Cold weather
 

This may sound like a crazy question but someone just asked me and I didn't have an answer.

I've been suffering with full body neuropathy for 8 years now. It is always so much worse in the cold. I know when it is raining or snowing it has to do with the barometric pressure. Someone just asked why it is worse even if I'm in the heated house.
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Does anyone know the answer to this question??

good question...i dont know. its just the opposite for me. i am worse in the hot weather, my feet swell even more, more pain. If i am out in the cold and my hands get cold they hurt very badly, but just being exposed to the cold in general if i keep my hands warm, doesnt affect me like the heat does. I have large fiber PN though not small fiber like you.

Echo so I long for the summer and you long for the winter. Wish we could both feel well in all seasons!

I can relate. I have full-body small fiber neuropathy - the bane of my existence. I also live in Minnesota and we have HUMID hot summers and horrible cold, dry winters. I've only had neuropathy for a year so I can say I've experienced every season now. Winter and summer are bad. Spring and fall was fine. This morning it was -25 and I felt like every square inch of my body was being attacked by fire ants. My raynaud's is also out of control. I don't know why it also happens inside, but I can tell you that weather extremes of humid hotness or dry coldness do make my neuropathy 1,000% worse.

Fire ants is good description. I always say a million bees stinging me all at once. I live in PA. It doesn't get as cold here as it does where you are. I keep saying I need to live somewhere warm but I would never leave my kids behind.
Its crazy how it's gets cold and my pain level gets a lot higher!

I can attest to having the temp go from a low of 6 to a high of 59 back to a low of 15 from Friday to today makes me miserable.

And people ask me why I want to move :)

I also have small fiber full body. I'm in lower NY so we get 4 good seasons here. I have found I feel somewhat better in the summers, but it may be more psychological.

During the summer, I'm out and about trying to keep active and have more frequent periods when my symptoms are not front and center in my mind.
In the winter while often homebound a good deal of the time, I have much more time to notice my disturbing symptoms. I think that can exacerbate them.

I also have become much more sensitive to extreme temperatures, but specially the cold. My hands become painful very quickly when it's cold out. And my skin has gotten so dry in the last year it looks like I aged 20 years in the last 12 months. So living in a dry heated house in the winter is the worse for me. I definitely prefer any season over winter.

I have really dry skin now also protector. I never connected it to my neuropathy, interesting thought.

My mind says if you are under a blanket on your sofa out of the cold my neuropathy pain should decrease but it does not. I have been in terrible pain lately. I get IVIG once a month and for the first time I'm not sure even that gave me any relief this time.

I do agree with you that not only is my pain level increased but I have more time to focus on it then I do in the warm weather. Like you, I spend days at a time in the house when it is cold out.

Think of the pull of the ocean tide from the moon. The barometric pressure is a whole lot bigger than a heated house. Huge factor in my full body neuropathy and autonomic symptoms. Then again I can't deal with too much sun or hear either because of the vasodilation. A warm fall day with a breeze is really the best day for me, and even then, I still have chronic pain.

I usually have very cold feet when winter comes. This year I am taking 3 new amino acids... which I started a bit ago.

My cold reactions are quite subdued this winter, so I am thinking it is the amino acids working.

1) I upped my 500mg a day Taurine to 1000mg for tinnitus which is working well for that. But it seems to prevent my left foot from turning purple now (increasing circulation?). I can now wear socks after years of being unable to. Socks made my feet burn and hurt alot.

2) I started Glutamine 500mg a day for an attack of heartburn that came up a couple of months ago. Within a week, the heartburn was gone! There are some sites on the net suggesting glutamine good for GI inflammation, and so far I have found this to be true.

3) Newly added 500mg of histidine a day, after reading about tissue damage healing helped by this. Hubby has a severe blepharitis and allergic issue, so I primarily got it for him. I found a review on iHerb from a customer who uses this for his blepharitis with success. The ointment the eye doctor gave him does not work. Since I added this daily for myself, my night time PN has reduced considerably.

So I am thinking that these 3 aminos are working together for us for several issues, including my nighttime foot burning and pain. It was when I added the histidine that I saw dramatic changes in my PN.

Histidine is difficult to find. I am using this one, which is not expensive: 60 caps is a two month's supply if 500mg is used once a day.

http://www.swansonvitamins.com/l-histidine

I read several medical sites that say histidine is used medically for patients with severe trauma or surgical/tissue damage. It is also a heavy metal chelator so those with a heavy metal load, may benefit from that. It didn't show benefits for me until about the 10 mark. So it is still early days yet.

Because histidine may lower zinc levels, those who take ACE inhibitors may consider a small zinc supplement.
(like Optizinc). I plan on adding zinc after taking this for longer than a month.