| Hello, fellow Reynaud Syndrome sufferer! Lots of unhelpful advice in other posts: gloves don't work, because heat is brought to your hands by blood flow. Blood flow is cut off, which is why they are cold in the first place. Exercise doesn't really help, because it elevates your core temperature which your body dissipates by circulating to your limbs... which isn't happening. People won't understand what it's like to be painfully cold in a perfectly normal room. For immediate fixes: if your skin goes dead white and you lose feeling, immediately do something to warm it up. http://fupjack.tumblr.com/post/108687833029/note-to-self-get... Finding a bathroom and running warm water over my hands often fixes it, and certainly feels better - though it can be painful as the numbness wears off. You need an external heat source because your body can't do it on its own. If your flesh goes blueish-purple, warm it IMMEDIATELY. Extended periods without blood will kill cells and you'll get the equivalent of frostbite and gangrene. In the long term: It's a spasmodic overreaction to cold, so avoid cold sources. i.e. it can be triggered by air conditioning blowing on you, holding food from the freezer, and so on. I wear a hat into our server room at work for just this reason. Stress level is related, so exercise may help ... indirectly. I've lost 40 pounds over the past year and a half and walk several miles a day. It has been good for my physical condition and stress, but it doesn't seem to have helped Reynaud's. It can help to have significantly warm clothing to keep it from triggering; I wear Minus33 undershirts and they help. My wife found a woman who had Reynaud Syndrome who makes her own wool mittens to help, and bought me a pair. (I feel like I have giant fuzzy flippers, but they work.) I have not tried medication for it; can't tell you if it's worth it. On the plus side, if you don't like feeling too warm... it may never happen to you again. I felt overheated exactly once this past summer, and my house did not have air conditioning. |