Saturday, August 14, 2010

Chilblains

Chilblains or pernio are interesting when it comes to the textbooks. You hardly see chilblains mentioned. They are really common in the colder climates. I can only assume that the editors of a lot of the text books do not live in climates where chilblains are common?

The biggest misconception I see about chilblains is that they are caused by the cold. They are not really caused by cold, but are caused by the too rapid warming of the foot after they get cold and circulation has not responded adequately to that warming. They are also not caused by poor circulation, they are caused by how the cold responds to the changes in temperature, so the volume of the circulation is not an issue.

Why are chilblains more common in females? - it is either a footwear thing and that causes pressure on the toes that causes changes to the circulatory response; or it’s a hormone thing as a lot of the female hormones do affect the circulatory responses.

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