Can somebody explain why our fingers and/or toes get numb in a cold atmosphere?
There are a few reasons why this happens. The simple one is that the internal temperature of the body must be kept up. Blood that is flowing in the periphery, the extremities, is then reduced and brought into the core to maintain that temperature. So with less warm blood being circulated into the extremities the fingers and toes suffer. Remember that the arms and legs are large tubes and they are not going to be affected as dramatically as the single digits of the fingers and toes. Also as one ages there is less circulation in the toes. If there are any disease processes that are present this becomes magnified. Raynaud’s disease is a problem that is brought on by spasms of the arteries in the digits which causes severe problems in the fingers and toes.
