Winter feet and hands

It is getting colder and we read in the reports that some people can no longer heat due to high gas prices.

Then pay extra attention to prevent winter feet and hands

At a cold ambient temperature, you can suffer from cold hands and feet.
Sometimes the pain, itching or swelling is so pronounced that we speak of winter hands or winter feet. Both can be very annoying, but are in themselves a harmless phenomenon. Winter hands and feet pass spontaneously.
With mild winter hands, the symptoms disappear when you are in a warm environment again.
However, with more pronounced winter hands, the complaints can persist for a few days to weeks.

Causes: When the ambient temperature is 15°C or lower, the superficially located blood vessels may contract. As a result, the blood supply in the skin is compromised and can show an inflammatory reaction with pain, redness and swelling. It is not known why one person quickly suffers from winter hands and someone else never. However, it appears that women are more susceptible to it and that heredity plays a role.

Symptoms: The main complaint is pain: with winter hands on the fingers, with winter feet on the toes. But the pain may also occur in other places. Extremities (eg. ears and nose) are the most typical locations, but the thighs can also show “winter complaints”. In addition to pain, severe itching or burning can also occur. In case of more pronounced complaints, the skin will also swell and become redder. Eventually, she can turn purple-blue. The symptoms worsen with increasing and prolonged cold, and improve with heat. Beginning complaints can disappear within an hour. In case of pronounced complaints, you may have problems with a finger or toe for two weeks. Inflamed skin is more susceptible to blisters or sores. Open blisters or wounds can cause an additional bacterial infection.

Self-care: Keeping the body at temperature If you are prone to winter hands or feet, you should extra arm yourself against the cold by dressing warmly:
• always wear gloves outdoors, even when you're outside for a while;
• also use a hat and scarf if you have quick nose or ear complaints;
• Always wear thick socks in your shoes or slippers, but make sure your shoes don't pinch;
• never walk around the house barefoot, and certainly not on a cold floor;
• wear warm nightwear at night and also socks if you are easily affected by winter toes;
• wear leggings or stockings under your pants if you have a cold on your thighs. In addition, avoid extremely low temperatures as much as possible and do not stand still in the cold. If you still have to wait somewhere in the cold, keep moving to stimulate your circulation. If temperatures drop in autumn, don't wait too long to take precautions and keep your body at a temperature. After all, once you have pronounced winter hands or feet, it takes some time before the symptoms disappear. So it's better to be ahead of them.