20/02/2026
Do you have cold fingers that sometimes become painful, lose colour or go numb?
If so, you may have something called Raynaud's phenomenon, a condition that is said to affect up to 10 million people in the UK.
And of course, when we're talking fingers, this can also happen to your toes too.
There's a whole host of things that happen when your extremities are exposed to the cold ending with the blood vessels reducing flow to reduce the loss of heat.
When you are then exposed to heat, the blood vessels increase flow once more.
This whole process is smooth and controlled, but in Raynaud's, this process is not so smooth and is more aggressive.
Think of the normal as a bit like an accordion, smooth movements of opening and closing.
Where as with Raynaud's is like the snapping of a crocodiles jaws.
The whole process goes a bit funny and the blood vessels can't keep up, leading to the symptoms above.
Most Raynaud's is primary - it has no cause - and the secondary cases resulting from disease were much rarer.
And sorry ladies, it statistically affects you more.
So what can you do about it?
Well, a bit like chilblains it's about managing the exposure to cold and heat and avoiding the extremes they bring:
Always wear gloves and warm socks
Give yourself a chance to acclimatise to changes in temperature - don't be so quick to ditch the gloves and socks when you get home, let your body get used to the change
Treat any open wounds seriously
Use warming creams if appropriate
Move to a warmer country*
As podiatrists there may be some procedures we choose not to do, or to do in warmer weather when you have Raynaud's, which is why having a chat with us is always a good thing.
Plus we can advise on how to keep the symptoms at bay.
*This might be a bit of a joke, as you can still get Raynaud's in other
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