Meds causing cold hands?

[wanderquest]

I’ve always been a cold natured person. I’m happy at 80 degrees and miserable at 60.

For a while now my hands have been like ice. I have a space heater in my office that I have cranked up so high that my face will literally turn red like I’ve been exercising because it’s so hot, but my hands will still be pale bluish and freezing.

I’ve tried warm drinks, I’ve even worn gloves with fingers cut out for typing. I thought maybe it was a circulation issue so I’d get up and walk around. That would make me warm in general, but not thaw my hands and feet.

I just recently learned that a possible side effect of Vyvanse is cold hands. Anyone else experience this? Maybe I’m just getting a worse dose of it because I’m already kinda cold natured?

Edit: further research suggests this effect is caused due to lowered blood pressure another known side effect of Vyvanse.

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[blackdog]

I haven’t experienced it in relation to the Vyvanse, but I haven’t been on it very long and I’m still on a pretty low dose.

I used to work with a woman who had Raynaud’s Disease and what you’re describing sounds a lot like it. I think I remember reading that Vyvanse can cause it in some rare cases. But it also has a lot of other possible causes.

Are they constantly cold and bluish or does it come and go?

 

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[wanderquest]

It is pretty much constant unless I’m wrapped up in a blanket head to toe.  It gets worse when I get exposed to any even slight coldness and it takes forever for me to warm up after even a brief  exposure.  Hands, feet, and nose are affected.

My symptoms probably aren’t severe enough to be considered Raynaud’s. It doesn’t usually hurt (sometimes it makes my fingers stiff-not painfully),  just annoying.

I’ve had chilly hands nearly all my life,  just not this bad. It’s definitely gotten worse which is why I think it’s the meds.

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[blackdog]

From the way I understand it, Raynaud’s causes short, quick attacks after exposure to cold or as a response to stress that go away when the affected area is warmed. So it probably is the medication combined with your natural coldness. Even so, it is not a good thing. But I guess if you have extremely cold hands it means that you have an extremely warm heart? 😉

 

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[Patte Rosebank]

@Wanderquest, it could be your body’s natural response to extreme cold: pulling more blood from the extremities to retain warmth around the organs in your core, because if they get too cold, hypothermia kicks in. It doesn’t even have to be extremely cold for this self-protective process to start.

Or, it could be diabetes or pre-diabetes. It affects the circulation in your extremities, too. I often have cold feet and hands (and nose!) because of this. We ADDers tend to have more eating disorders, which lead to more diabetes, than in the general population.

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[wanderquest]

@Larynxa My body has got some wires crossed if it’s trying to fight hypothermia right now.  I’d bet my office is about 76F/24C degrees (uncomfortably warm inside temp for normal people) and my hands and nose stay cold.

As for diabetes, that unfortunately runs in my family so I do actually test my glucose every now and then and it’s never been elevated at all.  And the two times I had to do the sugar syrup test after fasting for both pregnancies, I processed it just fine.

I’m really not worried about it. Just another quirk of mine.

I’m having a cup of hot soup for lunch right now and my hands actually did warm up and are a nice bright pink color.  Yay soup!

 

 

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[darktendril]

I have always had very cold hands, but since I started on Vyvanse almost a year ago, I find that I sometimes also get this really weird internal sensation of coldness.  I try drinking hot tea or something, but not sure how much it helps lol..

Does Vyvanse really cause lowered BP?   Interesting.

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[blackdog]

I used to always have cold hands and feet. I was always cold in general when I was younger. But now I seem to be the opposite. I can’t stand the heat. If I start to get overheated I have to get cooled down right away. I even have to shove my covers off at night sometimes, and I sleep in a basement with no heat.

I also used to get that “internal cold” feeling a lot. Now I only get it once in awhile. It’s like there are little tiny ice crystals underneath the surface of my skin.

I wish someone would tell my doctor that Vyvanse can lower blood pressure. He is still keeping my dosage down because my BP was a little high a couple of times when he checked it. But it’s no higher now than it was before the Vyvanse, so the medication is not the cause. And it’s also only high when he checks it, which tells you what the cause is.

I didn’t know that cold hands and feet could be an early sign of diabetes. I always thought circulation problems occurred later. Profuse sweating and extreme thirst were the first signs my aunt and brother showed. With my mom, it was mostly fatigue and being kind of dopey all the time.

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[wanderquest]

@darktendril It’s pretty uncommon for it to lower it enough to be a concern. ie fainting, dizziness. Like most side effects it’s found mostly found in people with other issues going on.

@blackdog It could also raise blood pressure.

That’s the hard part of any medication. How it affects individuals. If you’re already having issues with your BP it is wise for your doc to watch it before adjusting.

But it sounds like you have “white coat” hypertension. My husband has that. His shoots through the roof in a doctors office but is just fine in our living room.

Having to pee a lot is also a sign of diabetes.

I looked up some more about Raynaud’s. Found pictures of it and my hands have never done that except when I touch snow without gloves.

 

 

 

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[blackdog]

@wanderquest I know. But he really doesn’t understand what he is doing. He’s completely clueless about how the meds work and doesn’t trust my judgement. I’m just frustrated because he is keeping me on the same dosage way too long and I am completely wasting my money because it isn’t doing anything. And I really need the boost that I could get from an effective medication right now. I have a lot of stuff to deal with.

That’s another thing. He keeps asking me for specific examples of how it’s helping me. Which are hard to come up with because it isn’t really but I try anyway because if I don’t come up with something he will stop prescribing it at all. And it’s also really hard to describe the ways that it does help. So one time I said it was a little easier to organize things as an example. And I read in my notes at the last appointment that I said that it has helped a little with organization but is otherwise ineffective and there has been no significant improvement. Which is not what I said at all.

And the one that really gets me is when I first started it and I said that it was working and I felt a difference right away. And he says “Well, how do you know it’s working? Have you had any opportunity to test yourself cognitively?” Like every day isn’t a cognitive test. It starts the minute it registers vaguely in my mind that the noise I’m hearing is my alarm and I have to figure out why I am hearing my alarm. I made a list of things that test me cognitively, like remembering to put my clothes in the dryer and trying to make a shopping list to give him some examples. But, of course, I forgot about it by the time I saw him again. One more thing to add to the list.

But I digress.

White coat hypertension isn’t the problem in my case. It’s only the one doctor. I’m perfectly fine if any other doctor checks my BP. And usually I can calm myself enough before that one takes it that it registers as normal. But I was too pissed off the last couple of times. I am going to purchase a new BP monitor to use at home because he is convinced the readings I am getting are wrong. Or he just plain doesn’t believe me. I also need to make some notes and try to remember them next time so that I can hopefully get it through to him that things just aren’t going the way they should be.

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[dithl]

@wanderquest – I had cold spells when I first started stimulants. I also get cold when I’m under high emotional stress or tired. Herbal tea (eg chamomile) really helps.

I do also have mild Raynaud’s, which started before I began taking stimulants. Mostly harmless at this point, though I have to wear layers of socks in the winter, and now even slippers or socks to bed or I won’t sleep well. Mostly I like to gross out my sweeties after carrying grocery bags or driving by showing them a few fingers which have gone totally white from the second knuckle up.

Anyone that dares to say “but it’s not that cold” gets my ice-cold hands on their neck :-).

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[g.laiya]

i definitely noticed this effect with stimulant meds. i however am a person who has always “run hot”, this was a welcome change for me. my feet seem to be affected more than everything else – actually sometimes get painfully hot, to the point i had spoken to various doctors about it(
and diabetes had to be ruled out for me too). so this med has a welcome cooling affect for my feet. and while i wasn’t looking for cool hands,it’s not uncomfortable to me – just have to issue warnings if i’m going to be touching someone else’s bare skin, which is strange for me…..and when i forget to take or run out of meds the heat comes right back.
perhaps you could talk to your doctor about taking a non-stim type med and see how that works. or maybe experiment with taking a niacin supplement which causes the blood vessels to dilate (flushing) and creates extremity warmth?

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[sar316]

I also suffer from being too cold. I’m on concerta and I’m pretty sure I have been like this much before I started taking meds. I completely understand what it’s like to be unusually cold when everyone else is boiling. You should have seen the looks on my in-laws faces when I strolled out of our room in Mexico wearing a sweater. Or my parents faces when I bought winter mittens in Southern Texas, we are from Saskatchewan.

I find it difficult when I get nervous or stressed or sick. My body gets so cold that I start to shiver. Shivering while in a normal room-temperature building makes me sweat. Well, normal people sweat to cool down, and I am no exception to this rule. So now on top of being cold and am now even colder, sweaty and all hope of warming up any time soon is lost.

I also have a hard time being out in the cold for any length of time, lets define ‘cold outside’ as below freezing. I hate being in the cold because my fingers literally stop working. Pockets, gloves, mittens, it doesn’t matter and it gets even worse when I come into the warm because then my fingers swell and hurt so much.

I have always assumed it has been because of my lower than normal blood pressure compounded with my weak/fussy mast cells causing inconvenient histamine reactions.

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[blackdog]

@sar316, if you need mittens in Texas, how on Earth do you survive the winter in Saskatchewan? 😯

I feel for you and hope for your sake it warms up soon. At least you are starting to get up above the freezing mark. Perhaps this winter will have an end to it.

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[AllAboutControl]

I started Adderall at the end of the summer, so I didn’t notice this side-effect right away.

We’ve had a winter that was slightly longer than normal, so I ended up with cold hands and feet more often than not. It would happen indoors, while I was sitting in class or in my apartment, as well as outdoors – I also deal with the sweating side-effect, which meant that the sweat in my gloves would cool and my hands would get cold. I actually wore two layers of gloves, which kept the cold air from triggering it, only to have it happen anyway.

Nowadays, it’s warm enough for me to go around in shorts and sweaters. I still notice that my fingers and toes get cold – I’m currently at my desk, which is near my currently open window, and they’re cold. Mind you, it might be that I’m not moving around. Who knows?

My psychiatrist said that the exact cause of this effect isn’t known. My theory is that it has to do with reduced peripheral circulation, like in the fight-or-flight response. I can’t confirm this theory, but it would explain the reduced blood flow to my extremities and the fact that parts of my body act like it’s always cold.

The worst part is that my core is always warm; I can be sweating from the slightest exertion and want to take off a sweater/coat, but my hands and feet will be cold. It feels weird to be hot and cold at the same time.

I hope that we all warm up soon.

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