# Why are the palm of my hands sometimes mottled pink / white? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 24, 2002, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-palm-of-my-hands-sometimes-mottled-pink-white/129464 "2002-09-24T15:48:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Reuben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/54ee81/32.png) [@Reuben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reuben)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-palm-of-my-hands-sometimes-mottled-pink-white/129464/1 "2002-09-24T15:48:10Z")
Hi, I’ve been wondering about this for at least 20 years… Sometimes, and for no obvious reason, the palms of my hands become mottled pink and white instead of the normal continuous pink. I just noticed it again now as I got up to make coffee. What’s up with that? Many thanks, Reuben ---
**Author:** ![horhay\_achoa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@horhay\_achoa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/horhay_achoa)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-palm-of-my-hands-sometimes-mottled-pink-white/129464/2 "2002-09-24T16:54:52Z")
That happens to me too. I call it “meat hands” because it looks a little like ground beef. I have no clue what causes it. ---
**Author:** ![PRNYouth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9dc877/32.png) [@PRNYouth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PRNYouth)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-palm-of-my-hands-sometimes-mottled-pink-white/129464/3 "2002-09-24T16:58:58Z")
Put me on the list of those who’ve been caught red-and-white-handed. 🙂 I don’t have any idea why it happens, either, but I’ll follow this thread with interest. Doctors? Any input? **Qadqop the Mercotan**? You out there? ---
**Author:** ![Servo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@Servo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Servo)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-palm-of-my-hands-sometimes-mottled-pink-white/129464/4 "2002-09-24T17:06:33Z")
This happens to me too, but it seems to happen only when my hands are cold. I always figured it had something to do with blood vessels contracting to conserve heat. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-palm-of-my-hands-sometimes-mottled-pink-white/129464/5 "2002-09-24T17:09:38Z")
Excessive masturbation. ---
**Author:** ![mazzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@mazzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mazzer)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-palm-of-my-hands-sometimes-mottled-pink-white/129464/6 "2002-09-24T17:18:27Z")
It seems to only happen to me when I get my heart rate jumping; I think it has something to do with circulation. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-palm-of-my-hands-sometimes-mottled-pink-white/129464/7 "2002-09-24T17:20:41Z")
See? ---
**Author:** ![JasonFin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/4af34b/32.png) [@JasonFin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JasonFin)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-palm-of-my-hands-sometimes-mottled-pink-white/129464/8 "2002-09-24T17:34:46Z")
FWIW, my palms are like this all the time, as are (to a lesser degree) the undersides of my arms. I’ve never really thought about it. ---
**Author:** ![Opengrave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/919ad9/32.png) [@Opengrave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Opengrave)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-palm-of-my-hands-sometimes-mottled-pink-white/129464/9 "2002-09-24T18:36:00Z")
Happens to my hands and feet. Never really gave it a thought until now… ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2002, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-palm-of-my-hands-sometimes-mottled-pink-white/129464/10 "2002-09-24T21:32:25Z")
It happens to my hands if I keep them down at my sides for a few minutes. It’s just blood pooling. ---
**Author:** ![PolskiKing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@PolskiKing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PolskiKing)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2002, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-palm-of-my-hands-sometimes-mottled-pink-white/129464/11 "2002-09-25T02:47:52Z")
I recently brought up this subject to a specialist docter in Connecticut, because I have noticed it on my hands at most times, but in school it sumtime gets even darker and turns purple-ish and white mottled on my whole body, with the exception of my face (a kid in 3rd grade once exclaimed in gym class that im turning into a mutant) Anyhow, he said he sees it often in his pediatric lyme patients, but i forget if he explained why or not. But anyway, I see it on my extremities most of the time, specifically my hands, and i dont know if this is just coincidence or not, but they are usually cold when it happens. Not to say that the room temperature is cold, but that when it happens, it \ feels\ cold. I still see it on my hands everyday, but ive seen less of it as my lyme treatments progress -PK ---
**Author:** ![effac3d](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@effac3d](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/effac3d)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2002, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-palm-of-my-hands-sometimes-mottled-pink-white/129464/12 "2002-09-25T02:58:29Z")
Oh great another thing to obsess about hypochondriac style. ---
**Author:** ![Wikkit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c0e974/32.png) [@Wikkit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wikkit)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2002, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-palm-of-my-hands-sometimes-mottled-pink-white/129464/13 "2002-09-25T09:43:45Z")
Happens to me too, sometimes after a change in temperature, sometimes randomly. Although I’m not a doc, I have a medical view on it. I went to the doctor two winters ago after getting frostbite from climbing the metal ladders on the dome of [Beardshear Hall](http://www.fpm.iastate.edu/maps/building.asp?building=Beardshear%20Hall) in the middle of the night in the dead of winter without gloves. My hands happened to have the mottled look, with a big red spot from the frostbite on one hand. I showed her the spot, and her first question was (paraphrased): “Why is your hand spotty like that? Is it always like that?” I said no, not always, that it would go away. That, and the interesting frostbite (which I wasn’t sure was frostbite, which is why I went to the doc in the first place) apparently warranted calling in another doctor and a student so that they could look at it too. What I’m getting at, in a somewhat roundabout way, is that someone who should have had decent medical training didn’t even know what it was or was caused by. I’m sure **QtM** has something, though, being the Cecil of the MDs. ---
**Author:** ![Reuben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/54ee81/32.png) [@Reuben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reuben)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2002, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-palm-of-my-hands-sometimes-mottled-pink-white/129464/14 "2002-09-27T10:17:11Z")
Ok, so it seems temperature or activity related… and yet, to me, it just sometimes happens while I’m sitting in a chair in a thermally constant room. Blood pooling? Ok, but why does it happen and can I be certain it’s 100% harmless? Bit of a mystery… I’m going to shamelessly bump this in the hope that **QtM** will happen by with the definitive answer. ---
**Author:** ![hixofthehood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/90db22/32.png) [@hixofthehood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hixofthehood)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2002, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-palm-of-my-hands-sometimes-mottled-pink-white/129464/15 "2002-09-27T10:25:43Z")
This one has got to be answered. Otherwise I’ll lose all faith in the medical world. ---
**Author:** ![Horseflesh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horseflesh/32/7502_2.png) [@Horseflesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horseflesh)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2002, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-palm-of-my-hands-sometimes-mottled-pink-white/129464/16 "2002-09-27T10:34:36Z")
Add me in as another Doper with “meat hands”. I’d WAG that this is a blood circulation in the extremities thing caused by stress. The same reason your hands might feel cold in a warm room. Your brain needs more blood to deal with the stress and so “steals” blood from the hands & feet (cold feet syndrome). My high school psych teacher had us do an experiment once. He gave each of us these little mercury thermometers and had us hold them between thumb and forefinger and note the temperature after a couple of minutes. Then he asked us to close our eyes, relax, and he read off several passages like those a hypnotist might use to get his “patients” into the right state of mind. After about 5-10 minutes of this he had us open our eyes and note any changes in temperature. I had the highest change of all with a 10 degree increase. Yee-haw! My cold hands problem was solved (for the most part). The mottling has gone as well. Anytime my hands get cold now (outside of actual cold temperatures) I just do the relax thing, which I assume actually relieves some of the stress. I can get my hands so warm now that my wife says they can get uncomfortably hot. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2002, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-palm-of-my-hands-sometimes-mottled-pink-white/129464/17 "2002-09-27T12:35:07Z")
Here’s a WAG…I’ve read that this happens to babies because their bodies haven’t adapted to regulating their body temperatures. Is it possible that adults might have the same reaction to temperature changes if their bodies are also poor at regulating their temperature? It happens to me, on the back of my hands too not just my palms, and my normal body temp is a bit lower than average- 98.1. ---
**Author:** ![TheNerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@TheNerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheNerd)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2002, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-palm-of-my-hands-sometimes-mottled-pink-white/129464/18 "2002-09-27T14:37:49Z")
For those of you who get this: Hold your hand downward, just hanging next to your body until the mottled pattern appears. Then, hold your hand vertically above your elbow with your palm facing you and watch the mottled pattern fade. I assume that this is due to some sort of blood pooling or at least circulatory condition. It’s fun to watch anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Valleyport](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/cab0a1/32.png) [@Valleyport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valleyport)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2016, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-palm-of-my-hands-sometimes-mottled-pink-white/129464/19 "2016-08-03T21:39:29Z")
> **[Bier spots](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bier_spots)** > > Bier spots are small, light macules usually found on the arms and legs of young adults, in which the intervening skin may seem erythematous but blanches with pressure so that these light macules disappear.: 863  This is a benign physiologic vascular anomaly of no significance clinically.: 863 : 819–20  > The spots appear when the blood is congested with a bandage on the upper arm, e.g. with a blood pressure cuff. > The spots also appear when the arms are slightly raised from the trunk (angle appro... ---
**Author:** ![Wakinyan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wakinyan/32/352_2.png) [@Wakinyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wakinyan)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2016, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-palm-of-my-hands-sometimes-mottled-pink-white/129464/20 "2016-08-03T21:54:35Z")
“It is the first signs of turning into a zombie,”, etc. Reported.