By Judith Cobb, MH, CI, NCP

According to my husband, blood pressure is a simple thing. If you want to raise your blood pressure, have children; if you want to lower your blood pressure, go on a holiday. If only it was really that simple.

Blood pressure is the amount of force exerted by the blood on the vessel walls. There are several components that determine this pressure. There is the actual pressure exerted by the heart in pumping the blood; the amount of resistance encountered in the blood vessels either by blockages that are being formed or by the muscular constriction of the vessels; and the actual amount of blood in the body. It is easy to see that a heart that is pumping too intensely, ...

Raynauds

May 8, 2012 @ 7:16 AM

Do cold hands always mean a warm heart? Or could they just be a symptom of something else?

I worked with a client some time ago who had been diagnosed as having Raynaud’s Disease. When her hands got cold, they would turn white, then blue, and literally seize up to where she could not move them; they were literally ‘frozen stiff’. Finally the affected part turned red, tingled, and burned as blood flow began to return. She had lived in the Yukon Territories for a time, and had to leave because of her hands. She could not buy a jug of milk. Touching the cold jug long enough to load it into the grocery cart would start the Raynaud’s reaction.

The ...