If you have Raynaud’s disease, your hands overreact to cold, and your feet may, too. Stepping outdoors on a wintry day, you feel as if all your fingers or toes go numb instantly. Odder still, the numbness can assault your fingers even if you’re just rummaging around in the freezer for a package of frozen carrots. When you look at your numb toes or fingers, they appear dead white, as if all the blood had left them. Even after you’ve rescued your hands or feet from the arctic temperatures and tried to warm them up, the numbness can linger. It’s thought that people who have Raynaud’s disease have something slightly awry in the way their nervous systems function. The nerves that are connected with the muscles that control blood flow somehow screw up their messages.
The sympathetic nervous system is responsible for expanding or shrinking blood vessels in response to temperature. Normally, if your body gets cold, the blood vessels that lead to your arms and legs will open up, allowing warm blood to flow to fingers and toes. In Raynaud’s disease, blood vessels get the wrong message and constrict instead, sending already cold fingers to the deep freeze.
Women seem to have Raynaud’s more then men do. Often, someone with Raynaud’s has other problems as well that seem to be associated with the disease, such as migraines, carpal tunnel syndrome, or mitral valve prolapse, a condition that occurs when one part of a heart valve malfunctions.
Raynaud’s can also be associated with lupus, a disease related to a defective immune system, or scleroderma, a problem of abnormally thickening skin. All of this suggests to scientists that there may be a genetic link between some of these other conditions and Raynaud’s.
While Raynaud’s is usually not much more than an annoying problem, some of the related conditions mentioned above are serious. If you think that you may have Raynaud’s, you should see your doctor to get a proper diagnosis.
Doctors subscribe to a number of procedures. If you learn relaxation techniques and biofeedback, you might teach your body to send more blood to your fingers and toes even when your jumpy nervous system is telling the blood vessels to slam shut.
Some doctors recommend warm-water exercises. If you periodically submerge your hands in a tub of warm water while standing in a cold room, you can retrain your body to warm up rather than cool down when it’s exposed to a cool environment. Your doctor can give you more information about the conditioning procedures that sometimes prove effective.
Whether or not you try a conditioning regimen, there are some supplements that may help. The ones that are most likely to be beneficial are those that relax and open blood vessels. Here are some natural ways to support proper circulation.
Try Magnesium for Relaxed Blood Flow
The mineral magnesium is known for relaxing smooth muscle, the kind that lines the insides of blood vessels. "Magnesium can counter the inappropriate activation of the sympathetic nervous system," says Jay Lombard, M.D., assistant clinical professor of neurology at Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York City and co-author of The Brain Wellness Plan. Instead of shutting down, the blood vessels may be encouraged to open up when they’re under the influence of magnesium.
Take 1,000 milligrams of magnesium a day, Dr. Lombard recommends. One form that he suggests is magnesium gluconate, which won’t give you the diarrhea that may be caused by other forms. Avoid magnesium oxide or magnesium chloride, he advises.
Turn Up the Heat with Niacin
Niacin is a supplement with side effects. The most noticeable one is what’s referred to as flushing, a sensation of heat and tingling that comes from high doses of the pure form of the nutrient. It’s just this side effect that can be helpful in Raynaud’s disease, says Ross Hauser, M.D., director of Caring Medical and Rehabilitation Services at Beulahland Natural Medicine Clinic in Thebes, Illinois.
Doses many times higher than the Daily Value of niacin make the capillaries dilate. That’s what causes the famous side effect, says Dr. Hauser. While the feeling can be uncomfortable or even frightening if it happens unexpectedly, a controlled niacin flush can help bring warmth to frigid digits, he notes.
Niacin has two chemical structures, but only one, nicotinic acid, causes flushing. Nicotinamide or niacinamide, the form of niacin usually found in multivitamins, won’t cause the desired effect, says Dr. Hauser. To see if niacin helps, you’ll need to find pure niacin or nicotinic acid. Check labels to be sure.
Before taking supplements, you should check with your doctor. With your doctor’s consent, you can start with 100 milligrams of nicotinic acid a day, suggests Dr. Hauser, although he sometimes recommends higher and more frequent doses to some patients. He recommends that you see your doctor for re-evaluation after two months of this treatment.
