Blog posts tagged with 'raynaud's disease'

Cold exposure, particularly to the distal extremities (fingers and toes) results in profound vasospasm, limiting blood flow. As the fingers and toes are re-warmed, many people experience significant pain that is described as severe as grasping broken glass. Why does this happen? Let's take a look and see if we can describe why fingers and toes can hurt so much upon re-warming.

The difference between chilblains and frostnip is the presence or absence of moisture. Chilblains occurs with chronic cold temperatures and in the presence of moisture (think damp, cold British castle). Chilblains does not require that tissue freezes but occurs in temperatures above freezing (35-45 degrees F).