Conference turris::womannotes-v1

    
    Wendy warms her hands in my armpits. 

    I have cold feet in the winter (I often wear socks and nothing else
    to bed), and hot feet in summer (I have to sponge them with ice
    water to get to sleep).  I don't know why, but I suspect I have
    poor blood circulation.  Probably exercise would help increase blood
    flow through my feet, thus maintaining a more even body temperature.
    
    It drives my husband crazy!
    
    Gloria

    
      RE: .0
    
      I hear ya on the cold hands and feet.  My wife's feet would freeze
    at high noon in hades.  I've heard that women have a lower rate
    of metabolism than men, does this mean that their bodies generate
    less heat resulting in colder extremeties?
    

    This note is another bit of unmitigated nonsense. Some women have
    cold hands; some don't. Some men have cold hands; some don't.
    
    It is possible that women, because on average they have a smaller
    body mass than most men do, radiate heat at a faster rate. I won't
    go into the physiology of it, but smaller organisms radiate heat at
    a faster rate than do larger organisms. 
    
    This whole topic strikes me as nonsense, designed to perpetuate 
    sexual myths and stereotypes. There are 45,234 other topics that
    will yield more fruitful discussion, education, and understanding.
                                                        
    PS - My hands are cold.
    
    Bruce

    I remember while working in OB/GYN one of the doctors explaining
    that the pill has a tendancy to lower body heat.  Don't know if
    that is the rule rather than the exception, just a thought though.
    
    Vivian
    

I'm just curious: has anyone ever tried putting cayenne pepper inside
their socks to keep their feet warm in cold weather?  

CQ

    Not pepper, but I did sprinkle nutmeg under my hat so I could have an
    egg noggin.  `Tis the seasoning to be...
    
    -Rob

I admit that in the winter my hands and feet are cold when I get into bed.
But so are Bill's, and he gets colder at night than I do.  In the summer, I
have to stick my feet out from under the blanket to cool off.

Jill

        My wife likes to claim that she's really a cold-blooded reptile,
        but she warms up quite nicely after she's been in bed for a
        while, nevertheless.  And it's not like I haven't heard some
        highly impressive yells when one of my hands or feet happened to
        contact an unprotected portion of her anatomy when I first climb
        into bed... :-)
        
        	/dave 

    In some people, it's a stress reaction. As part of the "fight or
    flight" response, circulation in the extremities gets cut down so as
    to increase blood flow to the vital organs. If your hands are cold
    all the time, it may be that you're tense all the time.
    
    Vascular headaches like migraines can be a side effect of cold hands;
    they're caused by expansion of the blood vessels in the head. Hence,
    the technique for preventing migraines involves learning to voluntarily
    warm your hands (and generally learning to relax). (Didn't this
    just come up in some other note?) 

    That's one explanation. Some people just have cold hands...
    
    					Val

    I used to have cold extremities. Since I've quit smoking, become
    more physically active, and have been meditating, my hands and feet
    have become warmer. I don't think it's sex-linked though. An easy
    solution is (as Val says) to literally think warm thoughts. If you
    concentrate hard on warming your hands (and practice), you'll find
    that you can actually detect the temperature changing.  A help in
    this process is to visually something warm and comfortable.
    
    Liz

    
    	I read once that a way to help a migrane was to do some dishes.
    	By keeping the hands in the hot water, it drew blood away from
    	the head and made you feel better.

Or to rephrase .0 another way:

  Why is it that men complain about their partners' cold hands and feet ???

Don

    I also have cold hands and feet.  I used to have a doctor who liked
    to talk to me about why my body behaves the way it does, and he
    suggested that there is a selective advantage in both behaviors,
    namely of keeping extremities warm and of not keeping them warm.
    - If you keep them warm, you are less likely to get frostbite and
    lose hands and feet.
    - If you concentrate on keeping your internal organs warm at the
    expense of your hands and feet, you may lose your hands and feet
    due to frostbite, but are perhaps more likely to survive cold weather.
    
    I have trouble believing that this is sex-linked.
    
    This doctor had some other great theories too.
    
    Beryl

    All those rumors are not true. I do not have ice water in my veins!
    
    Now that is cleared up, I can relax and get warm.  For me tension
    and drinking coffee are linked to how warm the old extremities are.
    And if you think cold hands and feet are bad, try a very cold nose
    snuggling up to you in the middle of the night.
    
    Re .8:  The pepper does seem to work.  But becareful not to use
    too much or your feet will sweat and be colder than before.
    
    maureen
    

    My comments (.7) were out of order. I apologize to anyone who was
    left cold by my scorching criticism of this topic. This note certainly
    appears to be of interest. 
               
    I'm sorry I tried to throw cold water on the subject. Perhaps I
    should have my fanny warmed.
    
    Bruce

Re .-1

Please, somebody plant a cold toe on his fanny!

    re .20
    Bob, I think you mean the hypothalamus which is part of the brain
    stem.
    
    Bonnie

    Cold feet and hands, eh?  Try warming them up in warm water. Yes,
    I know, better to run your hands under cool water so as to avoid
    shock.  Hey, but who has time to sit by the sink.  Grab a book,
    your favorite chair and plant your feet in some soothing, warm water
    (Epsom Salts do wonders).  It worked for me. 
    
    Now, all I do is put on my fuzzy Dearfoam slippers.  For hands,
    pardon the expression, "sit on 'em".
    
    Cat

For what it's worth - Not _quite_ so "flip" an entry.

My wife has a medical problem related to (don't know if "causes" or
"caused by" coldness), called Reye's syndrome.

Because of her rather delicate extremeties (thin fingers, etc.), it
Seems like her circulation there is poor.  This leads to oxygen starvation
of the small muscles in the fingers and toes. The small muscles go into
spasms, which further constrict the cappilaries, which further
starve the muscles, which .... Well, you get the picture.  When this
happens, it can take hours for her to warm her hands or feet.

This can lead to the appearance (and actual occurance of) frostbite
at temperatures which you would never expect....

I'm told by an internist friend that this is more common than generally
thought.  It occurs more in women than in men, just due to typical
physique, but is certainly not limited to women.

/don feinberg

{RE .0} - I don't think there's any correlation with gender.  In my case, having
 cold hands and feet varies directly with whether or not I wear a hat to bed.

{RE .15} - One might infer from this that you think that men's partners are
 always women. :-)
  <_Jym_>

    I always have cold feet and warm (read "clammy") hands.  Go figure.

	Women tend to have a slightly thicker layer of body fat for
the same size frame/overall weight than men...extra fuel storage for
the Ice Age childbearer or whatever...fat being a thermal insulator
this 1) keeps the internal organs better protected thermally but 2)
isolates the skin and its embedded nerve endings from the heat source
deeper within the body.
	Thus there is a tendency to "feel" colder at the same temp...
and also to suffer skin-deep frostbite more quickly...but in fact its
better protection against very serious hypothermia.