Why are women's hands and feet easily cold?

The regulation of skin microcirculation, estrogen, body fat, Raynaud's syndrome and peripheral arterial diseases are all related to women's cold hands and feet, but they have nothing to do with anemia and have nothing to do with "cold constitution". Supplementing blood and iron or warming food and increasing exercise are not as simple and effective as thickening clothes (including gloves) or holding warm water bags. Although both men and women, as long as the temperature in the environment drops and the body temperature is emitted through the skin, they will feel cold, and their hands and feet will be cold first. However, women's cold hands and feet are always more common, frequent and severe than men's. Why women's hands and feet are easy to get cold? The skin temperature is related to the heat dissipation of microcirculation.

Under normal circumstances, people's skin will try to maintain a comfortable temperature, which is attributed to the "microcirculation" composed of countless capillaries in the skin, which continuously "pumps" blood from the depths of the body to warm the skin. In fact, the greater function of skin microcirculation is to radiate the heat in the deep (core) of the body, and to avoid the internal organs (such as "reaction furnace") from overheating due to metabolic heat production (the internal organs or muscles will not be able to maintain metabolism normally if the temperature is too high).

However, when the outside temperature drops and the "temperature sensor" on the skin senses the cold, in order to avoid the internal organs from getting cold (the internal organs can't maintain normal metabolism even if the temperature is too low), the skin microcirculation (capillaries) immediately contracts and restricts the flow to reduce the heat dissipation, that is, the blood flowing to the superficial skin decreases and the blood flowing to the deep part increases. Therefore, the increase/decrease of skin microcirculation blood flow determines the high/low skin temperature, and then regulates the body heat dissipation. This kind of regulation ability is very strong, because the blood flow of skin microcirculation varies widely, from .2 L/min (extremely cold) to 2~3 L/min (extremely hot), with a difference of 1 times. The effect of estrogen < P > One reason why women's hands and feet are more likely to get cold is that the above-mentioned regulation mechanism is more intense in women. In the same cold, women's vasoconstriction occurs more rapidly and strongly than men's, and it takes more time to recover. A study published in The TheLancet in 1998 (with 219 subjects) confirmed this point: Although the average body temperature of women is .4 degrees Fahrenheit higher than that of men, their hand temperature is 2.8 degrees Fahrenheit lower (note that it is not Celsius). The difference between men and women in this respect can be attributed to estrogen, which is involved in regulating peripheral blood vessels (including skin microcirculation). Estrogen makes women more sensitive to temperature, and the more estrogen, the more sensitive they are, so women's body temperature will change with the physiological cycle (estrogen level fluctuation). The influence of body fat

Another reason why women's hands and feet are more likely to get cold is that women have more body fat than men (on average). The more subcutaneous fat there is, the more difficult it is for the heat in the deep part of the body to reach the skin. "Yes, in addition to heat dissipation through blood flow, the heat generated by internal organs or mechanism metabolism can also be directly conducted through the body." Therefore, the skin temperature of fat people is often lower.

Raynaud's syndrome

Too cold hands and feet is sometimes a pathological condition-"Raynaud's syndrome". As long as it is cold, hands and feet will become extremely cold and even blue (suggesting lack of oxygen), and sometimes even just opening the freezer to get something will cause illness. This shows that the patient's skin microcirculation system is extremely sensitive and the regulatory response is too exaggerated. When the ambient temperature rises and the blood returns, the patient's hand may become red, swollen and painful, as if he had experienced a frostbite. "In fact, we can all experience this feeling. Put your hand in ice water at about ℃ for a few minutes to cool it thoroughly, and then take it out and wait for numbness, itching, swelling and pain." The prevalence rate of this disease in women is five times that of men, but the cause is unknown. Some of them are related to autoimmune diseases, while others are induced by smoking (nicotine inhibits blood circulation) and emotion (adrenaline turns skin blood to muscles). This disease is common in young women, and affects one in ten women (British data), so if you are a girl with cold hands and feet easily, it may be extremely mild Raynaud's syndrome. Peripheral Arterial Disease

Another disease, peripheral arterial disease, can also cause cold hands and feet, which is common in the elderly, drug addicts and people with diabetes or other chronic diseases. In this patient, the lipid is deposited in the inner wall of the vein or artery of the leg, so that the blood flow is blocked and the circulation is not smooth, and the heat cannot be reached. Blood-enriching and iron-supplementing foods are ineffective

Anemia, although many people think it is, is not actually the cause of cold hands and feet of women, or at least it is not a common cause. "Anemia is mostly caused by blood becoming" alkene ",rather than less blood volume, which will seriously affect oxygen transport, but has little effect on skin microcirculation heat dissipation." Therefore, it is recommended to eat more foods that supplement iron and blood, such as red meat (people don't know why mutton is especially respected), ginger, red dates, animal blood, glutinous rice wine, cherries, etc., which are not reliable. Of course, a full meal (especially hot food or scalding food) can make you temporarily warm up "food thermal effect+food physical heat", but it is only temporary, even if you often eat enough to get fat, you can't completely correct the problem of cold hands and feet, because it has little to do with obesity. The effect of exercise is short-lived

Moderate exercise is a method recommended by experts to solve the problem of cold hands and feet, because exercise generates heat, and accelerated blood circulation can make more blood flow to the skin and muscles, and make hands and feet turn from cold to hot. However, this effect is also not lasting, and it is likely that the hands and feet will continue to be cold soon after the exercise stops. But after all, moderate exercise has many advantages, so it is always right to recommend moderate exercise.