My hands are cold!

Do you have Marfan syndrome?

or Raynaud's disease.My hands don't get that cold but I wear thin Nike running gloves below freezing. In the past I've worn cheap cotton gardening gloves from walmart. Whatever works.When you get into single digits or below with wind chill nothing will be perfect.

newyeartime wrote:

Do you have Marfan syndrome?

Yeah, I think he means Raynaud's not Marfan's.

I have Raynaud's, hands are always cold. They're sometimes numb at 50F, always when it's below 30. If you are fit you might just have low blood pressure which is making your arms cold. Also, the key to warm hands is a warm core. Nothing on your hands will keep them warm if your core isn't warm. If you put 10 layers on your core you'd probably find that you wouldn't need any gloves in freezing temps.(hyperbole of course)

Mittens are considerably warmer than gloves.

There's also a lot of truth to the old adage "If your feet are cold, put on a hat." If your core isn't warm enough your body will decrease circulation to the extremities and you'll experience cold fingers and toes before anything else.

I have Raynaud's and find that it is worse in damp and cool (45 deg F) conditions than in cold (sub 30 F) and dry conditions. It may just be that I dress better for the cold.

I was reading the Wikipedia page and they recommend that if you don't have circulatory problems, windmilling your arms will give relief.

put em beneath your jewels...that'll warm em up...

forget the convertible glove to mittens. your goal is to be able to tuck your fingers into your palms where there is more heat.

as geeky as this sounds, you need something like this.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0057F2VHI/ref=asc_df_B0057F2VHI2331502?tag=thefind0031301-20&creative=395261&creativeASIN=B0057F2VHI&linkCode=asn

http://www.rei.com/product/837941/manzella-adventure-100-windstopper-mittens-womens

i've got raynauds and run in light ski mittens on pre-dawn runs right now... and i'm in northern california. these big puffy warm things at least allow me to use my hands to stick my key in the door when i get back. any lesser mitten and it is ugly.

dingle wrote:

I have Raynaud's and find that it is worse in damp and cool (45 deg F) conditions than in cold (sub 30 F) and dry conditions. It may just be that I dress better for the cold.

I was reading the Wikipedia page and they recommend that if you don't have circulatory problems, windmilling your arms will give relief.

Yes, I have Raynaud's too and windmilling really works (it's a lot quicker than waiting).

I have raynauds and to help i always wear mittens . I also use the disposable hand pocket warmers (about $1 ) and they work well .

The Brooks Utopia 2-in-1 mittens are about as warm as you can get for running specific mittens. I bought a pair 6-7 years ago and still wear them when it dips below 20 degrees.

http://www.brooksrunning.com/Utopia-2-in-1-Mitten/280169,default,pd.html

Struggled with this for years. I found wearing wool glove liners under a ski mitten, I'm comfortable down to zero. Trick is to keep your hands dry, and like another poster said, fingers tucked into your palms.

http://www.smartwool.com/mens/accessories/liner-glove-1200.html

RickD wrote:

I have raynauds and to help i always wear mittens . I also use the disposable hand pocket warmers (about $1 ) and they work well .

I also have Raynaud's Syndrome. It's pretty bad, but here is how I've managed it.

Wear mittens, not gloves. Liners inside the mittens are counterproductive for me because anything that fits tight on my fingers or wrists cuts off circulation.

I also apply a layer of Bag Balm (like Vaseline except it's waxy instead of greasy) on my hands and wrists. You can get it at PetSmart or the cattle section of Tractor Supply or some pharmacies... great stuff... I've been using it for 10 years.

Loose fitted arm warmers under a long top will help as well by keeping the blood warm in the forearm before it gets to the hand.

Charcoal warmers can be used 3 times if you immediately put them into a ziplock bag after running and squeeze all the air out. It stops the chemical reaction.

I have also been taking liquid potassium iodide for the past three years. It seems to help.

Thanks for the information, especially about extending the handwarmers life.

My secret is:

layer 1: thin convertable gloves/mittens (glove with a mitten sleeve pullover.

layer 2: disposable handwarmers - tuck in the mitten part of the glove/mitten combo

layer 3: cheap socks over the whole thing - you can toss the socks if your hands are too warm.

If you have Raynauds, the handwarmers are key. Gloves and mittens work by trapping the heat created by your hands - with no circulation, your hands don't generate heat, and gloves are pretty much useless. The handwarmers generate the heat to get trapped by the gloves/mittens/socks.

Nike had a thin layer glove last year which had a flap that covered the gloves. These held up better than their regular gloves. The extra flap is windproof so it kept the cold air from seeping in. I am surprised how well it held up this winter so far in ny. We didn't really have real cold weather yet though.