Why are my feet cold all the time?

Symptoms:

Your feet always seem to feel cold, you have a sedentary job and you’re a smoker. Heart disease runs in the family.

Your feet have been feeling colder and colder, you get short of breath when you climb stairs and occasionally feel palpitations from your heart.

For the past year or so you have started to feel the cold particularly in your feet, your hair is thinning and your skin is very dry. Your voice is becoming hoarse.

It could be:

Poor circulation where not enough warm blood is getting to your feet, making them cooler than the rest of your body.

Anaemia, the commonest form being iron deficiency anaemia in women due to heavy menstruation.

An underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism) where your thyroid gland is not producing enough thyroid hormone.

Stop it:

If you sit most of the day at work get up and walk around once an hour. Stop smoking if you can and go to your doctor to have your heart checked out.

See your doctor for blood tests. Anaemia can be treated quite easily by taking iron supplements and including iron-rich foods in your diet such as red meat, liver and dark green leafy vegetables.

Your doctor can do tests of thyroid function and prescribe thyroid hormone which you’ll have to take for the rest of your life.