Cold Hands and Feet Causes: Causes, Symptoms and Meaning
Cold
hands and feet are very common in modern people for the reasons
that are explained below. This symptom can often occur during night-time sleep for a
very simple reason: people have reduced O2 levels in body
cells. What is the meaning of this symptom?
Cold feet and hands are a sign of insufficient blood flow (poor
circulation) and reduced oxygen supply to body cells and their cold extremities.
Cold feet due to parasites
Warning. Cold feet can be caused by presence of GI parasites, such as flat worms, round warms and some others.
Meaning of cold hands and feet
What is the main physiological meaning of cold feet and hands? In his article,
"Hyperventilation and anxiety state" that was published in the Journal of Royal Society
of Medicine, Professor Lum stated that cold extremities are a classical symptom
of chronic hyperventilation or breathing more than the medical norm. Cold feet and hands mean that the person has
less than 20 s for the body-oxygen test. While the official diagnoses can be
Raynaud disease or diabetes, in reality, all these people have too heavy
breathing 24/7.
This graph is based on 24 medical articles. It explains why problems with poor circulation and cold hands and feet are very common in modern people, and why cold extremities were not common during first decades of 20th century.
Symptoms related to cold feet and hands
Hyperventilation reduces CO2 in the lungs. This causes lowered arterial CO2 pressure resulting in constriction of arteries and arterioles since CO2 is the most potent vasodilator (see studies below). In addition, low CO2 leads to the reduced Bohr effect (less O2 is released in tissues by red blood cells). As a result, people suffer from having cold extremities.
All vital organs of the human body and extremities get reduced blood and O2 supply. Most people get only cold feet. But there are also millions of people who suffer from cold hands as well.
If you try voluntary hyperventilation, in 1 minute your brain oxygen levels will be about two times less and, in 2-3 minutes, most people can faint due to critically low brain-O2 content.
Natural remedies for cold feet and hands
You can use a simple breathing exercise developed by over 170 Russian doctors who taught the Buteyko breathing technique to thousands of their patients with cold hands and feet. This exercise can be found here: Warm up cold hands and feet. According to reports of these doctors, over 80% of people are able to get warm hands and feet in 2-3 minutes.
An additional powerful method that helps with body O2 and circulation is Earthing since getting electrons from the Earth helps blood vessels and decreases inflammation. A sea salt bath for cold feet can be found on this page How to ground yourself. It is a great solution to normalize voltage of the human body and improve circulation. Earthing also increases body-oxygen content.
Permanent solution for cold feet and cold extremities
If you normalize your
automatic or unconscious breathing patterns (so that your body O2
will be over 40 seconds all the time), your chronic problems
with signs of poor circulation and cold hands and feet will naturally disappear.
In fact, for most people, it is enough to get over 25 seconds for the body-oxygen test in order to improve their poor circulation. Furthermore, people with sleeping problems can also eliminate their insomnia at night using the same breathing exercise and breath retraining.
Very cold feet can be caused by worms and other GI parasites (such as Blastocystis Hominis). Contact your MD or GP for lab tests and treatment options.
Reference pages: Breathing norms and medical facts:
-
Breathing
norms: Parameters, graph, and description of the normal
breathing pattern
- 6 breathing myths: Myths and superstitions about breathing
and body oxygenation (prevalence: over 90%)
- Hyperventilation: Definitions of
hyperventilation: their advantages and weak points
- Hyperventilation syndrome:
Western scientific evidence about prevalence of chronic hyperventilation in patients with chronic conditions
(37 medical studies)
- Normal minute ventilation: Small and
slow
breathing at rest is enjoyed by healthy subjects (14 studies)
- Hyperventilation prevalence: Present in
over 90% of
normal people (24 medical studies)
- HV and hypoxia:
How and why deep breathing reduces oxygenation of cells and tissues of
all vital organs
- Body-oxygen test (CP test)
: How to measure your own breathing and body oxygenation (two in one) using a simple DIY test
- Body oxygen in healthy:
Results for the body-oxygen test for healthy people (27 medical
studies)
- Body oxygen in sick
: Results for the body-oxygen test for sick people (14 medical studies)
- Buteyko
Table of Health Zones: Clinical description and ranges for breathing zones:
from the critically ill (severely sick) up to super healthy people
with maximum possible body oxygenation
- Morning hyperventilation: Why people feel
worse and critically ill people are most
likely to die during early morning hours
References: pages about CO2 effect:
- Vasodilation: CO2 expands arteries and arterioles facilitating perfusion
(or blood supply) to all vital organs
- The Bohr effect:
How and why oxygen is released by red blood cells in tissues
- Cell oxygen levels: How alveolar CO2 influences
oxygen transport
- Oxygen transport: O2 transport is controlled by
vasoconstriction-vasodilation and the Bohr effects, both of which rely on CO2
- Free radical generation:
Reactive oxygen species are produced within cells due to anaerobic cell respiration caused by cell hypoxia
- Inflammatory response: Chronic inflammation
in fueled by the hypoxia-inducible factor 1, while normal breathing reduces
and eliminates inflammation
- Nerve stabilization: People remain calm due to calmative or
sedative effects of carbon dioxide in neurons or nerve cells
- Muscle relaxation: Relaxation of muscle cells
is normal at high CO2, while hypocapnia causes muscular tension, poor posture
and, sometimes, aggression and violence
- Bronchodilation: Dilation of
airways (bronchi and bronchioles) is caused by carbon dioxide, and their constriction
by hypocapnia (low CO2)
- Blood
pH: Regulation of blood pH due to breathing and regulation of other bodily fluids
- CO2: lung damage: Elevated carbon
dioxide prevents lung injury and promotes healing of lung tissues
- CO2: Topical carbon dioxide can heal skin and tissues
- Synthesis of glutamine
in the brain, CO2 fixation, and other chemical reactions
- Deep breathing myth:
Ignorant and naive people promote the idea that deep breathing and breathing
more air at rest is beneficial for health
- Breathing control: How is our
breathing regulated? Why hypocapnia makes breathing uneven, irregular and erratic.
Or go back to Hyperventilation Symptoms
Your social engagement and comments are appreciated. Thanks.
| Disclaimer | Copyright 2013 Artour Rakhimov | Contact details | About Artour Rakhimov (Google profile) |