Numb hands and feet on cold days, still cold with gloves: Don't be subjective

Excluding the cause of cold hands and feet due to prolonged exposure to cold environment, if your hands and feet are still cold despite wearing socks and gloves, you need to think about dangerous diseases and find a way to fix them.

Cold hands and feet can be a sign of a dangerous disease - Illustration photo

Cold hands and feet cause a lot of damage to health

Physician Nguyen Huu Toan, Hai Phong Oriental Medicine Association, said that many people (especially women, the elderly, the weak, the malnourished, those with low resistance...) often have cold hands and feet when winter comes. Even though they wear socks and warm clothes, their hands and feet are still cold, numb, and even painful.

The cause is not only due to the weather but mainly due to poor blood circulation or poor circulation when the temperature drops due to the blood vessels in the body contracting, at that time areas far from the heart such as the hands or feet are anemic and easily become cold, pale, and pale.

It can also be due to a circulatory system problem, affecting blood circulation in the body, especially the amount of blood supplied to the hands and feet. In addition, people with a history of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, blood pressure, hypothyroidism... also often have cold hands and feet.

MSc. Hoang Khanh Toan, former head of the Oriental Medicine Department at the 108 Central Military Hospital, said that cold and chilblains (swelling and discoloration of the skin) in the hands, feet, and ears are common diseases in winter. According to Oriental medicine, the cause of chilblains is toxic gases from the outside entering the body and causing illness.

These toxic gases are cold and damp. Patients living in humid areas, often exposed to cold water (fields, processing frozen foods without gloves or boots), cold climates, often walking barefoot, lying or sleeping on the ground for a long time, cold and damp gases penetrate the skin, tendons and blood vessels and cause illness.

In the rainy or cold season, the disease often gets worse. The disease is harmful to health, so know how to prevent and treat it.

Massaging your hands and feet helps blood circulation and makes your hands and feet less cold - Illustration photo

Symptoms of many dangerous diseases

Doctor Dinh Minh Tri, University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Ho Chi Minh City, said that cold or numb hands and feet should not be ignored, because they can be a sign of dangerous diseases.

- Anemia and poor circulation : Ischemia in the fingertips and toes often causes spasms, pale skin, weakness, and cold hands.

- Malnutrition: Hunger, iodine deficiency, strict diet, lack of nutrition, lack of vitamin B12 - a vitamin that plays an important role in the formation of red blood cells leading to anemia, iron deficiency, low red blood cell count in the blood causing cold limbs and a tingling sensation like being pricked by needles.

- Hypothyroidism: The thyroid gland is the main heat gland in our body. When suffering from hypothyroidism, the body will be extremely tired, hair loss, memory loss and cold hands and feet in winter.

- Low blood pressure: Healthy people with low blood pressure often concentrate blood flow to the torso, causing cold fingertips and toes.

- Excessive anxiety and stress: High stress or anxiety is also the cause of cold hands and feet. The body of a person who is often anxious has a quite natural reaction of producing the hormone adrenaline, reducing blood flow to the outermost areas of the body.

- Diabetic neuropathy: People with diabetes have high blood sugar levels, narrowed blood vessels, and reduced blood supply to cells. In addition to cold feet, patients also have other symptoms such as tingling or a feeling of being pricked by needles, numbness or burning pain in the feet and toes.

- Cervical spondylosis: Frequent numbness in one hand can be caused by cervical spondylosis, mainly due to long-term cervical bone hyperplasia, disc herniation... leading to compression of the cervical spinal nerve roots or vertebral arteries, leading to a series of dysfunctions. Nearly 70% of hand numbness symptoms are caused by cervical radiculopathy.

- Cerebral infarction: If numbness in the fingers appears on one side of the limb, while the other side is completely normal, accompanied by symptoms such as headache, dizziness, blurred vision, you should be alert for cerebral infarction. The numbness in the limbs caused by this disease is often acute and you should quickly see a doctor.

- Gout: Clinical studies show that about 1% of patients with hand numbness are due to gout, the cause may be the precipitation of uric acid in the median nerve.

- Cardiovascular disease : When the outside temperature changes, the ability of blood to circulate to the limbs of people with certain cardiovascular diseases may be reduced.

- Rheumatism: In Oriental medicine, rheumatism is the cause of many diseases such as headaches, rheumatoid arthritis, dyslipidemia, bone and joint pain and especially sweaty hands and feet.

This happens because the yang energy in the body escapes, blocking the meridians in the limbs, causing the hands and feet to sweat and become cold. This is the main reason why many people sweat and have cold hands and feet in the cold season.

- Lupus: This disease can attack the small blood vessels in the skin of the hands and feet and prevent normal blood movement. As a result, your hands and feet become cold or sweaty.

Some measures to help keep feet and hands warm

Numbness in the limbs is a common complication of many diseases, easily recurring and difficult to cure. To improve, in addition to taking medication, you should pay attention to:

- Always wear warm clothes, keep your neck covered, wear a hat, gloves, and socks in cold weather. Avoid wearing clothes that are too tight.

- Drink plenty of warm water to reduce blood viscosity, prevent blood clots, and improve circulation.

- Soak your hands and feet in warm water (40 degrees Celsius) with a little salt and a few slices of fresh ginger for about 20 minutes. While soaking, you can massage your feet and hands to increase blood circulation.

- Exercise daily to improve blood circulation and warm up the body effectively; For those who sit in the office for a long time, it is necessary to increase activity, do some on-the-spot exercises to increase blood circulation.

- Use a heating pad to keep your body warm while sleeping; wear socks and gloves while sleeping.

- Rub and massage hands and feet to increase blood circulation and warm the soles of hands and feet.

- Supplement your body with vitamins B1, B2, F and foods high in calories, fat, and iron to provide more energy to warm the body; Eat foods such as milk, eggs, pork, butter, nuts, and cereals...

- Get enough sleep, avoid stress: Rest, relax and get enough sleep to help your body stay warm better.

- Check blood pressure and blood lipids regularly, treat if there are abnormalities.

- If numbness in hands and feet persists, go to the hospital for examination, do not self-treat.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/tay-chan-te-cong-ngay-lanh-deo-gang-tay-van-lanh-dung-chu-quan-2024121621494636.htm