Smoking and numbness in feet

In My Humble Opinion
1

I quit smoking a few days ago and as a motivation to stay quit I am trying my best to acknowledge improvements in my health. Breathing improved dramatically in 24 hours.
I seem to be sleeping better but still not getting much sleep.

As for the numbness in my feet. A few years ago I retired and my smoking jumped up from 1 pack a day to almost two. I started noticing numbness in the lower 1/2 of my foot. If I cut back to about 1 1/2 packs the numbness was limited to the three largest toes and if I cut back to 1 pack it seemed to just affect part of my big toe. I told the Dr. about this and he said it made no sense but I needed to quit smoking anyway. I am baffled why he said it made no sense when it is clear as day and I can track it on a daily basis. I wake up with feeling in my feet and as I smoke more throughout the day the numbness advances. If I don’t smoke I don’t have any numbness. They did check the blood circulation in my feet and they said it was fine which I think is suspect because my feet are very often cold.

Can smoking affect nerves and nerve endings?

2

Are your feet experiencing an exothermic reaction?

3

Not sure how I would identify this, I know my feet tend to be colder than the rest of my body

4

I couldn’t resist a joke about your numb feet billowing smoke. :wink:

5

Nicotine is a vasoconstrictor. Vasoconstriction can adversely affect sensory nerves (nerves need good blood flow), particularly of the extremities. Ask your doctor to consider Buerger’s disease among other conditions (e.g. peripheral arterial disease, diabetes, clots, autoimmune disorders…) in your differential diagnoses—there’s a high correlation of Buerger’s with smoking. Symptoms may be progressive and irreversible. Bottom line: get a proper diagnosis and stay away from vasoconstrictors like nicotine.