Introduction
Who does not know them, the cold hands or feet? Far more often this problem affects women. Due to their anatomical conditions, they have less warming muscles than men, have a slightly lower blood pressure more often and their body is subject to stronger hormonal fluctuations.
Stress situations (such as anxiety) are also known to lead to cold hands more often. Here too, it is a physiological mechanism that centralizes the blood flow (i.e. the outer limbs are less well supplied with blood in favor of the internal organs) so that we can best manage stress or the stressful situation that causes it. Remarkably often, some people complain about cold hands, but why is this so?
The skin on the hands is relatively thinly coated, is sparsely covered with warming fatty tissue and has a relatively large surface area. Unfortunately, these circumstances cause our hands to cool down slightly and therefore feel cold. We typically know cold hands from the somewhat fresher seasons. But the weather does not always play a role. Someone who constantly suffers from cold hands should consult a doctor, because the list of possible causes is long.
Causes
By far the most common cause of cold hands is not of a pathological nature, but is simply due to low ambient temperatures. The cold causes the blood vessels inside our hands to contract and the blood supply to them to decrease. The blood transporting the heat is centralized in favor of our body core with its vital organs.
Clothing that is too thin, too little exercise and wetness during low temperatures promote the rapid cooling of the hands. Do you suffer from cold hands all year round, regardless of the weather? Then you should definitely consult a doctor.
For example, a circulatory disorder may be the cause. A well-known widespread disease that can cause cold hands is the so-called arteriosclerosis. This is a deposit of blood fats or connective tissue in the blood vessels, which leads to their constriction.
As a result of the decreasing diameter of the vessels, the blood circulation decreases. The end phalanges of the fingers now lack the blood that flows through them to warm them. Low blood pressure or heart failure can also be the cause of cold hands.
If the heart lacks the power to transport the blood through strong beats to parts of the body far away from the heart, the affected parts are also less supplied with blood and cool down quickly. A special disease that affects the vascular system and causes cold hands is Raynaud’s syndrome. The blood vessels in the hands contract in a spasmodically reactive manner due to cold or stress.
The cold fingers appear white, bloodless and numb. Typical is the change of the hand color starting with white over blue up to red (tricolor phenomenon) when the blood circulation is restored. Another cause of cold hands, which can be caused by another organ of our body, is hypothyroidism.
The thyroid gland, a paired flat organ at the front of our neck, produces the thyroid hormones triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4). These influence the blood circulation and participate in the regulation of the energy, heat and cold balance of our body. The result of an underfunction of our thyroid gland is reduced hormone production.
The result: our body is on the back burner. Sick people therefore often suffer from cold hands. Eating disorders can also sometimes be a trigger for ice hands, because: Who hungers, freezes.
Due to the lack of nutrients, the body functions, metabolism, nervous and hormonal systems are disturbed. Due to the lack of energy suppliers contained in our food, the warming function is lost when it is burned. Circulation problems, but also cold hands are the result.
Some autoimmune diseases, which are characterized by the fact that the body’s own cells are regarded as foreign and attacked by the body, such as chronic inflammatory rheumatism, lead to permanent inflammation of the joints. These are characterized by pain, swelling and redness in the area of the finger and foot joints. Cold hands can also be a symptom.
Another disease from this category is a connective tissue disease, the so-called scleroderma. The problem here is the thickening of the connective tissue, which increasingly constricts vessels, thus reducing the blood flow in the hands and causing them to cool down.Last but not least, in addition to the physical causes mentioned above, the psyche also has a great influence on our heat balance. Under anxiety or stress our vessels contract reflexively. This causes our hands to freeze without being cold.
