Why are my fingers a different color?
Cold hands and feet are very common, especially during wintertime. This clinical phenomenon can be a nuisance and interfere with the quality of daily life. Sometimes cold hands and feet can also accompany other symptoms like a change of colors or pain in the fingers or toes. These particular clinical symptoms are related to a clinical term called Raynaud’s phenomenon.
Raynaud’s phenomenon is caused by an exaggerated vascular response to cold or sometimes emotional stress. These responses usually lead to a sudden constriction of the vessel, a spasm in the smooth muscle of the vessel wall, and the blood flow is reduced to a great extent, therefore, causing abnormal thermoregulation and pain locally.
There are two types of Raynaud’s phenomenon, primary and secondary:
Primary RP: This condition is more prevalent than secondary, but usually, the patient has no underlying medical condition associated with it.
Secondary PR: We can see the associated medical causes include autoimmune, neurological , hormonal, and tissue injury.
It’s worth noting that RP can be associated with endothelial dysfunction, inflammation, and abnormal platelet activity.
In my clinical practice, I see a lot of patients with RP without good promising treatment options. I want to provide some helpful knowledge for those who suffer from RP with a holistic perspective combining both TCM and functional medicine.
Although in primary RP, we usually don’t find a specific medical cause, we can still address it with nutrition and lifestyle modification. When we talk about epithelial dysfunction, inflammation, and platelet dysfunction, we are talking about dysregulation in the vascular system. This is often caused by underlying chronic low-grade inflammation that might be caused by nutritional deficiency, poor lifestyle, or lack of movement to ensure a healthy blood flow or functional vascular function.
In secondary RP, we definitely need to address the underlying pathophysiology, such as autoimmune, hormonal or neurological origins, to address RP. But if we look closely, these medical conditions are also associated with unaddressed inflammation that lead to dysfunction of the vascular system.
When we talk about functional medicine strategy in treating RP, we can’t overlook the overpicture of inflammation and the repair of multiple systems. Lifestyle is usually my first step in addressing any inflammation or chronic dysfunction. We can’t ignore the importance of how stress leads to overactive sympathetic activity. When the sympathetic nervous system is on overdrive, it dysregulates our blood flow and body’s thermoregulating function.
Of course, after we address our stress and lifestyle, we can also take a look at nutritional imbalance. In functional medicine, nutrition over pharmaceuticals is also the number one choice. The conventional pharmaceutical approach is calcium channel blockers that help with vessel dilation. However this pharmaceutical approach doesn’t address the underlying inflammation. Addressing the nutritional imbalance is a more holistic approach in RP.
We can look at this issue within different systems:
Cardiovascular system: Improving the circulation by increasing movement can be a good solution. We can also focus on improving the elasticity of the vessel and reducing inflammation in the cardiovascular system. Omega-3 and magnesium are the supplements of choice.
Hormonal system: Thyroid health has a great impact on circulation, metabolism and health of the blood vessel. The trace mineral of selenium and iodine can help with the thyroid function.
Nervous system: When the nerves that control blood flow to the extremities are damaged, it can lead to cold hands and feet. This can be due to a variety of factors, including diabetes, alcoholism, and certain medications. In functional medicine, practitioners will address the underlying cause of nerve damage and may suggest supplements that support nerve health, such as alpha-lipoic acid, vitamin B , omega 3, or phosphatidylserine.
Besides addressing RP with stress management, lifestyle modification and nutritional supplement, I always recommend acupuncture as part of the care management. There are several studies on acupuncture’s proven effectiveness for RP. This meta analysis suggests acupuncture can increase remission incidence, decreasing daily number of attacks and increasing incidences of positive cold stimulation tests.
