• Question: why do we get "pins and needles"

    Asked by anon-192521 to Sophie, Kelly, Jessica on 16 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Kelly Rushton

      Kelly Rushton answered on 16 Nov 2018:

      We get pins and needles when the blood supply to a part of our bodies – normally your legs, feet, hands – gets cut off. Normally when you start moving that part of your body again, the blood supply returns and the pins and needles go off – I’m always getting pins and needles in my hands when I lie on them during then night!

    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 16 Nov 2018:

      It is a lack of circulation, either from pressure – falling asleep in the wrong position and cutting off the blood supply – or through cold. When you are cold your veins contract (shrink) and this slows down the circulation so your core body temperature, around your heart, liver and longs, stays warmer. As you warm up and the veins open up again, more blood goes to your hands and feet and they tingle.

      If you are really cold, and as your hands start to warm, do not put them in warm water. This opens the veins too fast, and as too much blood goes through and this can be very painful.

      I learned that when I trained as a medic for working in very remote places.

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