Smoking Archives

bad circulation ??

sometimes i`ll be driveing an i`ll notice all my fingers on my left hand an sometimes my right will appear to be drained of all blood an appear just like a corpse, no pink color at all, just white, anyone know the cause an maby something i can do about it? i`m 60 an have a long history of smokeing, other than that, i have no other problems that i know of. thanks a lot for your time........rick

Follow Ups:

• Re: bad circulation ?? Raynaud's! Archive in smoling. Walt Stoll [93.1465] 06:54:57 3/18/05 (0)
• Re: bad circulation ?? Raynaud's! Archive in smoling. Walt Stoll [93.1465] 06:51:43 3/18/05 (0)
• Re: bad circulation ?? ANN [1003.516] 11:29:07 3/17/05 (0)

In Reply to: bad circulation ?? posted by rick normand [3134.1863] on March 17, 2005 at 11:08:11:

you probably should be checked for neuropathy and diabetes.
Short-term solution is to change the position of your hand on the steering wheel frequently, perhaps even trying it underhand at the bottom of the steering wheel-try to have your hand and wrist form more of a continuous straight line, rather than having an angle between your hand and wrist. If you have an automatic transmission, you might want to drive more with the unaffected hand and do some exercises with the one with the circulation problem- squeezing a soft foam ball or other hand exercise device (sports stores will have a few different ones).
Think of this hand as the parakeet in the coal mine- it's just your first warning- probably best to give up smoking before the problem progresses to your other extremities.

In Reply to: bad circulation ?? posted by rick normand [3134.1863] on March 17, 2005 at 11:08:11:

Rick,

This is called Raynaud's Syndrome and the most common cause is smoking. The second most common cause is stress and commonly it is a combination of these.

The first thing to do is immediately stop smoking. If this persists, after a month of abstenance, you may need also to do SR. IF this persists you can lose the tips of the effected digits to dry gangrene.

Let us know how you do.

Walt

In Reply to: bad circulation ?? posted by rick normand [3134.1863] on March 17, 2005 at 11:08:11:

Rick,

This is called Raynaud's Syndrome and the most common cause is smoking. The second most common cause is stress and commonly it is a combination of these.

The first thing to do is immediately stop smoking. If this persists, after a month of abstenance, you may need also to do SR. IF this persists you can lose the tips of the effected digits to dry gangrene.

Let us know how you do.

Walt