Abstract
BackgroundCold hypersensitivity in the hands and feet (CHHF) is a common symptom in Korea and patients with CHHF complain of coldness in the hands and feet in an environment that is not considered cold by unaffected people. In traditional East Asian medicine, CHHF is believed to be accompanied by various diseases and symptoms, and is considered a symptom that needs active treatment. CHHF is used for pattern identification in the cold pattern, yang deficiency, and constitution. This study aimed to examine the differences in frequencies of chronic diseases with respect to the presence of CHHF.MethodsDisease history, CHHF, body measurements, and blood test survey data from 6149 patients collected by 25 medical institutes in Korea were obtained from the Korean Medicine Data Center. The participants were divided into CHHF (n = 1909) and non-CHHF groups (n = 3017) according to the CHHF survey. The differences in frequencies of 18 diseases were analysed using chi-square tests, and the odds ratios (ORs) for each disease according to CHHF status were examined via logistic regression with adjustment for age, sex, and body mass index (BMI).ResultsBased on chi-square test results, the CHHF group showed a higher frequency of the following diseases: anaemia, hypotension, chronic gastritis, reflux oesophagitis, chronic rhinitis, dysmenorrhoea, and gastroduodenal ulcer. Diseases found in lower frequencies were as follows: hypertension, diabetes mellitus, impaired fasting glucose, dyslipidaemia, stroke, fatty liver, and angina pectoris. In addition, from the logistic regression with adjustment for age, sex, and BMI, the CHHF group showed a lower OR in diabetes mellitus and dyslipidaemia than the non-CHHF group, but a higher OR in degenerative arthritis, chronic gastritis, gastroduodenal ulcer, reflux oesophagitis, and chronic rhinitis.ConclusionsThis study showed that CHHF is associated with chronic disease. Further large-scale prospective studies are needed to validate these associations.
Highlights
Cold hypersensitivity in the hands and feet (CHHF) is a common symptom in Korea and patients with CHHF complain of coldness in the hands and feet in an environment that is not considered cold by unaffected people
In traditional East Asian medicine (TEAM), CHHF is important for identifying yang deficiency and the cold pattern
Height, weight, body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure (sBP), diastolic blood pressure (dBP), Fasting blood sugar (FBS), TG, total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and Hb were significantly higher in the non-CHHF group than the CHHF group, and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) was significantly higher in the CHHF group than the non-CHHF group (Table 1)
Summary
Cold hypersensitivity in the hands and feet (CHHF) is a common symptom in Korea and patients with CHHF complain of coldness in the hands and feet in an environment that is not considered cold by unaffected people. In traditional East Asian medicine, CHHF is believed to be accompanied by various diseases and symptoms, and is considered a symptom that needs active treatment. Cold hypersensitivity in the hands and feet (CHHF) is a sensation of coldness in the hands and feet in an environment not considered cold by unaffected people or a having a heightened cold sensation in a relatively low temperature area. This symptom is relatively common in Korea, especially in women [1, 2]. CHHF symptom presentation is considered important for treatment in traditional East Asian medicine (TEAM) [5]. CHHF has been associated with an individual’s own constitutional factors (e.g., the “Sasang” constitution, cold and heat pattern) [11, 12]
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