What the Palm of Your Hand Shows Regarding Your Health
Kidney disease, rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, liver disease, poor circulation, thyroid problems, and even eating too many carrots or beets can affect palms from color to texture and size.
As healthy as carrots are, eating too many of them can make your skin look orange or a yellowish color from excess Beta Carotene (synthesized to vitamin A in your body), this condition is harmless and mostly affects children. Other dietary sources of Carotene include squash, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, spinach, beans, corn, and yams.
Sometimes carotenemia is mistaken for jaundice. It has also been linked to hypothyroidism, diabetes mellitus, anorexia nervosa, liver disease, and renal disease.
This is an orange-red discoloration of the skin and is the result of excessive intake of red foods like tomatoes, beets, chili beans, and red fruit.
-The redness is more prominent on the outer edge of the palms from the wrist to the little finger. The redness is believed to be caused by blood vessels dilating from hormone imbalance caused by liver disease.
The redness here is caused by inflammation, the biggest factor in this disease.
– Often has excessive skin dryness that creates itching or burning skin, sometimes with cracking, flaking, or peeling of the outer layer of skin.
COLD HANDS – can be caused by:
– Poor circulation
– Raynaud’s disease: cold temperatures and emotional changes cause blood vessel spasms stopping blood flow
– Low blood pressure
TREMBLING HANDS – can be caused by:
– Essential tremor: neurological disorder
– Parkinson’s disease: this affects the nervous system as well
– Overactive thyroid: it speeds up your metabolism, makes you burn more calories and generate more heat
– Caffeine and alcohol
SWEATY PALMS – can be caused by:
– Overactive thyroid
– Hyperhidrosis, or excess sweating
– Excessive alcohol intake
BROWN MARKS – can be caused by:
– Vitamin C or B12 deficiency [Detecting Nutritional Deficiencies]
– Anemia or weak liver function
– Age spots
– Over-exposure to the sun
THICKENING OF THE PALM
– Dupuytren’s contracture, this happens when tendons cover the fingers and create a cord-like thickening. This disease has a genetic component and multiple possible causes. Recent studies have show alcohol not to play a role at all unless it is bad enough to cause alcoholic liver disease, and than it is the liver cirrhosis that is associated with Dupuytren’s, not the alcohol. For more information please check the British Dupuytren’s Society , the Dup Foundation or the International Dup society
– Diseases like diabetes, epilepsy, cirrhosis, or past injuries to the hand may cause thickening of the palms.
DRY SKIN- can be caused by:
– Underactive thyroid
– Menopause, levels of estrogen drop
– Essential fatty acid deficiency
FINGERS AND KNUCKLES
– Xanthoma- cholesterol deposits on knuckles
– Hypercholesterolemia- fatty deposits in tendons
– Anemia- if a dip is visible in the middle it can indicate iron deficiency
– Cyanosis- Heart failure
-Rheumatoid arthritis- joints have not become swollen or painful
-Vasculitis- inflammation of blood vessels under the nailbed caused by arthritis
– Kidney disease
What Your Hand Says About Your Health
[Last Updated on June 10th 2014]