Why red knuckles?
February 23, 2012 8:31 PM Subscribe
My friend's knuckles get red and hot after she eats. She has no other symptoms. What could be causing this? Has anyone else ever experienced it?
after hot foods? i pink up everywhere if my temperature is at all elevated, and the skin on your knuckles is very thin. Maybe it's just more noticeable there? It's a little out there just because your extremities tend to cool a little after you eat as your blood heads to help digestion.
Also, psoriasis can make your knuckles look pink when you're warm or look pale and pretty dry if you need a glass of water. could be she has a really light case of it or some other skin thing.
Is she the kind of person who puts hot-sauce on everything? or always eats carrots with every meal? It could be a random reaction- she should look at her diet and see if there are any things that always seem to go with the hot knuckles.
there isn't enough information to make much better guess. If it's really uncomfortable she should head to a doctor. No one on the internet is going to do anything other than guess pretty wildly.
posted by Blisterlips at 4:34 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
Also, psoriasis can make your knuckles look pink when you're warm or look pale and pretty dry if you need a glass of water. could be she has a really light case of it or some other skin thing.
Is she the kind of person who puts hot-sauce on everything? or always eats carrots with every meal? It could be a random reaction- she should look at her diet and see if there are any things that always seem to go with the hot knuckles.
there isn't enough information to make much better guess. If it's really uncomfortable she should head to a doctor. No one on the internet is going to do anything other than guess pretty wildly.
posted by Blisterlips at 4:34 AM on February 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
I don't know if this is helpful at all, but sometimes when I have direct hand contact with straight cooking oils, my hands get itchy and uncomfortable, and I could definitely imagine describing the way my knuckles feel as 'hot'.
posted by threeants at 10:42 AM on February 24, 2012
posted by threeants at 10:42 AM on February 24, 2012
Best answer: Perhaps early or mild erythromelalgia?
I used to have that effect, but then it turned into Raynaud's syndrome (fingers turn white, then blue, then red). The body's control of circulation is very complex, and it can go wonky in all sorts of weird ways. Anything that triggers an adjustment in circulation (temperature changes, stress, exercise, eating) can set off an abnormal vascular reaction if you're subject to that sort of weirdness. It's probably medically trivial, but these things do show up in some autoimmune disease, so it would be worth a casual mention at her next regular doctor visit.
posted by Corvid at 2:21 PM on February 24, 2012
I used to have that effect, but then it turned into Raynaud's syndrome (fingers turn white, then blue, then red). The body's control of circulation is very complex, and it can go wonky in all sorts of weird ways. Anything that triggers an adjustment in circulation (temperature changes, stress, exercise, eating) can set off an abnormal vascular reaction if you're subject to that sort of weirdness. It's probably medically trivial, but these things do show up in some autoimmune disease, so it would be worth a casual mention at her next regular doctor visit.
posted by Corvid at 2:21 PM on February 24, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by crunchland at 8:39 PM on February 23, 2012