UKC

Very little information is known about how high altitude affects people with Raynaud’s phenomenon and whether they experience more frequent and/or more severe attacks when traveling at high elevations.

We are conducting a research study on the effects of high altitude on people with Raynaud’s phenomenon. If you have Raynaud’s Phenomenon and would be interested in participating in a short, anonymous on-line survey about this issue please contact Andrew Luks at aluks@u.washington.edu or by phone at 206-221-2814. You will then receive further information about the study and a link to the on-line survey. Please be aware that the confidentiality of emails cannot be guaranteed.

This is a University of Washington research project.

In reply to iluka:

I experience this, I've always called it Reynauds syndrome, or whitefinger.
I'd be more tempted to click on a link to go straight to the survey than take the time to email someone and wait for a reply, and I'm certainly not going to call a US number (you realise this is a UK site?).


WTF?? Stick it son.

In reply to iluka:

I think I may have Reynauds (I often have a finger or toe go yellow, and it's really hard to get blood back into it), but it's not been officially diagnosed.

I also second blueshound's comments!

In reply to iluka:

and should therefore be a premier post?

In reply to iluka:

Could you clarify if you are interested in primary or secondary Raynaud's please?

Thanks.

In reply to iluka:

I have it, and get it just as frequently walking about the house as when out and about. Haven't noticed it being worse at altitude, but have only been to just over 4000m. Not willing to do any non-confidential survey, but hope the above may be helpful.

Time for a highjack then,

How do you all deal with Raynaud's?

I regularly have to where thick winter gloves in summer. I even bought some heated gloves, they don't really work that well....

Are there pills? or potions??

Stuart

In reply to stuartgmilton:
I take vitamin E 400 units a day, I find that helps. I think it takes a few weeks to start working.

In reply to stuartgmilton:

- Wrist warmers, they keep the blood warm as it enters your hands.
- Lots of spare gloves, so I always have a dry pair.
- Keep moving my fingers, and keep a light grip on my axes.
- Clipper leashes help, so I can shake out & flex my hands regularly.

In reply to all:
And how do you tell the difference between Reynaud's and normal vasoconstriction?

Rich

In reply to stuartgmilton: You can get wee re-useable handwarmers from outdoory type shops. They are gel filled pads with a metal disc you click to heat them up. They go solid a after use and you just boil them up to re-activate. Stick them in your gloves for toasty-ness. I carry several with me!
I tend to get it after exercise so I have to change immediately out of any sweaty clothes and keep gloves on.

In reply to Anita:

You can often get them in lidl/aldi too - a lot cheaper of course

In reply to iluka:
In reply to posters wanting to know how people deal with Reynauds:
I've found that since I began regularly taking (ie on a daily basis) herbs to control my migraines and headaches I have not experienced Reynaulds. Until then, I would get it regularly but quite randomly - for instance when sitting on the tube on a warm summer's day. The herbs I take are all everyday, native ones such as lavender, hawthorn and wood betony and have an anti-inflammatory action. Hawthorn has also been shown to be beneficial to the circulatory system. I take them as teas and tinctures.
My dad also has Reynaud's syndrome, and nothing seems to really help although he finds eating lots of ginger and using chilli in his cooking helpful.

In reply to practicalcat:
(of course, I'm not 100% sure if it's the herbs that have helped, but thought it would be worth considering!)

In reply to RichieB:

In my experience Raynaud's is often patchy, one side of the finger goes white & numb but not the other. And weirdly, it affects me when the temperature is above freezing. When my hands get really cold they go numb in the "normal" way, then warm up again all at once just like anyone else.

In reply to iluka:
Send the survey direct if you like?
Have had Raynauds for about 30 yrs, tried every medication/remedy under the sun with no significant change. However, 3 weeks in Thailand seems to be about the best treatment I've ever taken! Not a single Raynauds attack for the whole of the Christmas period...
You might try the Raynauds & Scleroderma Association in the UK to see if they hold a database of potential contributors too?

In reply to Keithw:
I'd be surprised if anyone who has Secondary Raynauds (and all the additional complications that ensues) could manage to cope with regularly climbing in the UK, as their reaction to cold (ulcers/skin & internal organs affected) is usually significantly worse than someone with Primary Raynauds. It has a huge effect on what I can climb, at all stages of the year & I've only got Primary Raynauds...

In reply to KeithW:


Thanks for that. My fingers will go white all the way to my palms at anything below 10 degrees, but not patchy. I'll call it bad circulation, rather than Raynaud's.
Cheers
Rich

In reply to RichieB: also known as Vibration white finger, if you have worked with power tools or anything that vibrates ;-P , you may be entitled to compensation, may be worth contacting specialist solicitors.
stripes solicitors are one can e-mail them= david.coulthard@stripes.eu

In reply to blueshound:

If someone doesn't want to deal with email I will gladly send the relevant information through the personal message system on the site. I am certainly not expecting anyone to call the US

As for the statement "The confidentiality of emails cannot be guaranteed"... it's a statement that is required by my university's institutional review board for things like this. The survey is anonymous (your name does not appear with and is not connected to the data in any way) and names and email addresses sent to me for the purpose of this study are not share with any other entities.

Thanks for the help.

In reply to iluka:


If the information is in the form of a document (doc, pdf, etc.) that won't help; the personal message system is only a portal to an email client, after all...

But feel free to send me details if you can; I have Reynaud's syndrome, and don't care too much about who knows it (he says, posting details once again on a public forum)...


And it's a perfectly sound warning to make; email goes via all sorts of routes and isn't secure, and prone to interception at one of any number of places on its route. Some people might not be aware of this, so it's only ethical to warn them.

In reply to cider nut:
I get it too (but I have not been at altitude lately so I can't remember how it was). Once a digit (finger or toe) gets cold then it takes ages to warm up, activity helps. If climbing in the cold I will quickly lose sensation on cold rock but once warmed up I am usually fine if I keep moving. The worst thing is driving I am not sure why. FOr this reason I prefer to wear mits to gloves I have never yet had a pair of gloves that works the seperation of the fingers seems to mean they get cold quicker