Putting your finger on the cause of numbness

It's common to lose feeling in your fingers or toes in cold weather, but for some people it is a symptom of a potentially serious disease

When Debbie, now 60, was a university student in her late teens, her fingers started intermittently turning white and numb. Sometimes it just affected the tips; at others times it was her entire fingers. On occasion they even went blue.

During these attacks Debbie couldn’t use her hands. As the feeling returned, her fingers would turn red and she experienced a painful burning sensation. Her toes were similarly affected but she managed to minimise the symptoms by wearing thermal socks.

When she went to see her doctor she was brushed off as a student who didn’t wear enough clothes to keep herself warm. It was only when she was in her thirties that a sympathetic GP finally diagnosed her with Raynaud’s disease. This condition still impacts Debbie’s life. She works in a primary school, so she is often on lunch duty, which means being outside in all weathers. Even on a sunny day a cool breeze can trigger her fingers to go numb. To help prevent an attack she has to keep handwarmers in her pockets, a spare jumper in her locker and bring a flask filled with a hot drink to work.

Triggers and symptoms

While Raynaud’s is a little-known disease, it affects nearly one in seven of the UK population. Often very uncomfortable, an attack is caused by a disruption in how the nervous system controls blood vessels, although no one knows why this happens.

When our bodies are exposed to cold the normal response is for the vessels to become narrower. For someone with Raynaud’s this reaction is heightened. The blood vessels in extremities – usually the hands, feet, fingers or toes – are over-sensitive to cold conditions and, sometimes, emotional stress. This can make everyday tasks, such as buttoning a jacket or unzipping a purse, difficult. In certain cases it can affect the lips, nose, ears and nipples too.

An expert on the disease, Professor Francesco del Galdo of the University of Leeds, explains how an attack usually unfolds. ‘The first symptom is discolouration of the fingers or toes. Usually, they go white or become waxy looking, and stay that way for the duration of the attack. When it’s about to settle down they turn a purple or bluish colour. Finally, when their temperature comes back to normal, they go red – that’s when the person feels pain or pins and needles.’

What is known as primary Raynaud’s – which means you don’t have it alongside another condition – isn’t life-threatening or contagious. It is most common in young women and girls, although it can affect anyone of any age. There is evidence that it may be an inherited condition and, as it constricts blood vessels, smoking could be a factor too.

Links to more serious conditions

Blood vessels overreacting to cold or stress can cause more concerning conditions. This is known as secondary Raynaud’s and affects about 10% of people with the disease.

One of the more serious of these conditions is called scleroderma, which affects about 19,000 people in the UK. Scleroderma is an umbrella term that refers to a variety of rare and complex autoimmune conditions. It usually first reveals itself as a hardening and scarring of the skin, due to an overproduction of collagen.

The symptoms can include itching, hard lumps under the skin, the visibility of tiny blood vessels and patches of thick, hard skin that may become discoloured. Sufferers can develop painful sores on their fingers and toes, which need immediate medical attention to avoid infection.

In more severe casesthe effects can spread to internal organs such as the heart, lungs, kidneys, oesophagus and digestive system. This is what is known as systemic sclerosis. It is a difficult condition to live with, and can cause a complex variety of symptoms that vary from person to person.

Other autoimmune conditions associated with Raynaud’s include rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and carpal tunnel syndrome. It is thought that diseases affecting the arteries – including atherosclerosis, which is a build-up of plaque – and high blood pressure might be linked too.

This feature first appeared in the Feburary 2025 issue of The Lady magazine.
Picture: Adobe Stock