Why Your Feet Are Always Cold
Frigid feet: minor annoyance, or major health problem? (Photo: Stocksy/Michela Ravasio)
Everyone’s feet feel cold now and then. But there are cold feet … and then there are the kind of cold feet that wake innocent bed partners up from slumber, making them wonder: How did you manage to fit in a liquid nitrogen pedicure before bedtime? And more importantly, why must you rub your Ice Man toes all over me?! (Answer: Your feet are warm. Mine are not.)
Chilly tootsies could simply mean that your office A/C is cranked up too high, or that you live in Minnesota. But frozen feet can also signal a host of other health conditions, ranging from poor circulation to serious nerve disorders.
Don’t worry — even if your feet feel cold almost all of the time, the sensation is often harmless. “Some people just have a natural cold intolerance,” says Kenneth J. Steier, DO, MBA, MPH, the dean of clinical education and a professor of medicine at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in Middletown, NY. If you’re the type of person who hates cold weather and is chilly indoors when others aren’t, then the solution to having cold feet is quite simple: Wear wool socks and house slippers. It sounds like a no-brainer, but “you’d be amazed at how many people complain of cold feet but walk around barefoot,” Steier tells Yahoo Health.
Some reasons for cold feet, however, aren’t so obvious — and are much more concerning. Here are five health-related conditions that could be turning your feet to ice.
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1. You sweat a lot.
The skin on the bottom of your foot has five times as many sweat glands as the skin on top of your foot, says Jeffrey A. Oster, DPM, CEO of myfootshop.com. When you trap those sweat glands in a shoe, you’re bound to sweat. “Water, being a fantastic conductor of heat, will sap the heat from the foot,” Oster tells Yahoo Health. Anxiety, hyperthyroidism, and other medical conditions can trigger excessive sweating, Oster adds.
Related: What Causes Sleep Sweating?
2. You have poor circulation.
Blood is warm, and it helps maintain your core body temperature. If the flow of blood throughout your body is decreased, your body won’t feel as warm (especially in your extremities), your tissues won’t receive as much oxygen, and “everything kind of shuts down,” Steier says.
Smoking, diabetes, atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), and peripheral artery disease are all linked to poor circulation.
3. Your muscles are super-tight.
Certified personal trainer Adria Ali noticed this one by accident, she says. “While working with clients over the years, it seemed that many of them struggled with circulation due to overly tight muscles,” Ali tells Yahoo Health. Foam rolling and stretching, focusing on the thighs, calves, and butt muscles, has helped her clients’ circulation — and cold feet — improve.
4. You have nerve damage.
Peripheral neuropathy is a type of nerve damage that’s especially common in people with diabetes. In addition to cold feet, you might also notice a loss of sensation, tingling, or numbness in your toes or hands. If you have these symptoms, you may need to have a blood sugar test to check for diabetes, Steier says.
5. You smoke or abuse alcohol.
Alcohol causes vasodilation, or the opening up of blood vessels. (That’s why your face gets flushed when you drink.) As larger blood vessels get bigger, blood is shunted away from the feet, Steier explains.
As for smoking, “there are probably 25 to 30 reasons that smoking itself can cause cold feet,” Steier says. Smoking shrinks blood vessels so that less blood flows through the body, for one. It also makes the platelets in your blood more sticky, so they stick to each other and cause blockages. Smoking-related lung damage also can reduce the amount of oxygen in the bloodstream.
“Do all cold feet need to be treated? No, but in many instances, the symptoms of cold feet can be key in making a medical diagnosis,” Oster says. Talk with your doctor if you have symptoms such as chest pain, loss of sensation, or shortness of breath, Steier urges, since they can indicate more serious medical conditions that contribute to cold feet.
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