got chilblains?

I've read the word in books and thought it was some victorian thing like 'the vapours'.
I never knew what chilblains were and now I've got them

Itching, pain and some swelling as well as red tender areas on fingers and toes...I thought I had poison ivy at first and then thought I was burning myself repeatedly while baking.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilblains

a medical condition in which damage occurs to capillary beds in the skin, most often in the hands or feet, when blood perfuses into the nearby tissue, resulting in redness, itching, inflammation, and possibly blisters.[2]

Temperature-related chilblains can be prevented by keeping the feet and hands warm in cold weather and avoiding exposing these areas to extreme temperature changes. Once the diagnosis of chilblains is made, first-line treatment includes avoiding cold, damp environments and wearing gloves and warm socks.[3]

We've had a stretch of super cold weather so have shut the house down to one heated room where we also sleep but my toes and finger tips have still felt chilled some days when out from under that wonderful down comforter even with layered up good wool socks...I attributed that to past frostbite causing sensitivity.


Not sure how to avoid the temperature swings mentioned as that is where my hands are all day long with tap water barely above freezing and washing dishes in hot water then rinsing in cold from the faucet....and then the handwashed laundry is in hot as I can stand water.

My skin is much thinner as I age so I wonder if that plays a part?

I come from a family where half the lineage has what we call 'porcelain doll' skin. It appears thin and fragile and they tend to be more on the pale side.

Looking up chillblains it seems to most effect people with the temperature swinging into the cold brings out the worst effects. Do you wear gloves at all to insulate your hands at night? I wonder if some soft wool gloves paired with a salve would be of benefit. I know some people swear on lanolin for their hands but I'd even take a modern lotion! There is evidence that chillblains can result in part of poor blood circulation in the hands. Perhaps something can be done from that end to try and seek improvement?

I had heard of this years ago.

Have you tried calamine or witch hazel?

I have read that aloe vera, marigold (Calendula officinalis), chamomile (Matricaria recucita), and yarrow (Achillea millefolium) can all help.

I am curious about what your doctor suggests.

Chillblains are the worst.  I used to get them in the summer and winter so bad that I couldn't use my hands or feet.  I've been to many doctors and they don't know the illness and can't treat it.

Basically, it's worse than gout and feels like slivers of poison glass surrounded by evil puss under the skin.  

There are a lot of remedies in Victorian farm and household manuals - most of which are full of toxic ick like gasoline.  

The only thing I've found works for me is prevention and this takes two paths.

1. The heart

Chilblains require poor circulation to take hold in a body.  This can be caused by nutrition imbalance (specifically minerals) so it's worth getting your blood work done to see if this is an issue.  Vitamin D drops also seem to help prevent whatever structure in the body is causing this.

The local China Town sells hawthorn candy (basically flattened hawthorn berry pulp with nothing added) and this can help with circulation (but go slow as it's a powerful herb and depending on the cause of the circulation problems can make things worse).

2. The Sock Cure

The big problem with chilblains is once you have them, the chances of them coming back increase.  It saves time and pain to remove the cause as soon as you can as every year they get worse.

Chilblains are triggered by frequent changes in temperature.  For example, putting my hands in cold well water in the hot summer to wash something then having my hands in the hot air.  Or not wearing socks in the winter, then putting my feet on a hot water bottle or in a hot bath.  

The faster the change in temperature, the more likely the chilblains are to arrive.  But I can also get them with a change in temperature of about 4 hours depending on how different the temperature.  

Basically, the crippling nature of chilblains was way more painful and getting in the way of getting things done than changing the farm setup.  So I make sure not to use cold water in the summer and to wear socks in the winter and to remove the hot water bottle from my bed before I get in it so my feet won't get too hot.  In the winter, gloves or keeping my hands near my body whenever possible.

Heated mouse and keyboards as well as hobo-gloves for computer work.  If possible, putting the CPU under my desk then covering the desk with a warm blanket to heat my toes helps.  

I do everything I can do prevent strong changes in temperature and this year, so far, I've only got some damage on my fingertips.  It's inconvenient and extra work to make these changes, but it's more inconvenient to have chilblains.   I just wish it hadn't taken me 10 years to learn this as I mentioned, they get worse with every attack.  

Yep, no fun. I've had chilblains a few times, never went past that, thank God.

I first heard that word in the army where they train you on all kinds of first aid and field hygiene and stuff like that and I remember thinking that the word chilblains is just so out of place with all the other environmental casualties you can suffer. Heat exhaustion, heat stroke, frostbite, CHILBLAINS.... Huh.

Another thing we learned is that if you get a cold injury (or a heat one) once you are definitely more and more susceptible to another in the future. Which is sort of crazy as I would think the body would try to adapt but I suppose the damage to "whatever" (hypothalamus?) is done. They put special markers on some guys so everyone can keep an eye on 'em in the field. Not. Even. Once. haha.

Warm layers of wool, get dry when you can, change your socks and keep the blood flowing. Eat a lot. That's all I can think of as far as prevention.

Thanks everyone!

like slivers of poison glass surrounded by evil puss under the skin.  

I'm definitely not at that stage but that thought will give me the push I need to be more preemptive proactive!
So far, red patches and they feel like blisters but don't appear to be?

Circulation is very likely playing a part and I have not had blood work in a while but last I had did show low vit D.

I'm using plaintain salve and gloves as often as possible but most of what I do involves bare hands...feet are somewhat easier.
Due to the cold and ice and snow I've not been hiking or even walking as much outdoors.

I did not know it comes back repeatedly...that explains a lot as I think I've been able to ignore similar symptims in the past...

The only thing that I would add to Raven's excellent advice is to buy some fresh ginger, slice and boil it to make a hot drink. Ginger helps to improve your circulation.

Boil the ginger until the water turns a pale tea colour, it will be quite strong but you can add a little honey to improve the flavour. Dried jujube boiled with the ginger also sweetens the drink and helps with coughs.

You only need a few slices of ginger so you can either boil up a large batch and freeze the ginger infusion or slice and dehydrate the ginger to make the tea fresh each time.

I've only ever had bad chilblains once and cannot imagine recurrent episodes, it would be so debilitating.

I got it the first time in my early 20s, and throughout my 20s it would happen whenever my feet would get too cold, its when your capilaries get too cold and freeze and thaw repeatedly.  What I've done, successfully throughout my 30s, at least mostly, is accept that I need to keep my feet warmer than I think I should have to.  Even if it means using more heat than I want to pay for, I have to suck it up because its unsafe not to.  Fortunately I don't get it in my fingers.  When my toes go numb, in order to minimize damage and warm them up I do a silly thing, but its potent and works, Istick my foot up in my face and breathe through my mouth gently onto them, slowly, so my breath is as warm as it can be, and massage them and pet them with my fingers to get the warm energy into them.  In our house we call it the breath of life haha, because we were watching Legend of the Seeker around that same time that I figured out how to do this.

I don't know at what point chilblanes turn into Reynaud's, but I know they're connected.

Doc says it's raynauds....I've had a couple episodes since I first posted this where once a couple finger tips turned dead white and another my toes spent the evening on a heating pad...they still have some red areas from chilblains....otherwise fingers especially are just extremely cold feeling most of the time.

He offered a low dose calcium channel blocker for circulation

Since I already have low blood pressure I chose to double my ginko dose to 120mg and start taking a small amount of hawthorn, 300mg instead.

Bloodwork showed vit D at 37...below 30 is low so they said it was fine but am starting a liquid dose anyway.

This clinic knows me and is patient but no one will talk about herbal things except maybe ginko since it's kind of mainstream now.

Thanks for the input here...I did a lot of other research also and feel like I'm on the right track...even got in some yoga this morning.  We hike and walk a lot but have been needing some stretches

Judith I'm glad you have some answers and you have a plan going forward to help with it.  One of my fave survivalists on Naked and Afraid, Cheni, lives in Maine and has it.

Hey Judith! I was reading the previous posts and thinking "hey that sounds like Reynauds". I and my sister have it, and that includes the chilblains.

I always had cold hands, but in the past few years suddenly a few fingers turn corpse white and hurt like the dickens when the circulation comes back. It's triggered by cold, and not necessarily "real cold" (I live in BRAZIL!!! I shouldn't be getting chilblains! alas.... here we are.). A dip in cool water washing greens can trigger it.
I find the chilblains are more on my toes, so I basically wear as warm socks as I can once it's warm enough to wear socks (in other words, I go from flipflops to wool socks, no middle ground).
I don't take the medications, because I also have low blood pressure (I have Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, all this crap is apparently connected), and also I don't take medications unless I really need to.
From what I understand Reynauds is only really an inconvenience, it very rarely gets serious (necrosis, in which case i'll go to the ER). For what it's worth, my sister has been taking the meds for years and it makes zero difference, except they in turn cause other issues, so I'm pretty cool with just trying to avoid the triggers. When the weather is cool I do everything to keep my hands and feet warm: everything. I use gloves as much as possible. And since I've gotten into doing pretty regular intense cardio it seems that the episodes are shorter: I can still have a reynaud's attack as I'm running on the treadmill in my warm office, but it seems to all be done faster.

Edited to add: I'm a huge fan of ginger, as mentioned above, in the winter it is one of my go-to things to stay warm, between tea and candy.

Judith Browning wrote:
I'm using plaintain salve and gloves as often as possible but most of what I do involves bare hands...feet are somewhat easier.

This quite frankly has been the hardest part for me. I am a very stubborn person and it literally hurts to stop, find the rubber gloves, and put on the rubber gloves when I wash dishes/do chores outside/hang laundry, for example.
But what hurts more is: hanging laundry on a cold morning when my fingers suddenly decide to go white, so I find the stinking gloves. I'm an old dog trying to learn new tricks....

(in the winter, i have reynauds attacks every day in my unheated house, multiple times a day, unless i take specific action. hanging up cold wet laundry outside is the absolute worst. but i learned last year that rubber gloves, like the kind for cleaning, will circumvent them even on cold days. i still feel like a dog wearing galoshes trying to fumble with clothespins, but again..... old dog, new tricks. deep breath!)

Tereza, from what I've read it seems that when raynauds appears at a younger age it just happens for no apparent reason and when older, as I am, it usually has a cause.

We think we've figured it out and it's pointing to my trekking poles that I love to use on our hikes as they allow me to walk faster, catch me if I stumble and build up some upper body strength.
BUT they also brought back symptoms of carpal tunnel that hasn't bothered me in years since I quit weaving.

So.....I'm not giving them up...hoping to just find a balance and maybe work on my grip on the poles? Back to doing wrist stretches.

i love that you consider me younger. I am indeed younger than... Methuselah, Job, and that 120-year-old French lady, but that's probably about it. lolol.

It's funny you say this, though, as it's entirely right. My sister has always had Reynauds, along with other weird health issues. Mine didn't show up til I had the arthritis in my hands, followed by the slew of orthopedic consequences (bone cysts, wrist and finger fractures).
I hope you do go back to your stretches-- I know my orthopedic/arthritis issues are mostly due to my hyperflexibility and not much else, but I do a lot of PT and OT, and it is fabulous, has improved my quality of life so much.
(one of our constant therapy activities is seeking out/inventing new grips for all sorts of things, along with new ways to grip things. i should buy pool noodles by the container, because i have used them to adapt so much. Maybe you can find some sort of new grippy or strappy solutions for your poles, and some strengthening for your relevant muscles.

Unfortunately I recognize many symptoms. I think I'm developing chiblains. Now when somebody should scoff at me, I have ammunition! Gloves may prevent worse. So lemme alone!

Thanks for starting the topic.

Joylynn,
I think I had symptoms for years that I ignored and maybe my circulation gradually worsened at the same time?
The raynauds was weird to show up clearly when it did as we had just had a friend visiting who has it.

Have not had anything as bad as Raven describes but some small red patches on toes and fingers that lasted awhile...at first thought I was burning myself baking then with itchiness thought it was winter poison ivy exposure but now am fairly certain all were related to chilblains as of course my toes weren't exposed to anything.

What are you noticing?

So far, no red  or white patches. But toes and fingers get painfully cold in not so cold air temperatures. I have had tendinitis since flipping burgers at mMcDonalds in the eighties. That hasn't been a constant problem, but flares up from time to time. I got Tommy copper compression gloves a few years back, they help me. The sports industry has made it socially acceptable to wear the things everywhere. I now use them for cold hands too. I like to believe that I am slowing down progression.

Joylynn,
Check out the differences in chilblains and raynauds...one difference is chiblains are a result of temperature changes (mostly?) whereas raynauds seems to be a reaction to only cold temps, not necessarily super cold even, 40's and 50's can trigger it.

And both seem related to circulation.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilblains

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raynaud_syndrome