold, emotional stress, smoking, etc. Diseases of the vascular system are also characterized by the following symptoms: swelling of the legs and increased fatigue, pain in the extremities.
It is worth keeping in mind that the prevalence of the symptom described as “cold feet and hands” is noted by allergists in their patients. It is also encountered by infectious disease specialists who deal with diseases caused by parasitic infections of the human body.
In cold weather, the feet of people who have previously suffered frostbite also hurt and become more cold.
According to experts, there are several physiological factors that determine the possibility of the appearance of a symptom of increased sensitivity to a decrease in air temperature. People of the asthenic type are less resistant to cold and are thin: their fat layer is small, which is why their feet and hands often freeze.
If we compare the ability of men and women to withstand cold exposure, the latter much more often complain of discomfort when the temperature drops, with equal initial data. This is because women tend to have less muscle mass and more fat reserves. Their hormonal system works differently.
Energy is distributed differently in the female body than in the male body: most of it is spent on maintaining the optimal temperature of the internal organs, including the reproductive system. Men begin to experience a similar feeling of freezing in their legs and arms only in old age. Then blood flow slows down, metabolism decreases, and hormonal levels change.
Separately, it is necessary to say about the effect of bad habits on the condition of blood vessels. Regular smoking, active and passive, poisons the human body. There is no organ that can avoid the harmful effects of nicotine and other substances contained in tobacco when systematically smoking even a small amount of cigarettes.
Once in the body, nicotine provokes vasospasm and narrowing. This is especially noticeable on the periphery of the circulatory system: smokers’ hands and feet quickly become icy.
If you are faced with freezing feet, what to do will become clear when determining the cause of the unpleasant phenomenon. If during the examination it turns out that cold feet and palms are a consequence of any of the above diseases, then it will be necessary to undergo a course of treatment prescribed by a specialist. In the case of physiological causes of this symptom, the following methods can help a freezing person:
The main cause of cold feet is their constitutional feature. The fat and muscle layers, which help retain heat, are practically absent in this part of the legs, and the area of the skin surface from which heat is transferred is quite large.
At low temperatures, blood vessels contract, and blood flows intensively to the internal organs to prevent hypothermia and maintain the body’s optimal temperature. Because of this, blood circulation in the extremities is disrupted and they begin to freeze. But if your feet get cold in warm weather, this may be due to a malfunction of the thermoregulation mechanism.
If your feet often get cold, contact a medical facility. To find out the cause, you need to undergo a complete examination of the body.
An echo and cardiogram of the heart, an ultrasound of the organs (which ones will be prescribed by the doctor), and a detailed blood test are performed. This will help the doctor make the correct diagnosis and select the appropriate treatment.
If the diseases have not been identified, and your feet are still cold in any weather, you can reduce these symptoms by adhering to some rules:
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When the human body experiences cold in the autumn-winter period, it is perceived as a common occurrence. But if a person from time to time feels that his lower extremities are getting cold during the warm season, then such symptoms should not be ignored. A feeling of chills and a frequent desire to rub frozen knees should serve as a signal for referral for medical advice.
The human body is a complex “mechanism” in which everything is interconnected. The appearance of one unpleasant symptom can be influenced by several reasons.
The reasons can be both external and internal.
External reasons include:
Internal causes may indicate a certain condition or disease:
You can feel coldness and numbness in your legs for many reasons. It often happens that the feeling of cold is accompanied by other symptoms of disease. For example, if a person suffers from vegetative-vascular dystonia, then he will additionally be bothered by shortness of breath, fatigue and decreased vitality. And with varicose veins, uneven thickening of the veins, swelling of the feet, and pain when walking are noted.
Vascular disease is the most common cause of cold knees. In order to get rid of cold in the extremities, it is recommended to make efforts to strengthen blood vessels. In addition to recommendations on a healthy lifestyle and nutrition, it is necessary to begin the procedure of hardening and undergoing massage.
But no matter how beneficial hardening is for the body, you should not resort to it in a drastic way. The decrease in water temperature should occur gradually. It is also recommended to start hardening and cooling the body in the warm season. For those who, for certain reasons, cannot begin hardening, it is recommended to use another method - a contrast shower.
Physical exercise in the morning will allow you to properly stretch your body, improve blood circulation and vascular function.
Morning exercises are a very useful procedure for sick and healthy people. If you feel cold in your lower extremities, you should perform the following exercises:
For those people who have physical training, it is useful to go down and up a flight of stairs. And for older people or people weakened by illness, walking with gradually increasing distances is recommended.
It is known that cholesterol greatly affects the normal functioning of blood vessels. Therefore, it is necessary to eliminate fatty foods from your diet . Also, you should not overuse fried foods.
It is recommended to place special emphasis on fermented milk products, poultry, fish, beans, rice porridge, liver, peas, blueberries, currants, cranberries, and onions.
It is better to replace flour confectionery products with nuts, candied fruits and honey .
It is especially useful to eat grapefruit, black currants and chokeberries.
In addition, your doctor may prescribe medications to improve the condition of blood vessels.
List of medications recommended for strengthening blood vessels:
The second reason why knees may freeze is low blood pressure . It is recommended to treat hypotension by drinking dark chocolate, pomegranate, black sweet tea, birch and cranberry juice. You should also do morning exercises, visit the pool, play your favorite sports, and get enough sleep. You may need to update your wardrobe with cotton thermal underwear and comfortable shoes.
A decrease in hemoglobin level is an insufficient amount of iron in a person’s blood. And this condition may well cause a feeling of chilliness in the legs in the knees, hips and feet.
significantly increase your hemoglobin level by adjusting your diet by introducing such healthy foods as:
If correction of the diet does not bring the desired result, the doctor will prescribe a medicinal course of treatment aimed at stabilizing the normal composition of the blood.
An imbalance in the functioning of the thyroid gland and hormonal imbalance can lead to a significant deterioration in human health.
Symptoms of thyroid lesions are:
If you notice any of the above symptoms, you should consult a doctor and undergo an extensive examination.
Poor and inadequate nutrition can provoke a frequent feeling of chills, where the body simply does not have enough calories for normal thermoregulation. Therefore, women who adhere to a strict diet most often get cold. A lack of vitamins E and A can also disrupt thermoregulation.
The feeling of coldness in the legs can provoke another serious disease - atherosclerosis. With this disease, the legs may become pale in color, and as atherosclerosis progresses, the limbs are often covered with trophic ulcers. It happens that only one leg becomes numb and cold. To the listed symptoms it is worth adding pain in the legs, dry skin and lameness.
Qualified medical care and advice can be obtained from a therapist, orthopedist, or surgeon.
One visit to the doctor will not be enough, and to complete the picture you will have to do many tests and examinations . The specialist, based on the examination data, survey and the presence of symptoms, will refer the patient for an ultrasound, cardiac examination, x-ray and blood tests.
In this case, the patient’s lifestyle and age are taken into account. Lack of exercise, alcohol and tobacco abuse lead to weakening of the vascular system and muscle atrophy. If this is only the case, then you should normalize your daily routine, exercise regularly, do exercises and fall in love with water treatments, then the feeling of cold in your extremities will no longer bother you.
A special approach is required for older people . In this case, the natural processes of aging of the body, a slowdown in metabolism, and a decrease in the volume of subcutaneous fat and muscle mass are taken into account. In addition to certain physical exercises, diet and massage of the lower extremities, chondroprotectors can be additionally prescribed. These are special drugs that are designed to improve articular blood flow, metabolism and slow down the destruction of cartilage in the joints.
Most people do not pay attention to such a “little thing” as cold feet. For them, this has become a habitual state that does not cause much discomfort. In summer, your feet can be warmed up in the sun, but problems arise only in winter, when your feet get cold even in a warm room. Most often, women after forty face this problem.
However, there are also those who complain that their feet are constantly cold. This causes considerable discomfort and makes you worry about your health. In connection with this, they are diligently looking for an answer to the question of why their feet are cold. Let's try to figure out why the feet are always cold, how dangerous it is for health, and the possible causes of cooling of the extremities.
Cold feet indicate poor blood circulation in the legs, disruption of the nervous system, when impulses do not travel well along the nerve fibers in the lower extremities.
Feet are the regulator of all body temperature. It is not for nothing that doctors recommend walking barefoot more often to harden the whole body and carefully selecting shoes for the season. This is part of a healthy lifestyle.
The most common cause of poor circulation in the legs—restricted blood flow in the legs—is peripheral vascular disease, or PVD. This term refers to diseases of blood vessels located on the periphery of the circulatory system. BPS can hit:
Cold feet can be a symptom of the following diseases:
Age-related changes often affect the body's thermoregulation. After 50 years, the immune system weakens, hormonal problems and malfunctions in the circulatory system may appear. All this leads to freezing feet.
If you have a temperature, you may also have cold feet. This is due to vasospasm caused by the disease. In this case, before lowering the temperature, you need to warm your feet.
Before you begin treatment for cold feet syndrome, you need to understand the cause of the cold feet. How often do your feet get cold? Does this always happen or only under certain conditions? This is often explained by the peculiarities of their structure. Muscle mass, the amount of which in the feet is insignificant, is responsible for the function of heat conservation. Adipose tissue is completely absent, so in the cold season the legs begin to freeze, and this is not a sign of the disease.
The following habits or factors contribute to poor circulation in the legs:
Symptoms of poor circulation in the legs usually develop gradually:
The fact that you often have cold feet and/or cold hands usually indicates that your circulation is slow or the blood flow from your heart is being compromised. This most often occurs at night when you are sleeping, while sitting still, or after eating certain foods.
First of all, you need to determine why your hands and feet are cold. Eliminate the main problem, contact a specialist and undergo a course of therapy. If doctors have not identified any serious problems, but your feet are still often cold, you need to find ways to warm them. In parallel, symptomatic treatment can be carried out aimed at dilating blood vessels and warming the extremities:
If you have a busy schedule and have to work while standing, then after a hard day at work, take a break and take mustard baths, which improve blood circulation and relieve swelling.
At the first sign of freezing feet, give yourself a foot massage. First you need to intensively rub the soles of your feet, then massage your toes. Immediately after the massage, you need to put warm, heated socks on your feet.
Intensive foot massage helps improve the functioning of the circulatory system. It’s even better to do it using creams with special “hot” additives (white mustard, cinnamon oil or others). For massage, you can use olive oil with the addition of a few drops of essential oils: ginseng, rosemary, fennel.
Concerned parents are wondering whether cold feet are really dangerous for babies. Detailed answers can be found in Dr. Komarovsky's lectures.
Usually people do not pay attention to such an unimportant thing as cold feet or do not attach much importance to it if the feeling has already become familiar and no longer causes discomfort. Freezing feet most often occur in winter or autumn, when a person often gets cold or gets his feet wet.
But if your feet are constantly cold, even when a person is in a warm, heated room, it’s worth looking for the reasons more carefully. This problem is very often faced by women and men over forty years of age. Most often, poor blood circulation or disturbances in the functioning of the nervous system (looseness or low tone of its autonomic part) are to blame.
Feet are the temperature regulator of the entire body. The fact is that the lower limbs are a distant part of the body, where it is difficult for the heart to deliver blood. And doctors strongly recommend hardening your feet, for example, walking barefoot in the summer or at home. Shoes must be selected carefully, according to the season.
The most common cause of cold feet is PD (peripheral vascular disease). BPS often affects the vessels that carry blood from the heart to the periphery, as well as those vessels through which blood moves, on the contrary, to the heart. Below is a complete list of vascular causes of cold feet:
If your feet are constantly cold, the cause may be diabetes, in which small and large vessels become more fragile and prone to thrombosis. Cold feet can be a harbinger of such a dangerous complication of diabetes as diabetic foot, in which the nutrition of the tissues of the leg gradually becomes worse, and the risks of gangrene of the limb and its amputation increase (see diabetic foot, blood glucose levels).
Anemia (low hemoglobin) impairs the supply of oxygen to tissues, which slows down metabolic processes and heat formation. Sharp coldness of the extremities is caused by acute anemia due to blood loss, for example. for wounds (see iron supplements for anemia).
Raynaud's disease against the background of vascular neurosis leads to frequent spasms of small arteries and arterioles. The result is poor tolerance of cold water and low temperatures by the limbs. If a person has cold hands and feet even at room temperature, the reasons should be looked for together with a vascular surgeon.
These pathologies are the lot of smokers. Against the background of chronic inflammation of the inner lining of the arteries, their lumen narrows or thromboses for the second time. As a result, the flow of arterial blood is so difficult that the limbs become cold and hurt when walking even short distances. Sooner or later, the process goes so far that necrosis of the leg tissue develops and amputation of the fingers, foot, or the entire leg up to the thigh is required.
Problems with the superficial or deep veins of the lower extremity can also be the culprit for cold feet at home. Venous congestion causes not only cold feet, but also swelling and pain after exercise or at night. The condition can be complicated by inflammation of the veins (phlebitis) or thrombosis, which requires surgical treatment.
The presence of vegetative-vascular dystonia may also be the answer to the question of why hands and feet are cold. This disease is very typical for people between 20 and 30 years old. The inability to adequately and timely change the width of blood vessels when external conditions change is the basis of such disorders.
Blood pressure (BP) may be a serious factor. For example, when blood pressure is too low, blood flow in the periphery is greatly affected (see how to increase blood pressure). And if the blood pressure, on the contrary, is too high, then vasospasm occurs, which again leads to a deterioration in blood flow (see medications for hypertension).
Various changes associated with age. After fifty years, the immune system is very often weakened, and hormonal changes also occur, the volume of muscle mass and subcutaneous fat decreases (impairing heat exchange), blood circulation worsens, metabolism slows down, and the body’s ability to self-regulate decreases.
Hypothyroidism, or in other words, decreased functionality of the thyroid glands, is a condition that causes a slowdown in all metabolic processes in the body. Heat exchange suffers and slows down. Characterized by a feeling of fatigue, a feeling of cold, a loss of interest in life, a slowdown in perception and memory. Energy release is significantly reduced.
Constantly cold feet are combined with pallor, dryness and swelling of the skin, brittle nails and hair loss. Hypoacid gastritis also worsens the condition, leading to decreased appetite and secondary iron deficiency anemia. This disease mainly occurs in people over 40 years of age, in women after thyroiditis, resection of the thyroid gland, and radiation therapy.
Cold feet are an almost inevitable phenomenon if you suffered from atopic dermatitis in childhood (in simple terms, a pronounced diathesis). It has long been known that allergic manifestations remain forever and are combined with autonomic dysfunctions, manifested in the form of white dermographism (when running a finger over the skin of the forearm, instead of a red stripe, a persistent white stripe appears, indicating prolonged vascular spasm).
Some medications can also be a factor causing cold feet. Feet get cold when warm when taking beta-blockers (atenolol, anaprilin). For gynecological diseases, women may be prescribed ergot preparations, which also cause chilliness.
Acute allergies in the form of urticaria or Quincke's edema due to a sharp dilation of small vessels leads to significant heat loss and may be accompanied by chilly skin.
In addition to diseases, cold feet can be caused by the following habits and factors:
So what should you do if such a misfortune occurs? To begin with, you should use simple recommendations to help warm your feet: use woolen socks, a heating pad or bottle of hot water, a knee-length bath with mustard or just warm water.
Long-term events look like this.
There are many more folk methods that help cure this disease. For example:
It is done as follows: you need to moisten the soles of the socks with alcohol or vodka, warm your feet in warm water and put on these socks. It is also recommended to wear woolen socks on top. After this, within five minutes you will feel that your feet are completely warm.
Ground pepper will perfectly warm the skin if applied to it. The irritation it causes is not significant. A great solution would be to sprinkle pepper in your socks or grease your feet before going outside.
Infuse 50 grams of Sophora fruits (can be flowers) in half a liter of vodka for one month. You need to drink this tincture three times a day, one teaspoon. You need to drink the tincture for three to four months.
It is necessary to completely grind the dried mistletoe leaves into flour. Pour one teaspoon (with a heap) of ground mistletoe into one glass (200 milliliters) of boiling water and leave in a thermos overnight. Mistletoe is taken in small sips of two tablespoons 10-20 minutes before meals. Mistletoe also needs to be drunk for three to four months. Mistletoe regulates blood pressure, especially heart pressure, and has a calming effect.
As mentioned above, exercise can help get rid of cold feet. Below we will consider a set of gymnastic exercises aimed specifically at the problem of cold feet.
For example, shaking your legs is a very useful procedure. When shaken, the capillaries are subjected to vibration, which in turn leads to contraction of blood vessels and improved blood circulation. You need to lie on your back on a flat and hard surface (for example, the floor), then you need to raise your legs and arms so that they form an angle of 90 degrees with your torso. In this position, you need to shake them for one to two minutes.
Lie on your stomach, relax your legs and bend your knees at the same time. Next, you need to give them freedom of movement, you need to imagine that they are a reed that sways from gusts of wind (the exercise, by the way, is called “Reed in the Wind”). It is necessary that the legs hit the butt.
This exercise will not only improve the body's blood circulation, but can also help relieve stress. This exercise is performed as follows: nuts (walnuts) are placed between the palms and rotational movements are made for two to three minutes. It is very important to make an effort to ensure that the nuts are pressed tightly against the palms. After this, you need to do the same thing, but not with your palms, but with your feet. These exercises must be performed twice a day: morning and evening.
If all household tricks do not help cope with cold feet, you should go to see a doctor. The therapist, after asking about complaints, collecting anamnesis and examination, will recommend taking blood and urine tests, as well as performing an ECG. If necessary, a consultation with a vascular surgeon and ultrasound examination of the vessels of the legs will be scheduled. If vascular pathologies are excluded, a visit to a neurologist and endocrinologist should be made.
Perpetually cold extremities are a pressing problem. Sometimes even gloves and warm socks don’t help. No matter how warmly you dress, your feet and hands still get cold. The reasons for this “coldness” are rarely taken seriously. This often makes people around them smile – they say, love doesn’t warm you. However, this is no time for jokes!
Approximately every third representative of the fair sex faces the problem of cold extremities. Numerous studies have confirmed that thermoregulation in a woman’s body is weaker than in men. This is why young ladies’ extremities on their hands and feet often freeze, causing severe discomfort.
At the same time, it is women who, paying tribute to fashion, like to dress inappropriate for the weather - thin tights, light boots. More practical young ladies pull on woolen socks. But even such tricks do not always save you from the cold. The fact remains: your feet and hands are cold. The causes of this condition may be related to diseases.
Let's consider what pathologies often underlie this phenomenon.
Hemoglobin is the main transport vehicle for oxygen. Iron is its main component. A deficiency of the substance disrupts metabolic processes, as well as energy ones. This picture is observed as a result of poor nutrition, increased blood loss, and impaired absorption of iron in the gastrointestinal tract.
This is especially noticeable in the case of rapid growth, pregnancy, lactation, when there is a special need for this substance. In addition to constantly freezing feet and hands, additional symptoms may be observed:
For a person whose feet and hands are cold, a doctor will help determine the cause of this phenomenon. If the problem is iron deficiency, then a blood test is the first thing to do.
For children under 6 years of age, normal hemoglobin is 110 g/l. For older children and adults – 120 g/l.
Depending on the hemoglobin level, a specific diet may be recommended. In this case, you should eat more vegetables, fruits, meat, and as little milk as possible. If the result is extremely low, then the doctor will prescribe special iron supplements in combination with ascorbic acid.
VSD is a classic disease of our civilization. It occurs in almost every second resident. With pathology, spasms occur in the vessels, as a result of which blood flow is disrupted. This leads to headaches and pressure drop. Also for this reason, the patient’s limbs of the hands and feet are cold.
VSD has quite characteristic symptoms:
Clinical examination in this case does not reveal failures in systems and organs. After all, the reason for such symptoms lies in the disruption of the functioning of the autonomic system, which is involved in the functioning of the whole organism.
Often, with VSD, not only the extremities of the hands and feet freeze. In most cases, the symptoms described above are observed. With such manifestations, you should definitely consult a therapist. He will order a full examination.
Sometimes such symptoms can signal a variety of pathologies. If necessary, consultation with a neurologist or endocrinologist will be required.
The following will help you cope with the classic case of VSD, in which your feet and hands are always cold:
Why are your feet and hands cold? The thyroid gland is an important link in the regulation of hormones throughout the body. A failure in such a system will certainly make itself felt. Hypothyroidism (insufficient production of hormones) slows down metabolic processes. The patient experiences the following symptoms:
With this pathology, the functioning of the mechanisms responsible for normal body temperature fails. This is why, when hormone levels are reduced, a person’s hands and feet become very cold.
You should definitely consult an endocrinologist. The patient will need to have an ultrasound of the thyroid gland, urine and blood tests. If necessary, additional studies will be prescribed, such as MRI, CT, X-ray.
After examination, the patient is given a special therapy to restore hormone levels. With this treatment, it is possible to eliminate all the factors that provoke unpleasant symptoms, including the reasons why your feet and hands are constantly cold.
If a patient's legs and arms are cold, the reasons may lie in the loss of elasticity and hardening of the arterial walls. This leads to a narrowing of the lumen in them, and subsequently seriously disrupts the blood supply to the organs. Insufficient blood flow is the main cause of cold extremities.
The following symptoms indicate damage to the blood vessels of the brain:
This pathology can be provoked by poor nutrition, lack of exercise, and psycho-emotional stress.
Atherosclerosis is a fairly serious pathology. Poor circulation not only leads to severely cold hands and feet. It can provoke quite serious consequences. This disease should be treated promptly.
To prescribe adequate therapy, research will be required:
Only a doctor should prescribe adequate therapy. No self-medication methods are acceptable for this disease.
Legs and hands become very cold when intervertebral discs become deformed or thinned. Such pathologies lead to spasms of muscle tissue, compression of the spinal cord, blood vessels and surrounding nerves.
As a result of osteochondrosis, blood circulation in the body is disrupted. Pathology makes itself felt with the following symptoms:
Be sure to consult a neurologist. He will recommend the necessary comprehensive treatment. As a rule, it consists of:
In extreme cases, with fairly advanced stages of the pathology, surgery may be required.
With this pathology, the toes and hands freeze. They often experience a tingling sensation. Fingers may become white and sometimes bluish. This condition occurs under the influence of temperature or stress. Its duration can vary from a couple of minutes to several hours. After the attack ends, the skin turns red, pain and fever occur.
Unfortunately, this is a symptom of Raynaud's syndrome, one of the manifestations of scleroderma. The disease is characterized by damage to blood vessels. Pathology affects most organs and tissues. The skin is especially affected. The face may take on a mask-like appearance. It is extremely difficult to open the mouth.
There is a theory that this pathology is stimulated by viruses, congenital predisposition, and poisoning.
If such symptoms are observed, you should immediately consult a dermatologist. Treatment will be prescribed only after the following laboratory tests:
The disease can be both a cause and a complication. Damage to blood vessels often leads to quite serious consequences:
However, the source of such diseases is insufficient blood circulation. And, as you know, with this disorder, hands and feet often freeze.
With this disease, it is very important to diagnose it early. This will protect the pancreas, the insulin supplier, from irreversible changes.
It should be remembered that patients under 45 years of age must be tested for glucose tolerance every three years. People over 45 years of age are recommended to undergo such tests annually.
To eliminate the problem of eternally cold extremities, you should get rid of the cause of the pathology in which your hands and feet are cold. Treatment, if the condition is based on a specific disease, is prescribed by a doctor. But when serious pathologies are excluded, preventive measures should be taken to train blood vessels and strengthen the immune system.
To do this, it is recommended to use the following rules:
The most important thing is not to freeze in bad weather. Try to dress appropriately and take care of the insulation of your home in a timely manner.