Suggest Treatment For Painful And Cold Feet

Posted on Mon, 13 Oct 2014

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Mon, 13 Oct 2014 Answered on

Thu, 6 Nov 2014 Last reviewed on

Question : My wife has feet that get cold as ice, especially in the evening. Many days they are very painful. She keeps blankets on them and also uses the stockings you can heat in the micro-wave. The weird thing is that to the touch the feet feel warm!! We have seen a Vasculer doctor and a neurologist and neither of their tests found They ruled out Reynauds diease. Larry Moen. P.S. She has had a thorough workup on her thyroid. It was negative. e-mail YYYY@YYYY

Answered by Dr. Dr. Praveen Tayal (2 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Can be a B12 deficiency.

Detailed Answer:
Hello,
Thanks for posting your query.
Feeling of cold feet with normal oxygen saturation ( warm on touching) can be suggestive of a vascular insufficiency in the legs or a neurological deficit due to chronic problems like Diabetes or due to functional disorder of the nerves or vitamin B 12 deficiencies.

If her investigations like color Doppler study for leg blood vessels has come normal then there is not likely to be a serious issue. She can start with methylcobalamin supplements after getting her B12 levels evaluated and see if it helps.
I hope this answers your query.
In case you have additional questions or doubts, you can forward them to me, and I shall be glad to help you out.
Wishing you good health.
Regards.
Dr. Praveen Tayal.
For future query, you can directly approach me through my profile URL http://bit.ly/Dr-Praveen-Tayal

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Raju A.T

Follow up: Dr. Dr. Praveen Tayal (2 days later)

For Dr-Praveen-Tayal. A follow-up question. Have you personally ever had a patient who had these very cold feet, mostly at night but felt warm outside to the touch? Neither our Vascular Surgeon or Neurologist had encoutered this consition before and as I said they both ruled out Reynaud's diease. We appreciate your answer and information and we are acting on that. However I'm trying to find a doctor who has had patients with the same symtoms as my wife XXXXXXX

Answered by Dr. Dr. Praveen Tayal (37 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Yes.

Detailed Answer:
Hello.
Thanks for writing again.
Yes. I have come across a few such patients. Most of them had Vitamin B 12 deficiency. You can get the further investigations done to find out the cause and get it treated accordingly.
Hope my answer is helpful.
Do accept my answer in case there are no further queries.
Regards.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar