I sometimes find myself in my house and it’s too warm to wear a sweatshirt but my feet will be ice cold. I heard that warming the torso area helps to warm extremities but I have been on the verge of sweating with ice-cold extremities. Please explain how this is possible?
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The extremities are called extremities for a reason – they’re the extreme end of the cardiovascular system. So it’s the last place blood goes to. Positioning plays a part – you could be sitting in a way that presses down on your veins and lessens flow to your feet or leaning on your arms, which does the same thing to your hands.
If it is bothering you frequently though – or your hands and feet turn blue – might be worth asking your doctor about it. Could be a circulatory issue like Reynaud’s syndrome, which runs in my family and causes cold extremities that turn blue even when it’s not that cold.
They aren’t getting as much blood flow as the rest of your body due to being so far away from the heart. Plus when it’s cold your blood vessels tighten up to keep core temperature and minimalize heat loss.
Its why you shouldn’t drink alcohol when it’s cold because it dialates the blood vessels. You’ll feel warm while you freeze to death.
Do you smoke and/or drink caffeine?
Smoking frequently makes your feet cold, especially in the mornings, and caffeine and energy drinks can compound the issue.
Otherwise it’s worth checking with your primary care physician about possible circulatory issues or nerve problems.
Obligatory IANAD
Think of the bits of you further from your heart as radiators. They have lots of blood vessels and surface area. Unlike your vital organs, your hands and feet don’t have a ton of enzymes doing important things at very specific temperatures. They can be a bit cooler than the middle of you. If you’re trying to shed heat, they’re very useful. If you’re trying to hold on to heat, blood flow can be limited without affecting important stuff (up to a limit, anyway.)
Also remember that subjective temperature, the way parts of you FEEL, is very different from their actual temperature. When you have a fever, your body is trying to drive up your set point temperature, so you personally feel cold and have shaking chills, but are actually hotter than everyone else. Only when the fever breaks and your temperature falls do you feel sweaty and overheated. Your hands and feet may feel ice cold because they’re not getting much blood flow, but also because your body is trying to hold on to heat.
Remember that natural selection votes for survival and reproduction, not comfort. A system that leaves you with hands and feet that aren’t quite warm enough, but gets you to adulthood and child-raising OK, is good enough. (In fairness, we adapted great to the climate of an East African tropical savanna–the next time your hands are cold, blame your ancestors who decided to wander.)
Heat loss happens first in extremities feet, hands, legs, arms, nose, ears. Add a unit hat to head find appendages dramatically warm.
One possibility is that the person has poor circulation, which causes cold extremities. Another possibility is that the person has Raynaud’s syndrome, which causes blood vessels in the extremities to constrict and results in colder temperatures. Finally, it’s also possible that the person is simply experiencing vasodilation (dilation of blood vessels), which can cause cooler temperatures in certain areas of the body (such as the feet).
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