chilblains in feet - anyone know what helps besides quitting smoking?

Question

I have poor circulation in my feet and since I suffer with bone spurs in my knee walking is not an option for exercise. My toes are numb and the poor circulation is damaging the nerves

Answer 1

You need to ask a doctor this question. Sounds serious. Quitting smoking would definitely be helpful. Swimming is a good exercise that doesn't involve your knees and will help overall circulation. Rubbing your feet or having someone rub them for you is helpful. But everyone needs some form of exercise so you need some expert advice to find something that you can safely do.

You could ask your doctor about the effectiveness and safety for you of hydrotherapy on your feet. That is putting your feet in ice cold water for a few seconds and then putting them in hot water and then repeating several times. This is very effective for increasing circulation (most used when someone gets a sprain or something and the increased circulation allows for speedier healing).

Answer 2

Avoid Cold Medicine such as Sudafed. This will make your circulation in your extremities worse. Also, make sure your iron levels are always good. This is important. Also, would go to your doctor and ask for a prescription for a high blood pressure medicine(whether you have it or not) Tell him or her your problem. Tell him you what either a an Ace Inhibitor or a Calcium channel blocker. Both will relax your blood vessels and increase your circulation. The calcium channel blocker will work better on your feet, but it will make you feel flushed more. So you might want to try the Ace Inhibitor first.

Also, you might want to try taking a baby aspirin a day and see if that helps. It make the blood less sticky. One more thing you can try and that is to try asking for tranquilizers like Ativan. It relaxing you AND your blood vessels, and might help your feet.

Answer 3

Its not just the nicotine. Its also the other 50+ chemicals they out in cigarettes. Also the main problem is habit. We have been used to having body sensations which we translate as 'my body needs something, which we have attempted to satisfy by having a cigarette. When we try to stop smoking, we still get these 'my body needs something' sensations, and we still feel that we want a cigarette. We have to train our body to be more selective. When we feel we need something, we have to work out what it is that we actually need. A glass of water is an excellent substitute if nothing else comes to mind, as it helps with the clearance of the toxic substances in our body. Another good substitute is a bag of salted peanuts, used in combination with the water. Another thing to do is to find an activity which occupies the mind or body. Go swimming - nobody wants to smoke while they are swimming. Slowly, as our body adjusts and translates the 'want something' feelings into something other than cigarettes, then the feelings begin to go away. We know its not a cigarette that the body really needs, because as soon as we've had one we still have the feeling, and want another!

Answer 4

I have not seen chilblains for well over fifty years but back home in Ireland just after the war, I was one of a large family. Most of the children suffered from them although I never did. The cure was, and wait for it, urine. So help me God, the cure was to put your chilblained feet into the potty...................

Answer 5

Exercise, weight loss, sauna baths, hot showers, bicycling, running in place, jumping rope, high impact aerobics...

You need to visit a clinic that specializes in assigning exercise routines to people who have medical conditions that interfere with doing normal exercises. Getting the muscles moving is what moves the blood floor in the lower extremities, so getting them to move around as much as possible is what will help.

I suffer from something similar which is exaggerated because I sit in a chair all day long. I just try to do what I can the best I can...