10 Ways To Help Cold Hands

Persistent cold hands can be frustrating, but there are ways to fight it:

1) Keep Your Neck And Wrists Covered: Primary blood vessels come close to the surface of the skin in the neck and wrists. If you keep these areas protected from the air, less heat will escape.

2) Things To Avoid: Tight clothing, smoking, drafts and margarine. Tight clothing restricts the blood flow into the extremities. Smoking, of course is known to clog arteries. Drafts affect people sensitive to cold much worse than others. Margarine, contrary to popular belief, cannot be absorbed or digested easily into the body. As a result it tends to leave a residue in the arteries which can cause arteriosclerosis, resulting in poor circulation.

3) Exercise/Physical Therapy: Three exercise movements are helpful for cold hands. (A) While you are standing, rotate the shoulders forward, up and back in a circular motion for about 30 seconds. (B) Rotate the wrists in both directions for a total of 30 seconds. (C) Make a fist without digging the nails into your palm.

4) Supplement Your Diet: Consider adding: Ginger, fennel, cayenne, potassium, niacin, iron, vitamin b, vitamin c, vitamin e, lecithin, ginkgo biloba, apple cider vinegar, distilled water or lemon juice in hot distilled water.

5) Remove Fear: The most extreme fear response is called the "fight or flight syndrome." this is when our adrenal glands produce adrenaline and our physical reactions change. These physical symptoms include cold hands. There are many methods of reducing fear, including psychotherapy, hypnosis, affirmations or plain old willpower.

6) Breathe Deeper: People with cold hands tend to breathe shallow. Be aware of your breath and occasionally practice deep breathing. The more oxygen you receive, the warmer you will be.

7) Practice affirmations: Affirmations are a way to actually reprogram your subconscious mind.Actually saying "I have warm hands" to yourself can have a profound effect.

8) Reduce Stress: Many people have a healthy stress response. After the stressful event, they move on. But most of us tend to develop cumulative stress that builds and builds. With stress reduction techniques, the blood vessels can dilate back to their correct size.

9) See A Chiropractor: Even if you don't have back pain, your spine may be out of alignment, which can affect the proper functioning of your liver and other internal organs, because the spinal cord provides the neural nourishment to each organ. Your liver, among other things, is kind of like the "heat producer" for the body.

10) Do The Basics: You should do what it takes to keep your hands warm. This could include the obvious gloves and mittens to the less obvious warming creams, glove warmers and other devices.