raynauds and hot flashes

I don't think I have bona fide raynauds, but my whole life has been
spent dreading winter...my feet mostly, but my hands too, get so cold
and stay that way. I can put on wool socks, soak in hot water,
heating pad, almost anything you name it, to get my feet to warm up.
It's like the mechanism for the little vessels in my feet shut down at
the mere thought of being cold. I don't smoke, when I DID smoke, I
was much younger and the symptoms were similar. Getting in bed, I
pray sometimes that my husband is sleeping, so I can put my cold feet
on him to try and warm up. Our little dogs sleep with us and I try to
get them to be foot warmers, but no dice from them.
I've tried to figure out if there is a common denominator that
triggers the cold or not. I can't pinpoint anything. If I try to use
a heating pad on a medium or low heat, trying to warm up my feet
actually makes them hurt..the tingling as sensation returns is
uncomfortable.

BUT...hot flashes seem to make my feet warm up. It's weird. It's got
to be something in the mechanism of blood vessels dilating and then
the hot flash. I just noticed the foot warming connection a couple of
days ago and for the first time ever...I actually hope I have a hot
flash...
Oh boy..isn't that crazy?
Perry

"cajunpaisley" <cajunpaisley@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:cd57c310-a1c1-4afa-9f58-0509f2cdd03f@s8g2000prg.googlegroups.com...
>I don't think I have bona fide raynauds, but my whole life has been
> spent dreading winter...my feet mostly, but my hands too, get so cold
> and stay that way. I can put on wool socks, soak in hot water,
> heating pad, almost anything you name it, to get my feet to warm up.
> It's like the mechanism for the little vessels in my feet shut down at
> the mere thought of being cold. I don't smoke, when I DID smoke, I
> was much younger and the symptoms were similar. Getting in bed, I
> pray sometimes that my husband is sleeping, so I can put my cold feet
> on him to try and warm up. Our little dogs sleep with us and I try to
> get them to be foot warmers, but no dice from them.
> I've tried to figure out if there is a common denominator that
> triggers the cold or not. I can't pinpoint anything. If I try to use
> a heating pad on a medium or low heat, trying to warm up my feet
> actually makes them hurt..the tingling as sensation returns is
> uncomfortable.
>
> BUT...hot flashes seem to make my feet warm up. It's weird. It's got
> to be something in the mechanism of blood vessels dilating and then
> the hot flash. I just noticed the foot warming connection a couple of
> days ago and for the first time ever...I actually hope I have a hot
> flash...
> Oh boy..isn't that crazy?

Although you're the first person I've seen mention this... nope, not crazy
to me. Because...

I have bona fide Raynauds, & menopause messed up the whole thing. My
fingers & toes still got/get cold very easily - esp. in damp, cool/cold
weather (when they turn purplish-blue), but... peri & menopause also caused
my feet to get so hot I couldn't stand it! Not due to hot flashes, per se,
but during the whole general time frame. I couldn't wear boots too long if
indoors while shopping in the winter, for example - my feet got so horribly
warm & uncomfortable/tingly. My feet even got too warm at work just wearing
lightweight socks & shoes; I'd kick off my shoes whenever I feasibly could.
And at night, I often had to stick my feet out from under the covers - at
the side of the bed - even in the dead of winter when the bedroom was very
cool. If I had a drink (alcoholic), both my fingers & toes becaome
uncomfortable: pink/red, tingly, a bit swollen, & way too warm, too.

I'm now ~10 years post-meno, & in the last 2 -3 years, this has become
better. Can wear boots & shoes more often indoors w/out being too
uncomfortable, etc.

Cathy (glad to see I'm not the only one whose Raynauds & capillaries went
haywire in meno!)


> Perry

cajunpaisley wrote:
> I don't think I have bona fide raynauds, but my whole life has been
> spent dreading winter...my feet mostly, but my hands too, get so cold
> and stay that way. I can put on wool socks, soak in hot water,
> heating pad, almost anything you name it, to get my feet to warm up.
> It's like the mechanism for the little vessels in my feet shut down at
> the mere thought of being cold. I don't smoke, when I DID smoke, I
> was much younger and the symptoms were similar. Getting in bed, I
> pray sometimes that my husband is sleeping, so I can put my cold feet
> on him to try and warm up. Our little dogs sleep with us and I try to
> get them to be foot warmers, but no dice from them.
> I've tried to figure out if there is a common denominator that
> triggers the cold or not. I can't pinpoint anything. If I try to use
> a heating pad on a medium or low heat, trying to warm up my feet
> actually makes them hurt..the tingling as sensation returns is
> uncomfortable.
>
> BUT...hot flashes seem to make my feet warm up. It's weird. It's got
> to be something in the mechanism of blood vessels dilating and then
> the hot flash. I just noticed the foot warming connection a couple of
> days ago and for the first time ever...I actually hope I have a hot
> flash...
> Oh boy..isn't that crazy?
> Perry


LOL - I can relate. I always used to suffer from cold feet and hands
and was often chilly in bed. In the last year to 18 months my feet
have NEVER been cold in bed, and in fact I'm usually too warm in bed
now! And the coldest part of the night (4am) is when I get warmest!

--
Jette Goldie
jette@blueyonder.co.uk
http://www.jette.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/
http://wolfette.livejournal.com/
("reply to" is spamblocked - use the email addy in sig)

have never been dx with raynauds, but i have had mild/infrequent
flares of it over the last few years. curiously, it also happened in
my early 20s when the earlier hormonal hell was breaking loose. don't
envy those more severe manifestations. good luck.

ellen

x-no-archive: yes

ellen wrote:
> have never been dx with raynauds, but i have had mild/infrequent
> flares of it over the last few years. curiously, it also happened in
> my early 20s when the earlier hormonal hell was breaking loose. don't
> envy those more severe manifestations. good luck.
>
> ellen

The severe peripheral neuropathies in my hands and feet used to manifest
as intense freezing, which stopped once I switched to a low carb diet,
after figuring out what caused it; I don't recall the blanching
phenomenon of Raynaud's, though. I was left with residual numbness,
though, that went a way after another few months of low carbing and the
addition of alpha lipoic acid.

In general now, I find that nothing warms my bone chilling cold on days
my adrenal function is lowest, and I'm roasting and tossing off covers
at night and don't feel chilling outdoor cold on days it's highest, so
my cortisol levels really regulate my feelings of cold/warmth. I know
for some folks thyroid does something similar, and TSH is also regulated
by cortisol levels.

I find that if I'm going to freeze, it really hits me about
midafternoon, 3 or 4 p.m., and if I'm going to roast, it starts at 4:30
a.m. when I wake HOT and toss the covers during the onset of the morning
cortisol peak. When my cortisol is really low, my lower and middle face
also flush red. Never happened with peri hot flashes for me, though.

Susan

On Jan 26, 7:30*am, Susan <neverm...@nomail.com> wrote:
> x-no-archive: yes
>
> ellen wrote:
> > have never been dx with raynauds, but i have had mild/infrequent
> > flares of it over the last few years. *curiously, it also happened in
> > my early 20s when the earlier hormonal hell was breaking loose. *don't
> > envy those more severe manifestations. *good luck.
>
> > ellen
>
> The severe peripheral neuropathies in my hands and feet used to manifest
> as intense freezing, which stopped once I switched to a low carb diet,
> after figuring out what caused it; I don't recall the blanching
> phenomenon of Raynaud's, though. *I was left with residual numbness,
> though, that went a way after another few months of low carbing and the
> addition of alpha lipoic acid.
>
> In general now, I find that nothing warms my bone chilling cold on days
> my adrenal function is lowest, and I'm roasting and tossing off covers
> at night and don't feel chilling outdoor cold on days it's highest, so
> my cortisol levels really regulate my feelings of cold/warmth. *I know
> for some folks thyroid does something similar, and TSH is also regulated
> by cortisol levels.
>
> I find that if I'm going to freeze, it really hits me about
> midafternoon, 3 or 4 p.m., and if I'm going to roast, it starts at 4:30
> a.m. when I wake HOT and toss the covers during the onset of the morning
> cortisol peak. *When my cortisol is really low, my lower and middle face
> also flush red. *Never happened with peri hot flashes for me, though.
>
> Susan

I too had terribly cold feet and hands. I had to wear sheepskin
slippers in the winter and warm up the foot of the bed with a hot
water bottle before bedtime. Right about meno time, that all
stopped. Although my hot flashes seem mostly to occur from the waist
up, my feet are toasty warm all year round.
Les

x-no-archive: yes

sage hen wrote:

> I too had terribly cold feet and hands. I had to wear sheepskin
> slippers in the winter and warm up the foot of the bed with a hot
> water bottle before bedtime. Right about meno time, that all
> stopped. Although my hot flashes seem mostly to occur from the waist
> up, my feet are toasty warm all year round.
> Les

I haven't had the freezie hands and feet for about a decade now, but
when I get the whole body chills, nothing warms me, not layers of
clothing, turning heat up, covers. Just takes hours to feel warm, it seems.

Susan

x-no-archive: yes

Susan wrote:
> I haven't had the freezie hands and feet for about a decade now,
> but when I get the whole body chills, nothing warms me, not
> layers of clothing, turning heat up, covers. Just takes hours
> to feel warm, it seems.

Have you tried a quick rinse/bath? I find that just sitting in the
tub (with the plug in) and splashing warm water over myself helps a
lot; it gets my circulation going. (The towelling down helps too, I
guess.)

Joyce of Pendle.

--
"The spear in the Other's heart is in your own: you are he." -- Surak
pendle atte boulsworth dotco_dotuk

x-no-archive: yes

Joyce of Pendle wrote:

> Have you tried a quick rinse/bath? I find that just sitting in the
> tub (with the plug in) and splashing warm water over myself helps a
> lot; it gets my circulation going. (The towelling down helps too, I
> guess.)

I have found that a warm bath does warm me up, but in winter, it's very
drying, too, so I kind of avoid it.

Susan

Susan wrote:
> x-no-archive: yes
>
> Joyce of Pendle wrote:
>
>> Have you tried a quick rinse/bath? I find that just sitting in the
>> tub (with the plug in) and splashing warm water over myself helps a
>> lot; it gets my circulation going. (The towelling down helps too, I
>> guess.)
>
> I have found that a warm bath does warm me up, but in winter, it's very
> drying, too, so I kind of avoid it.
>


Bath oils. A nice scented oil *designed for the bath* will stop the
skin drying out.

Fenjal, for example. Avon do some nice ones and I'm rather partial to
Yves Rocher "Orange Flower" myself. But make sure you use a bath
oil, not a "moisturising bath creme". (cos they aren't really as
moisturising as they claim)


--
Jette Goldie
jette@blueyonder.co.uk
http://www.jette.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/
http://wolfette.livejournal.com/
("reply to" is spamblocked - use the email addy in sig)