Hi recently one hand has been getting ice cold and goes a different colour usually when im holding a book or something. Any one else felt this i have had this feeling in my foot too.
Hi,
MS can cause numbness or loss of sensation, which is easily mistaken for the affected part being cold, because it feels so similar to being “numb with cold”. However, it’s usually just an illusion, and the part isn’t really cold (e.g. if felt by someone else it feels normal temperature), and doesn’t change colour.
Colour change sounds more like a circulatory thing, which isn’t usually part of MS - unless the person has severely reduced mobility, which could make it hard for them to get good circulation going.
Tina
Possibly Raynaud’s? But could be a straightforward circulation thing.
Karen x
Maybe when reading you are leaning or positioned in such a way that restricts blood flow in one hand. I would ask someone else to check your hands to see if they really are at different temperatures. The question of whether a real temperature difference could be a consequence of MS I guess depends on whether the widening and narrowing of capillaries in the hand could be under nervous control (it is probably more correct to assume that it is the arteriole supplying them that is being controlled, since the controlled widening or narrowing of the arteriole would affect the pressure and volume of blood and the amount of stretch in the capillaries). It is clear that the arteriole can be controlled by hormones and medications circulating in the blood, but there is also nervous control and other factors according to this quote from Wikipedia:
‘Arterioles receive autonomic nervous system innervation and respond to various circulating hormones in order to regulate their diameter. Further local responses to stretch, carbon dioxide, pH, and oxygen also influence tone’
Therefore, I presume it is possible that MS lesions could affect blood flow like this, but whether it actually happens I would not know.
Hi thanks for comments I have asked others to feel my hand and they say its the same temp as other. Also they say that they are the same colour and it s my imagination. I can accept that as they feel so very different to eachother I perhaps think they look different to help explain it to myself ( if thats makes sense)
Hi Cam63,
I have MS and have always suffered from poor circulation in my hands and feet. Has got so bad it’s now Reynaulds syndrome and
also get chilblains on my hands and feet however much I wrap myself up.
Like you I get different temperatures in different hands (check by putting them on my face) and sometimes even different temps between fingers! 2 hot, 2 cold.
Went to Dr and she put me on nifedipine which helps in the winter.
Acohol also dilates blood vessels but should always be taken in moderation!
Yours might be due to keeping your hands in the same position while reading.
Keep warm,
Jen
Yep see http://www.emunix.emich.edu/~bogle/chapter_8.htm, seems blood pressure and blood flow, including localised blood pressure depends on the integration of various control systems which include the autonomic nervous system. The vasomotor center is involved in regulating blood vessel diameter. Nerve impulses transmitted over sympathetic motor neurons called vasomotor nerves innervate smooth muscles in arterioles throughout the body to maintain vasomotor tone, a steady state of vasoconstriction appropriate to the region
‘Thus arterial vasoconstriction is a result of increased sympathetic stimulation from the central nervous system. Inhibition of the sympathetic signal occurs in the brain and spinal cord. Arterial dilation is a passive event when considering the extrinsic control of the central nervous system’.
‘. . . Sympathetic nerve activation causes vasoconstriction in all vascular beds. Norepinephrine (NE) is released from the sympathetic nerve endings acting on the smooth muscle receptors in the arterial system (especially arterioles and the capacitance vessels).’