Raynaud's Syndome (ray-NOSE), according to Mayo Clinic usually affects extremities like your fingers and toes but can also affect your nose and your ears as well. The syndrome causes certain parts of your body to become numb and tingle. Different people get it to different degrees so not all people will be affected as the lucky few who really become debilitated due to it. Mayo Clinic says it is more common in women than it is in men.
Raynaud's Syndrome causes the small blood vessels that supply blood to the skin to narrow in cold temperatures and can even happen in periods of extreme stress (vasospasm). That is what causes the tingling and pain in certain parts of your body. Visually you can see a change in your skin coloration. The skin often turns white in splotchy patches where the blood vessels narrow and the blood supply is limited.
Mayo Clinic said the syndrome was not debilitating but let me tell you as someone who has had an attack from the syndrome it was completely and totally debilitating to me. When it hit, I fell on the floor and the pain in my hands was so severe that all I could do was cry and rock back-and-forth. It felt as if someone was sticking a 1000 needles into my hands. I put my hands between my legs not knowing what else to do and it took a good 10 minutes are more before the pain subsided.
I have since spoken to a doctor I know that is unbelievably knowledgeable with the body. He the next time it hit that if my hands were affected to put a heating pad just below the center of my shoulder blades and that would warm up the nerve gangali that went to the hands a lot quicker. He told me if it were my feet and toes that were affected the heating pad needed to go low on the back again where the nerve gangali for the feet lay.
I haven't had to try the heating pad theory out yet because since that 1st and only attack that I had I now make sure any time I go out into severe cold that my hands and my feet are protected from the cold with insulated gloves and boots or the like.
This is a real phenomena and can happen to anyone if you are not careful in the cold covering your hands and feet. Please take this seriously and if you aren't certain the information is correct feel free to research it yourself. Or if you have questions as always I will do my best to answer them. Please take care as Winter seems to have descended upon us early and I wanted you to be warned about one of the possible problems you might have with the Raynaud's Syndrome. Knowledge is power.
Fancy59.