Someone’s probably already asked this, but I can’t find anything.
Why are my feet more suspetible to cold then the rest of my body, so it seems?
I’m sitting here wearing socks, sweatpants and a shirt and most of my body is comfortable, except for my feet, which are very uncomfortably cold.
This happens in bed too. Feet cold, rest of body fairly comfortable, tempreturewise.
Does anyone know why (I’m assuming it has something to do with blood flow).
My guess is that it is a combination of the feet being an extremity on the body, a high surface area to volume ratio and a lot of blood vessels close to the surface. Also, what sort of floor do you have? Are you standing on concrete or stone? That is more conductive and you will lose heat easier through your feet.
When I complained of cold feet, my podiatrist told me it was because my feet sweat more than usual and the evaporating water carried away heat. He didn’t explain why this should be so, though.
There is a condition called Raynaud’s Syndrome in which people have unusually poor circulation in extremities and thus, unusually cold hands and feet.
I have notoriously cold hands and feet (in high school they referred to my “corpse hands”), and once they get cold, it can take a lot of work to get them warm again–my hands get pale, blotchy, and the fingernails themselves turn pale blue to, in extreme cases, a weird purple. They do not, however, become bright red upon rewarming as is the case with Raynaud’s Syndrome.
My guess? Just a quirk of my anatomy. Might be related to the fact I have naturally low blood pressure, maybe not.
You didn’t say if you’re male or female. Women generally have lower blood flow to their extremities and, thus, colder hands and feet.
Smokers also have the same problems and very skinny people can feel the cold a lot more.
See this article for a discussion.
Drinking more water sometimes helps. When you are cold you tend not to feel very thirsty. And when the body starts to get dehydrated, it reduces circulation to the extremities.
yeh, feet are extremities, being farthest away from the body, and i’m guessing you usually keep your feet close to the ground, where the colder air accumulates. having cold feet also may depend on the size of your feet. if it’s bony and has little fat, then they’ll get pretty cold. and just the opposite, if your foot has good size to it. this stuff adds on to what Ell said.
Put a hat on.
No, seriously. I have the same problem, so now, when I go to bed, I pull a blanket over my head like a shawl. The result is roasty toasty feet. I suspect that by keeping in heat the head sheds, my body’s able to keep my feet warm.
Could still be Raynoud’s, Ruffian. Click on the 2nd picture from the left here. In fact, more often than not, Raynoud’s is “atypical” and does not cause the classic tri-colour response (white, then blue, followed by red). But then again, Raynoud’s often affects only several of the digits at any one time, and even at that often just involves the distal half of the finger(s).
With respect to HPL’s problem, Raynoud’s seldom affects only the feet while sparing the hands. Do you take any medicines? The class of drugs called beta-blockers is notorious for causing cold feet.
Although my feet do get cold at times, there are also times during the winter when they get so hot I have trouble getting to sleep. If it is really cold, sticking them out of the covers isn’t a good answer, either.
[sup]Life is hell, isn’t it?[/sup]
In response the the questions I have been asked, my answers are as follows:
The floor under my feet is carpet. I am male, closer to fat then thin(but getting closer to thin as time goes on), don’t smoke and take no drugs or medication (I have a slight paranoia about taking any medication on a regular basis unless it’s perscribed because I want to minimize the risk of addiction. Stupid, probably, but I know people with drug/alcohol issues).
Actually, my hands are cold too, but I don’t notice it nearly as much as my feet.
My doctor said my cold feet are most likely caused by an overactive nerve in the top of the feet (he mentioned the name of this nerve but I don’t remember it). The purpose of the nerve is to sense how cold your body is and restrict blood flow to your feet to keep your core body temperature up. He said that there are drugs to alleviate this but that unless I feel pain (I do not) to just live with it.
KarlGauss, the link didn’t work–just got the “page cannot be found” thingy.
The only medication I take regularly is birth control pills, and the “corpse hands” thing was going on long before I started BC pills. I was, however, on the beta blocker Corgard for a few months in my junior year in high school. I would assume that it wouldn’t have lingering effects 10 years later, but one never knows.
I echo phouka’s suggestion. There’s an old mountain man saying, “If your feet are cold, put on your hat.”
To conserve its heat, the body will suppress circulation to the limbs. It will not restrict circulation to vital organs in the torso and head. It’s been said that up to 90% of one’s heat loss can be through the head. Wearing a hat can make a huge difference in how much body heat is retained. If the heat is conserved, there’s a chance some of it will get to the feet.
Ruffian, try clicking here then choose “diagnoses alphabetically”, then choose “R”, then choose “Raynouds Syndrome”.
Please note that many of the other images on this site might be TMI, pictorially speaking.
Thanks for the link, KarlGrauss. Thankfully, my hands look nothing like that. These hands appeared much, much more white–and oddly enough in only certain areas–than my hands ever are. Mine end up more generalized grey looking…just, well, cold. 