I always seem to have cold hands and feet (hands more than feet). Anyways, I was doing a bit of research and found that it can be caused by hypothyroidism, estrogen dominance or low progestrone (along with about a zillion other things like poor circulation).
http://www.health911.com/remedies/rem_thyr.htm This a link that talks about hypothyroidism. It tells about an inexpensive test you can give yourself. This test can also help with returning your thyroid to normal functioning again.
I thought this might be useful information for some of us, as the thyroid is very important in body functions. Bascally, the thyroid’s main job is to produce thyroid hormones. These hormones are chemicals that act like messengers telling specific body parts what to do. The hormones help the body make energy, keep body temperature regulated and assist other organs in their function.
I also think this information might be helpful for those trying to up your body temperature.
Hi Surf, I have and always have had the exact same problem as you, I inherited it from my mom. Any time I shake someones hand they always say "gosh, your hand is so freezing", and my boyfriend always gets a shock when I touch him, so it isn't nice.
I had my thyroid tested a while ago and everything was fine, so it isn't that in my case. Did you find anything else that may cause this or something that may improve the problem? It is just so uncomfortable to always have this cold hands as I am sure you know yourself, and I wouldn't mind having warm hands at least for the majority of time.
Thanks for the info so far and I hope everything is fine with your thyroid, it is important that it functions right so it is good to check it out and get if fixed if need be.
Lisa
I've also always had cold hands and feet, my thyroid was checked and was supposedly ok. I take kelp anyway. But what really helped me was cayenne, I didn't have cold hands or feet while on it (it took a few weeks to really feel the difference tho) and that was during winter, when I usually had to have three pairs of socks on. I've been off cayenne for a couple of weeks now cause I'm on a brake from NBE and my feet are cold again, so I will start it again.
Thanks Moon, I just read the post below and seen that people were talking about using this, I haven't been reading on here too much, so thanks for pointing it out. I think I will give the cayenne a try, it would be nice not to have freezing hands and feet all the time. My feet bother me at night because I can't get to sleep until they are warm and that can take a while, even when I use a hot water bottle it feels like my feet are cooling that down rather than the hot water bottle heating my feet up.
Do you just buy the powder out of a normal shop or do you get capsules from health food stores, and do you use a lot? Some posts said it is hard on the stomach, I have a very sensitive stomach as it is and have to watch what I eat, so I don't want to cause it any more stress because it can take days to calm down. I sure am a walking disaster area. :-)
From what I've read, thyroid tests aren't very accurate. You can test fine and still have a under-acting thyroid. I guess it depends upon the degree of the problem. I've read that it can go on for years without really being diagnosed accurately. I think I would take any result stating that your thyroid is fine with a grain of salt, especially if you exhibit symptoms of hyper- or hypo-thyroidism.
I think having a good-working thyroid will help with NBE success, which is why I brought it up in the first place. I've seen a few complain about cold hands/feet on the forum. It might help some on the forum if they take the test described in the above link.
I actually did the test 2 nights ago and there was not a trace of the iodine when I woke up in the morning!!! I'm going to do it again tonight, and every other night until the iodine is still there in the morning. It will be interesting to see if the coldness in my hands/feet go away or is lessened afterwards!!!!!
I don't think what I'm about to say is going to help some of the ladies, since this is something that some of you don't like to do. (I didn't like it either, LOL.) I was a cold-handed/feet also, and my mom's been one also. It isn't really obvious until my long-term relationship whom I haven't seen for a year came to my country to stay, and the first night we were talking and he held my hands, said, "Oh my Gosh, your hands are really freezing!" I knew there's something wrong with my body because my hands get cold easily, but not freezing like this, so I'm recalling what I'm doing differently. I realized that I used to exercise a lot when I was in middle school, and I stopped completely after high school.
On that information, plus I need to get into a better shape anyway, I started exercising. I went to gym four times a week for two years. Now I don't go to gym anymore, but I'm still doing crunches fronts and sides 50 times a day, and I go to a HipHop dance class once a week. My mom's been doing Yoga for two years also.
We are no longer cold hands and feet. ^-^
You don't have to something extreme, but taking a quick walk a mile or two a day, or doing soft yoga, that'll definitely help.
Vivian Shih - thank so much for the input. Exercise is not the problem in my case. I'm 42 years old and have experienced cold hands for as long as I can remember. I go to the gym 5 days a week and lift weights for approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour about 4 days a week. I also do cardio training 2 - 4 days a week. Sometimes I'm at the gym for 2 hours a day. I consider myself a fit person and always have been. Even when I worked full time and didn't have time to work out at a gym, I was always active (like taking the stairs up 4 flights instead of the elevator...).
Lisa - There's a whole discussion going on about how to take cayenne, cause it's quite a challenge, but not such a problem, cause there are opptions and we just need to gather experience about it. From my personal experience - I also have a sensitive stomach and I thought cayenne would be problematic on it, but to my surprise it wasn't so much. I got some burning when I took too much, but nothing worse. It really made a difference how much water I drank with it. Thinking now, in the other thread they're advising to take cayenne orally, cause then your stomach starts producing enzymes before cayenne gets there, while if you take it in capsule, it gets there like a shock to the stomach. But if taken with food, you still should remeber to drink a lot of water too. I wasn't able to get cayenne in capsules so I bought it in poweder. I usually emptied one of my herb capsules and drank the herb with a bit of water and put cayenne in the capsule. The thing is that with food it's harder to get hat much cayenne into your system, you have to make it a whole meal. I took about 300 mg 3 times a day, 300 mg was what still went without problems on my stomach. You simply try it out a bit more every time to find out what's your maximum. But you have to be careful not to overdose extremely, cause it causes sickness and vomiting at too high doses.
Personally I'd prefer to take it in capsules anytime, if it doesn't cause problems, but if it does, then better in spicy meals. I know many manufacturers who sell it in capsules don't take in consideration that it's a burning herb and make capsules with to high dosage, like 500 mg.
About thyroid, I had all symptoms of hypothyroiditis, excet one - weight gain. But it turns out I have all those symptoms for a compleately different condition, a mental one actually. We who do NBE often get carried away at diagnosing ourselves, but it's not as easy as it seems, lol!
But I think that even a normal thyroid function on the lower edge can be a bit insufficient, especially for NBE, so I think kelp is very beneficial, aside from its main purpose, it makes your hair grow ticher and stronger and faster!
So kelp, cayenne, ginko biloba and B complex + iron are what I still take during my brake.
What an interesting idea. I never knew you could by topical iodine anywhere to do a test on your iodine levels! I took help for a long time (about 6 months but noticed that my temp. still never rose and my cold hands and feet did not change at all). My question is, can you just take this iodine safetly to get your daily recommendation or it this kind not safe for long term use? Thanks.
I do not believe iodine is safe for longterm use and there is a TOXIC WARNING on the bottle for overdoses!!! You should be careful and read the instructions for the test and the instructions on the bottle for your safety.
Nothing like that says on my bottle!!! I did not know iodie was not safe in long term. The recomended use on my bottle is from 1 to 3 tablets a day and 1 tablet is the RDA, so that's quite a high dose. I take 2. I planned to take it for a long time cause I want my hair to look better. I guess as long as I don't over do it, it'll be ok.
Moon - According to the link, I got the 2% iodine tincture. It's in a 1 fl oz bottle. It clearly has a skull with cross bones on the front that states CAUTION POISON!!! First Aid Antiseptic for external use only. Maybe you're taking something else (maybe less in strength).
I did the test last night, for the second time. I still have a faint spot on my thigh after 12 hours. The first time I did it, the spot on my belly disappeared within 12 hours. I'll check it agian before I go to bed tonight.
Oh, I use a natural source of minerals - kelp. Sure many metals and chemicals are poisonous, but still necessary to the body in small ammounts. But yeah, I guess pure concentrated iodine, or even a solution, would be dangerous.
Surf, thanks for the advice and info, but I had blood tests and a scan done and it showed up fine at different times, and I had blood tests done at different times before for routine checks when I was younger and just had a recent one done and nothing was abnormal then either.
I was deficient in iodine when I was young and had to take tablets for a year or two for that. It is recommended for people that do not live near the sea and don't get enough iodine through the air. That is why it is good to use sea salt because of the iodine content. I have been living near the ocean for a good few years now so I think I am fine in that regard, and the only salt I ever use is sea salt.
As for iodine being toxic, there is the liquid which I believe is, and then you get the tablets and as far as I know they are very safe to take for long periods of time as well. I took them when I was 12 and I remember it being natural, my parents were always concerned about me taking antibiotics and unnatural medicines and they wouldn't have let me take it if there had been any doubt about the safety of the medicine.
As for thyroid hyperfunctioning, except of the cold hands and feet I don't have any of the symptoms that were described.
Moon, thanks so much for the info, I will buy the powder I think and just try small doses and see what works and if my stomach can take it. How do you measure the 300mg? I always have hassle figuring out how much it is when I don't have the stuff in capsule form already filled for me :-).
Just a rough estimation, the herb in the capsule was 480 mg, and I fill the capsule about 3/4. But I don't know how much exactly I took lol. There's another way I found efficient for taking cayenne - mix it with a teaspoon of honey. Honey is really useful for swallowing anything, because it captures the substance and doesn't let it solute in the mouth. And it's possible to swallow it like a pill with a gulp of water. It's better to have the natural honey that is a bit crystalized, cause it's harder, but the one from the supermarket serves too. I put about 1/3 to 1/2 of a teaspoon of cayenne into a teaspoon of honey, which is quite concentrated, and get only mild burning in my mounth.
Thanks for that tip, I will definitely try it with the honey, that may actually help with my stomach as well. Now I just have to go out and buy some and I am all set.
There's something I'd like to add. And that is cold feet and hands could also be a sign of iron deficiency. I just realized that a few days ago. I have been taking cayenne for circulation and to help with BE herbs. My cold feet haven't gotten better even with taking cayenne regularly. I'm a couple of points low in iron, so I know why I get the cold/hands feet symptom. Just wanted to let you girls know.....like someone else stated it's hard to diagnose ourselves because one symptom could very well be caused by several different factors.
Also, cold hands and feet could be a symptom of adrenal fatigue or adrenal insuficiency. This can also cause you to have many signs of a hypothyroid, but they are both different. If in doubt, you can get your hormones checked. I plan on it when I get enough money saved up.
Thank you so much for posting this Surf.
I have the same problem with Lisa, except my feet are making the heating pad cold instead of the hot water bottle. lol
Really I can't get to sleep either if my feet are cold.
I need to check out that link.
It's true, one symptom can have a veriety of different reasons, we have to consider all of them or all the most likely. I was always inclined to low iron, but my feet were cold when I was low on it and when I was high, so I know that in my case it's circulation and in the end I confirmed it as cayenne worked. But one should certanly first make sure their iron is high.
