My first winter in 40 years without chilblains?

Skin, nail and hair health
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It looks as tho I might have found the solution, touch wood.  No chilblain problems yet and we've had some very cold weather (for this region in NSW) for over a month.  It may be too soon to be sure though, we still have another month or so of winter to come, but it's looking very promising. 

The measures I've stuck with every day so far have been:

1. the ginkgo tea - if I had to guess what's made the difference this winter, this would be it,

2. wearing warm clothes all the time, including gloves, beanies, ugg boots, three pairs of socks including those silver metallic-thread arthritis socks,

3. bone broth - 2 or 3 cups each day, with vitamin C powder,

4. whenever my hands feel cold I have a few teaspoons of a mixture of spices I heat up in coconut oil:  turmeric, cayenne pepper, hot curry powder, cumin.  These  all supposedly have anti-inflammatory effects, including the coconut oil.

As well I cut out sugar and white flour from my diet - too pro-inflammatory.

Note:  I stopped taking the calcium & vit D supplement when I started having the bone broth –  thought it might be too much calcium.

Other strategies: I keep a crock-pot of soup simmering and have cups throughout the day to warm up.  That and going for short runs every hour or so, and the hot water bottle – all help to prevent fingers and toes going numb.

I've also given up riding the pushbike at night and have taken up jogging instead, followed by some weights, until winter's over – it was impossible keeping my toes from going numb on the bike.

Hope this info is of help to someone.

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Hi

Thank you so much. I collect all good advises for my son who is now 8 years old. His toes has started to itch again a little sometimes. So now we start with the Calcium/vit. D, and hoping that it will help like it did last winter.

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Re Dr Sarah Jarvis' video on chilblains:  I got chilblains once in 1972, for all the right reasons, getting really cold while riding my Matchless 650 twin over the Toowoomba range, then holding my hands and feet up close to the engine block to restore feeling in them.  A classic case of with-bells-on cause and serves-you-right effect.

But then, every year after that, without fail, except for one year, 1988 or thereabouts, they'd come back, even though I never rode over the Toowoomba range in mid-winter ever again.  In fact I took care each winter to stay as warm as I could, a  lot warmer than I'd previously bothered doing before the winter of '72.

Each year the pain and discomfort, and the extent of the inflammation, got worse.  By the late 70s they were often unbearable, to the point where some days I'd have to go home from work mid-morning and lie in bed under the doonah.

My GP, Dr Joe, every winter would study the latest medical hoohaa, trying to come up with an explanation of what was going on and an effective treatment.  He came to the conclusion that it was some sort of auto-immune condition, a little bit like Reynauds, but blood tests failed to show the usual markers.  Then recently he read about a mystery chemical that scientists thought the body produced in response to cold, perhaps involved in vaso-constriction of the extremities.  He'd known that I'd had a tetanus vaccination three days before the Matchless/Toowoomba-range incident - that information came up during one of our many exhaustive consultations - and he hypothesised that perhaps my tet-vac-upregulated immune system had developed an allergic response to the mystery VC-chemical when it appeared in my blood  that fateful day on the mountain range, and every winter after, when I got cold - not very cold, not cold enough for plasma to get forced into my interstitial tissues as Dr Sarah described, but cold enough to produce the mystery chemical, which had become my very own mystery allergen, back would come the chilblains - the inflammatory response to the allergen. 

I’ve no way of knowing if Dr Joe’s hypothesis is correct, he retired earlier this year by the way, at the end of autumn as it happens, but it’s the only one I’ve heard so far that explains all the evidence.  It’s unfortunate that it might be seen as adding to what seems to be a growing disenchantment with vaccination, but seeing as how it is specifically engineered for jacking up one’s immune responses, way beyond what Nature intended, I guess this might be one case where the vaccination program has to take it on the chin.

Incidentally, if any other chronic chilblain-sufferers has a suspected vaccination connection, please tell us about it.  There might be a Nobel in it for one of us.  Perhaps Dr Joe, God-bless him.

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Hi. That was interesting. I will try to find out on Monday if my son got a vaccination around that time. Hmmm I saw a spesialist who diagnosed my son with chilblains. He said that you do not get chilblains in the first place from cold feet. They do not know why some people get it.  

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My father had chilblains in WW2 when he was serving in the desert in Egypt.  He came in from guard duty one cold night and warmed his feet in front of the stove and next day he had chilblains on the tops of his toes ("tops" as in when he was standing, as distinct from the front of them).  They were quite severe from his description, but he didn't seem to get them again, having learnt not to do that in future.

Maybe what your specialist meant was we get them from our BODIES being exposed to cold, rather than just our feet.  It's when our body temperature falls that circulation to our feet and fingers tends to be strangled, as a way of conserving body-heat.  This seems to be more pronounced in some people, like me and my dad for example, to the point where we are more likely (than other people) to get chilblains if we try to warm our extremities directly, instead of taking the wiser course of warming our whole bodies without letting our toes or fingers getting warm first.  

Some people do exercise and then sit in a sauna to warm up safely, making sure not to let their toes or fingers touch the hot timber.  I've used that to get relief from my chilblains at times.  It feels good - like the inflammatory chemicals are being flushed away by the increased circulation.  It's such a relief when the chilblains stop, almost a euphoric feeling.

In your son's case, if there's no sauna nearby, he could sit in a comfortably warm-to-hot bath, making sure not to get his feet or hands in the water at first, then add boiling water from a kettle a bit at a time to gradually make the water hotter.

He could do this before the chilblains start, as a way of warming his fingers and toes indirectly.  Or he could also do it when he's got the chilblains, as a way of alleviating the discomfort and switching off the inflammation.

If necessary he could do some star-jumps and burpees, maybe some pushups, before getting in the water, to add to the circulation-promoting effect.

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Thank you. It is not easy to figure out my sons chilblains. He goes often with bear feet and do not want to put on socks. He says it get worse then. He have it all around the year really. But I wonder if it is worse when his feet is sticky. He can have clammy feet sometimes.

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Are you sure it's only chilblains?  Maybe he also has a fungal infection - athlete's foot (aka tinea) perhaps.  I often get that in winter, from wearing shoes and socks all the time to keep my feet warm.  It's easily treated, just put a few drops of calendula (Calendula Officinalis) tincture between the toes and rub it around.  I do that every morning and evening, and put on clean socks each day after a shower.

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Hi. Thank you for sugestions. I am sad to say that he has not fungus. Its more like clammy feet like smalll children has, you know. I guess he can feel what helps and what makes it worse  when he  gets older. 

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Hi, I've had horrible chilblains for the last year and a half and it started after I got a tetanus booster (combined with farm work where I was frozen in the mornings, with temperatures below zero, and sweltering as soon as the sun came up, sending temperatures immediately to the seventies or eighties everyday). I'm intrigued by your doctor's vaccine hypothesis, but also distressed that there's not much to do for it besides walk around like I'm on a polar expedition. I'll try your tea -- thank you for the suggestion.

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This winter I've been applying Rosemary and Peppermint essential oils - 100%, not diluted - to my toes and fingers 3 or 4 times a day, as well as wearing two pairs of socks, ugg boots, and gloves and having warming foods and drinks.  

The oils were a tip from another blogger and they've been working very well for me.  I have had a couple of small outbreaks but applying the oils to the inflamed area also works to alleviate the pain, as well as being a preventative.

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Hey gryl, see my post to d87005 about the essential oils.  They seem to be quite effective.  Apply rosemary and peppermint essential oils 3 or 4 times a day and when chilblains occur.

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Thank you for your tip

I will try it on to my son, now 9  years old.

He is trying homeopathic medicine now.

Did somebody try that?

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No, let me know if it works gryl.