Causes of cold feet. Don't ignore the problem. Why are your feet constantly cold, causes of cold extremities, what to do Non-vascular causes of cold legs

Update: October 2018

Usually people do not pay attention to such an unimportant thing as cold feet or do not attach much importance to it if the feeling has already become familiar and no longer causes discomfort. Freezing feet most often occur in winter or autumn, when a person often gets cold or gets his feet wet.

But if your feet are constantly cold, even when a person is in a warm, heated room, it’s worth looking for the reasons more carefully. This problem is very often faced by women and men over forty years of age. Poor circulation or activity disturbances are most often to blame. nervous system(looseness or low tone of its vegetative part).

Cold extremities in healthy people

Feet are the temperature regulator of the entire body. The point is that lower limbs- a distant part of the body where it is difficult for the heart to deliver blood. And doctors strongly recommend hardening your feet, for example, walking barefoot in the summer or at home. Shoes must be selected carefully, according to the season.

Causes of constantly cold feet

The most common cause of cold feet is PD (peripheral vascular disease). BPS often affects the vessels that carry blood from the heart to the periphery, as well as those vessels through which blood moves, on the contrary, to the heart. Below is a complete list of vascular causes of cold feet:

Diabetes mellitus

If your feet are constantly cold, the cause may be diabetes mellitus, in which small and large vessels become more fragile and prone to thrombosis. Cold feet can be a harbinger of such a dangerous complication of diabetes as diabetic foot, in which the nutrition of the tissues of the leg gradually becomes worse, and the risks of amputation increase (see,).

Anemia

Anemia (low hemoglobin) impairs the supply of oxygen to tissues, which slows down metabolic processes and heat formation. Sharp coldness of the extremities is caused by acute anemia due to blood loss, for example. for injuries (see).

Raynaud's disease or syndrome

Symptoms of Poor Blood Flow

Fatigue and pain, as well as swelling in the lower leg or foot. With rest, the pain should decrease.
Feeling tired during even minor exertion.
Convulsive involuntary twitching of the muscles of the legs and buttocks.
When standing still, for example during sleep, convulsive twitching in the feet and legs may also occur.

Non-vascular causes of cold feet

Age

Various changes associated with age. After fifty years, the immune system is very often weakened, and hormonal changes also occur, the volume of muscle mass and subcutaneous fat decreases (impairing heat exchange), blood circulation worsens, metabolism slows down, and the body’s ability to self-regulate decreases.

Hypothyroidism

Or in other words, a decrease in the functionality of the thyroid glands - this condition causes a slowdown in all metabolic processes in the body. Heat exchange suffers and slows down. Characterized by a feeling of fatigue, a feeling of cold, a decrease in interest in life, a slowdown in perception and memory. Energy release is significantly reduced.

Constantly cold feet are combined with pallor, dryness and swelling of the skin, brittle nails, etc. Hypoacid gastritis also worsens the condition, leading to decreased appetite and secondary iron deficiency anemia. This disease mainly occurs in people over 40 years of age, in women after undergoing thyroid resections or radiation therapy.

Atopic dermatitis in childhood

Cold feet are an almost inevitable phenomenon if you suffered from (to put it simply, a pronounced diathesis) in childhood. It has long been known that allergic manifestations remain forever and are combined with autonomic dysfunctions, manifested in the form of white dermographism (when running a finger over the skin of the forearm, instead of a red stripe, a persistent white stripe appears, indicating prolonged vascular spasm).

Taking certain medications

Some medications can also be a factor causing cold feet. Feet get cold when warm when taking beta-blockers (atenolol, anaprilin). At gynecological diseases women may be prescribed ergot medications, which also cause chilliness.

Acute allergic reactions

Acute allergies in the form or due to a sharp dilation of small blood vessels lead to significant heat loss and may be accompanied by chilly skin.

Provocateurs of cold feet

In addition to diseases, cold feet can be caused by the following habits and factors:

obesity
smoking
physical inactivity
improper and irregular nutrition
diabetes
pregnancy or nerve diseases.

My feet are cold: what to do?

So what to do if such a misfortune occurs? To begin with, you should use simple recommendations to help warm your feet: use woolen socks, a knee-length bath with mustard, or just warm water.

Long-term events look like this.

It is imperative to quit smoking.
You need to dress strictly in accordance with the weather conditions, avoiding tight clothing for the lower half of the body.
Shoes must be chosen carefully and in size.
Perform regularly physical exercise, for example, doing exercises.
Eat more protein foods, as well as various spicy foods, spices and seasonings, such as red pepper or mustard.
Avoid any stress.
It is advisable not to overuse strong tea or coffee. You need to drink tea with motherwort, mint, and valerian.
If your feet are not only cold, but also sweaty, then it is advisable to take warming foot baths using sea salt or mustard. For example, salt baths are made as follows: in boiled, hot water, you need to dissolve two tablespoons of salt (sea salt, can be purchased at your nearest pharmacy), two tablespoons of milk. After the bath, you need to put on thick, woolen socks (knitted slippers are also an option).
If you stand at work all day, then in the evening you need to arrange baths with the addition of mustard. This will improve blood circulation and relieve swelling.
When even the slightest signs of freezing of the feet appear, it is necessary to massage them. First, rub the sole of each foot, then massage your toes. After this, put on warm socks (preferably pre-heated).
There may be contraindications for the next procedure (for example, varicose veins). Prepare two containers with hot and cold water. You first need to place your feet in a container with warm water for 5-10 minutes, while doing a massage. Then you need to put your feet in cold water for 10-20 minutes. The procedure is repeated until the warm water cools down. Also, it must end with immersing your feet in cold water.

Traditional methods of dealing with cold feet

There are many more folk ways that help cure this disease. For example:

Alcohol compress

It is done as follows: you need to moisten the soles of the socks with alcohol or vodka, warm your feet in warm water and put on these socks. It is also recommended to wear woolen socks on top. After this, within five minutes you will feel that your feet are completely warm.

Hot pepper

Ground pepper will perfectly warm the skin if applied to it. The irritation it causes is not significant. A great solution would be to sprinkle pepper in your socks or grease your feet before going outside.

Sophora tincture

Infuse 50 grams of Sophora fruits (can be flowers) in half a liter of vodka for one month. You need to drink this tincture three times a day, one teaspoon. You need to drink the tincture for three to four months.

Mistletoe leaves

It is necessary to completely grind the dried mistletoe leaves into flour. Pour one teaspoon (with a heap) of ground mistletoe into one glass (200 milliliters) of boiling water and leave in a thermos overnight. Mistletoe is taken in small sips of two tablespoons 10-20 minutes before meals. Mistletoe also needs to be drunk for three to four months. Mistletoe regulates blood pressure, especially heart pressure, and has a calming effect.

Gymnastics

As mentioned above, exercise can help get rid of cold feet. Below we will consider a set of gymnastic exercises aimed specifically at the problem of cold feet.

Shaking legs

For example, shaking your legs is a very useful procedure. When shaken, the capillaries are subjected to vibration, which in turn leads to contraction of blood vessels and improved blood circulation. You need to lie on your back on a flat and hard surface (for example, the floor), then you need to raise your legs and arms so that they form an angle of 90 degrees with your torso. In this position, you need to shake them for one to two minutes.

Reeds in the wind

Lie on your stomach, relax your legs and bend your knees at the same time. Next, you need to give them freedom of movement, you need to imagine that they are a reed that sways from gusts of wind (the exercise, by the way, is called “Reed in the Wind”). It is necessary that the legs hit the butt.

Walnut massage

This exercise will not only improve the body's blood circulation, but can also help relieve stress. This exercise is performed as follows: nuts (walnuts) are placed between the palms and rotational movements are made for two to three minutes. It is very important to make an effort to ensure that the nuts are pressed tightly against the palms. After this, you need to do the same thing, but not with your palms, but with your feet. These exercises must be performed twice a day: morning and evening.

If all household tricks do not help cope with cold feet, you should go to see a doctor. The therapist, after asking about complaints, collecting anamnesis and examination, will recommend taking blood and urine tests, as well as performing an ECG. If necessary, a consultation with a vascular surgeon and ultrasound examination of the vessels of the legs will be scheduled. If vascular pathologies are excluded, a visit to a neurologist and endocrinologist should be made.

The main cause of cold feet is their constitutional feature. The fat and muscle layers, which help retain heat, are practically absent in this part of the legs, and the area of the skin surface from which heat is transferred is quite large.

At low temperatures, blood vessels constrict and blood flows more intensely to internal organs to prevent hypothermia and maintain optimal body temperature. Because of this, blood circulation in the extremities is disrupted and they begin to freeze. But if your feet get cold in warm weather, this may be due to a malfunction of the thermoregulation mechanism.

Reason: health problems

Age-related changes. In men, the problem of cold feet often begins to appear after overcoming the 50-year mark. This is due to hormonal changes in the body. During this period, there is a decrease in all physiological processes, a deterioration in blood circulation, a weakening of the immune system, a decrease in the subcutaneous fat layer and, as a result, a disruption in heat exchange processes.
Circulatory dysfunction. If your feet are constantly cold, this is due to insufficient peripheral blood circulation, resulting in poor nutrition of small vessels.
Decreased blood pressure. Cold, quickly freezing feet may indicate a malfunction cardiovascular system, manifestation of hypotension, atherosclerosis, and also be a symptom of autonomic disorder.
Narrowing of the lumen in the veins and arteries. At the age of 40-50, people often notice that their feet sweat more often than usual. This may be a sign of a serious disease - obliterating endarteritis, which affects the arteries of the legs. Due to a sharp narrowing of the lumen of the arteries, blood flow is obstructed, as a result of which the blood supply to the extremities is weakened. And the accompanying development inflammatory process also affects the veins.
Disorders in the thyroid gland. Always cold lower extremities can signal that the thyroid gland is not producing enough hormones. The body receives little energy necessary for heating, as a result of which the person constantly feels cold. Such symptoms can also occur with low hemoglobin.
With Raynaud's disease, frequent vascular spasms are observed, arterial blood supply to the extremities is disrupted and, as a result, constantly freezing feet and severe pain in frozen fingertips. The cause of such a disease can be either high activity of the autonomic system and disruption of connective tissues, or simply increased emotionality.

If your feet often get cold, contact a medical facility. To find out the cause, you need to undergo a complete examination of the body.

An echo and cardiogram of the heart, an ultrasound of the organs (which ones will be prescribed by the doctor), and a detailed blood test are performed. This will help the doctor make the correct diagnosis and select the appropriate treatment.

What to do to prevent your feet from freezing?

If the diseases have not been identified, and your feet are still cold in any weather, you can reduce these symptoms by adhering to some rules:

In most cases, the female part of the population suffers from cold feet syndrome, and the age range is quite wide - from 15 to 45-50 years. Men begin to feel such inconveniences only after 50; by this age, metabolic processes slow down, and hormonal background is changing. It is immediately worth noting that in older people, the feet may freeze due to, that is, there is a violation of the flow of red liquid into the capillaries, as a result, the feet freeze. The reason is quite common, and in order to prevent it or completely eliminate it, you need to follow some rules, which we will talk about later. Now let's look at those diseases, the symptoms of which may be chilliness of the limbs.

Causes of cold feet

Sometimes in women, for unknown reasons, blood circulation begins to weaken, and it can reach the point that the feet become bluish. This is called There are no medications for it, more often doctors simply treat the symptoms.

A feeling of coldness in the extremities can also occur when varicose veins veins
The causes of cold feet, in addition to the first two, may lie in the general body, as well as problems with the cardiovascular system.
Diabetics often complain of similar symptoms, but they also occur in those who have thyroid disorders.
Endarteritis is a vascular disease that predominantly affects the lower extremities. As the disease progresses, gaps between the blood vessels appear (up to their complete disappearance).
It is worth pointing out one more reason for freezing feet. It is not a symptom, but can become a catalyst for diseases such as flu, bronchitis or pneumonia. The whole problem is in the structure of the body of a particular person, because in the feet there are practically no fat deposits that can warm the legs, so it turns out that they are the very first to begin to cool down.
One more is enough common cause can be called shoes that are so small (according to the width of the foot) that they do not allow the toes to move. Such models lead to the fact that the lower extremities simply feel cold, even while wearing very warm shoes.

If for medical reasons traditional methods warming the extremities is not contraindicated, or if nothing is found after the examination, you can resort to the following methods to warm up.

Neutralizing the causes of cold feet

Wash your feet and put on socks made of natural fabric, the soles of which have been soaked in alcohol (or vodka). Put another woolen hosiery on top.
Often it is enough to harden the body a little, and the problem will disappear by itself. If possible, do not wear slippers, and if you go to the country, go barefoot.
Be sure to use a contrast shower for your feet; after 10 sessions you can feel improvements.
Fats will help in the fight against freezing feet; spread goose, bear or badger oil on your feet. The limbs will not only warm up, but also become soft, and cracks in the heels will disappear.
You can use foot baths by adding sea salt, aromatic oils of pine needles or medicinal herbs to warm water.
And, of course, massage. It is performed all over from the buttocks to the calves and feet. To do this, use a washcloth-mitten (hard) or a brush with a long handle. Thanks to such procedures, the skin rejuvenates (the process of exfoliation occurs), becomes elastic, and its blood circulation improves.

Conclusion

The causes of cold feet must be treated so as not to trigger the disease or contribute to its development. Be sure to consult with your doctor; he may prescribe not only massages and compresses, but also some medicines for general and improvement of blood circulation (it is better to find out from a specialist about the advisability of taking such drugs).