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It looks as tho I might have found the solution, touch wood. No chilblain problems yet and we've had some very cold weather (for this region in NSW) for over a month. It may be too soon to be sure though, we still have another month or so of winter to come, but it's looking very promising.
The measures I've stuck with every day so far have been:
1. the ginkgo tea - if I had to guess what's made the difference this winter, this would be it,
2. wearing warm clothes all the time, including gloves, beanies, ugg boots, three pairs of socks including those silver metallic-thread arthritis socks,
3. bone broth - 2 or 3 cups each day, with vitamin C powder,
4. whenever my hands feel cold I have a few teaspoons of a mixture of spices I heat up in coconut oil: turmeric, cayenne pepper, hot curry powder, cumin. These all supposedly have anti-inflammatory effects, including the coconut oil.
As well I cut out sugar and white flour from my diet - too pro-inflammatory.
Note: I stopped taking the calcium & vit D supplement when I started having the bone broth – thought it might be too much calcium.
Other strategies: I keep a crock-pot of soup simmering and have cups throughout the day to warm up. That and going for short runs every hour or so, and the hot water bottle – all help to prevent fingers and toes going numb.
I've also given up riding the pushbike at night and have taken up jogging instead, followed by some weights, until winter's over – it was impossible keeping my toes from going numb on the bike.
Hope this info is of help to someone.
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gryl tony91881
Posted
Thank you so much. I collect all good advises for my son who is now 8 years old. His toes has started to itch again a little sometimes. So now we start with the Calcium/vit. D, and hoping that it will help like it did last winter.
tony91881
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But then, every year after that, without fail, except for one year, 1988 or thereabouts, they'd come back, even though I never rode over the Toowoomba range in mid-winter ever again. In fact I took care each winter to stay as warm as I could, a lot warmer than I'd previously bothered doing before the winter of '72.
Each year the pain and discomfort, and the extent of the inflammation, got worse. By the late 70s they were often unbearable, to the point where some days I'd have to go home from work mid-morning and lie in bed under the doonah.
My GP, Dr Joe, every winter would study the latest medical hoohaa, trying to come up with an explanation of what was going on and an effective treatment. He came to the conclusion that it was some sort of auto-immune condition, a little bit like Reynauds, but blood tests failed to show the usual markers. Then recently he read about a mystery chemical that scientists thought the body produced in response to cold, perhaps involved in vaso-constriction of the extremities. He'd known that I'd had a tetanus vaccination three days before the Matchless/Toowoomba-range incident - that information came up during one of our many exhaustive consultations - and he hypothesised that perhaps my tet-vac-upregulated immune system had developed an allergic response to the mystery VC-chemical when it appeared in my blood that fateful day on the mountain range, and every winter after, when I got cold - not very cold, not cold enough for plasma to get forced into my interstitial tissues as Dr Sarah described, but cold enough to produce the mystery chemical, which had become my very own mystery allergen, back would come the chilblains - the inflammatory response to the allergen.
I’ve no way of knowing if Dr Joe’s hypothesis is correct, he retired earlier this year by the way, at the end of autumn as it happens, but it’s the only one I’ve heard so far that explains all the evidence. It’s unfortunate that it might be seen as adding to what seems to be a growing disenchantment with vaccination, but seeing as how it is specifically engineered for jacking up one’s immune responses, way beyond what Nature intended, I guess this might be one case where the vaccination program has to take it on the chin.
Incidentally, if any other chronic chilblain-sufferers has a suspected vaccination connection, please tell us about it. There might be a Nobel in it for one of us. Perhaps Dr Joe, God-bless him.
gryl tony91881
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tony91881 gryl
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Maybe what your specialist meant was we get them from our BODIES being exposed to cold, rather than just our feet. It's when our body temperature falls that circulation to our feet and fingers tends to be strangled, as a way of conserving body-heat. This seems to be more pronounced in some people, like me and my dad for example, to the point where we are more likely (than other people) to get chilblains if we try to warm our extremities directly, instead of taking the wiser course of warming our whole bodies without letting our toes or fingers getting warm first.
Some people do exercise and then sit in a sauna to warm up safely, making sure not to let their toes or fingers touch the hot timber. I've used that to get relief from my chilblains at times. It feels good - like the inflammatory chemicals are being flushed away by the increased circulation. It's such a relief when the chilblains stop, almost a euphoric feeling.
In your son's case, if there's no sauna nearby, he could sit in a comfortably warm-to-hot bath, making sure not to get his feet or hands in the water at first, then add boiling water from a kettle a bit at a time to gradually make the water hotter.
He could do this before the chilblains start, as a way of warming his fingers and toes indirectly. Or he could also do it when he's got the chilblains, as a way of alleviating the discomfort and switching off the inflammation.
If necessary he could do some star-jumps and burpees, maybe some pushups, before getting in the water, to add to the circulation-promoting effect.
gryl tony91881
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tony91881 gryl
Posted
gryl tony91881
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tony91881 gryl
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d87005 tony91881
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Hi, I've had horrible chilblains for the last year and a half and it started after I got a tetanus booster (combined with farm work where I was frozen in the mornings, with temperatures below zero, and sweltering as soon as the sun came up, sending temperatures immediately to the seventies or eighties everyday). I'm intrigued by your doctor's vaccine hypothesis, but also distressed that there's not much to do for it besides walk around like I'm on a polar expedition. I'll try your tea -- thank you for the suggestion.
tony91881 d87005
Posted
This winter I've been applying Rosemary and Peppermint essential oils - 100%, not diluted - to my toes and fingers 3 or 4 times a day, as well as wearing two pairs of socks, ugg boots, and gloves and having warming foods and drinks.
The oils were a tip from another blogger and they've been working very well for me. I have had a couple of small outbreaks but applying the oils to the inflamed area also works to alleviate the pain, as well as being a preventative.
gryl tony91881
Posted
I will try it on to my son, now 9 years old.
He is trying homeopathic medicine now.
Did somebody try that?
tony91881 gryl
Posted
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