Poor blood flow (circulation) in your legs and feet causes cold feet. Poor blood flow means that it takes longer for the blood to reach your feet. Your blood travels through pathways (blood vessels) in your circulatory system. These pathways can close, harden and narrow, making it difficult for blood to flow steadily.
If you have cold feet all the time, it's important to seek medical attention. Be sure to tell your doctor if you notice that only one foot is prone to feeling cold. This could be a sign of peripheral vascular disease (PVD, also known as peripheral artery disease, or PAD).
For people who have trouble sleeping due to cold feet, placing a heating pad or hot water bottle at the foot of the bed can keep the area surrounding the feet warm at bedtime. Heating pads may also be helpful to help soothe sore muscles after a long day of standing.
Blame hormones, evolution
Estrogen can lower women's body temperature, cause heat to dissipate and slow blood flow to the hands and feet, making them more sensitive to cold.
Diabetic neuropathy — cold or numb hands or feet — is a common sign of poor circulation in diabetes. However, according to United Kingdom-based Global Diabetes Community, you should alert your doctor if you experience these symptoms, as well: Pain when walking, particularly in calves, thighs, and buttocks.
Raynaud's (ray-NOSE) disease causes some areas of the body — such as fingers and toes — to feel numb and cold in response to cold temperatures or stress. In Raynaud's disease, smaller arteries that supply blood to the skin narrow. This limits blood flow to affected areas, which is called vasospasm.
Iron Deficiencies
Iron deficiency can cause anemia (a decreased level of hemoglobin in your red blood cells), and lead to symptoms like fatigue, headaches, dizziness, and chronic cold feet.
If socks aren't enough, you can turn to something even warmer for instant relief from cold feet. Run a hot bath and soak cold feet for 10 to 15 minutes. Heat up a hot water bottle to rest your feet on or, especially if you struggle with cold feet at night, invest in an electric blanket to warm up your bed.
Cold feet aren't only an expression of doubt. It's a commonly experienced symptom of stress. Poor blood circulation to your feet and ankles can trigger the effects of the “fight or flight” response, also known as hyperarousal or acute stress response.
Cold hands and feet can be a result of iron deficiency anemia. People with anemia have poor blood circulation throughout their bodies because they don't have enough red blood cells to provide oxygen to their tissue.
Cold hands and feet are commonly associated with symptoms of anxiety disorder, including generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and others.
The most common causes of poor circulation in the feet are obesity, diabetes, and heart conditions such as peripheral artery disease (PAD). Common symptoms of poor circulation include tingling, numbness, throbbing, pain and muscle cramps. Peripheral artery disease is a common cause of poor circulation in the legs.
idiom (also have cold feet) to feel too frightened to do something that you had planned to do: I was going to try bungee jumping, but I got cold feet.
Research suggests that wearing socks to bed can help people not only fall asleep faster, but sleep longer and wake up fewer times throughout the night. One study found that young men wearing socks fell asleep 7.5 minutes faster, slept 32 minutes longer, and woke up 7.5 times less often than those not wearing socks.
Rarely, cold feet can be a symptom of a serious condition. Seek immediate medical care (call 911) if you, or someone you are with, experience: chest pain or pressure. loss of vision.
Potassium (Vitamin K)
Potassium is an essential mineral for many important bodily functions, including blood circulation. It keeps the blood vessel walls strong and can even help prevent bulging veins.
People with poor circulation may notice their feet feel cold or numb. They may also notice discoloration. The feet may turn red, blue, purple, or white. These symptoms may worsen in certain situations, such as when a person sits still for long periods of time or goes outside in cold weather.
Usually, having cold hands is just one of the ways the body tries to control its temperature and shouldn't be cause for concern. However, persistently cold hands — particularly with skin color changes — could be a warning sign of nerve damage, blood flow problems, or tissue damage in the hands or fingers.
This is normal. The blood vessels in your hands and feet constrict (spasm) when it's cold, to prevent heat loss from your core. Some people tend to have colder feet and hands naturally, without an underlying disease.
High Cholesterol Can Cause Cold Hands
Eating an excess of foods high in saturated fat and cholesterol, including meat, eggs, dairy products, and even coconut oil, can raise your cholesterol levels, which can lead to coronary heart disease — and one symptom is numbness and coldness in the extremities.
People with heart failure may find that they often feel cold in their arms, hands, feet, and legs (the extremities). This happens because the body is circulating most of the available blood to the brain and other vital organs to compensate for the failing heart's inability to pump enough blood to the entire body.