What ingredients in this list are causing my hands to get warm? (improve circulation to my fingers)
EDIT: scroll down towards the bottom towards the bottom for my answer. Its thoracic outlet syndrome. If I do certain stretches it goes away. Its an issue related to my bad posture and nerves getting pinched (from sitting in front of a computer the whole day)
OLD
I have mild Raynauds, which means the tips of my fingers are usually the same temperature as the atmosphere of the room/outside. (unrelated: I don't have any autoimmune disease, but I think this is from typing my whole life)
Anyways, I started to notice that when I chew this gum called "NeuroGum" found on Amazon, my fingers warm up. I'm very curious, what ingredient(s) could be causing my hands (finger tips) to warm up. Here is the list of core ingredients, (copy+pasted from amazon)
Ingredients
Sorbitol, gum base, L-theanine, Natural Flavors (Vanilla and Mint), Natural caffeine, Calcium Stearate, Steviol Glycosides, Acesulfame K, Vitamin B6 (as Pyridoxine), Vitamin B12 (as Cyanocobalamin)
note:its "Vitamin B12 (as Methylcobalamin)" on my gum
The only other thing that has similar effects is alcohol. I've tried buying the (same form of) b12 and b6 and l-theanin supplements and trying those separately/individually. This has not shown any success, (although I'll keep trying)
EDIT:
one more ingredient that i've noticed ALWAYS makes my hands warm is melatonin, (sleeping aid). Specifically this brand of mouth dis-solvable ones.
"NATROL® MELATONIN ADVANCED SLEEP MAXIMUM STRENGTH 10 MG."
I've also tried chewing caffeinated gum without any success
(3)3 Comments
Sorted by latest first Latest Oldest Best
The ingredients one by one
Sorbitol:
An alcohol sugar, and a sugar substitute. However, xylitol has become more widely used because a few type of bacteria (Streptococcus mutans) can process sorbitol and as such it is more anticariogenic.
In addition, sorbitol has one-third fewer calories and 60 % the sweetening activity of sucrose and is used as a sugar replacement in diabetes.
Source: PubChem
L-theanine:
The use of theanine is widely debated:
The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, an agency of their Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, objects to the addition of L-theanine to beverages. The European Food Safety Authority EFSA advised negatively on health claims related to L-theanine and cognitive function, alleviation of psychological stress, maintenance of normal sleep, and reduction of menstrual discomfort. Therefore, health claims for L-theanine are prohibited in the European Union.
Source: Pubchem
Its mechanism of action is pretty complicated, it appears to be mostly are neuro-agent (although literature is contradictive there as well), but I'll research more.
Caffeine:
Caffeine is a vasoconstrictor. As such, it constricts the arteries and - in this case more importantly - the arterioles. The skin turns paler because less blood reaches it surface. This way, heat radiation from the skin is limited in the extremities. This also happens when you feel cold, and it explains why feet and hands start to get cold first. This is however the opposite of what you describe (but similar to the way Raynauds affects your body temperature)
Calcium Stearate:
Nothing more than a flow agent and surface conditioner, also used in other candies such as Smarties
Steviol Glycoside:
Artificial sweetener, more commonly known as Stevia.
Acesulfame K (potassium):
Another artificial sweetener
Vitamins and Flavour Agents
They won't have anything to do with it.
Speculations:
It is the caffeine.
This is kind of contradicting what I wrote above, but some studies associate the caffeine with hot flashes in the female menopause. The underlying mechanism is not yet understood (and in fact, other studies claim that caffeine decreases the risk), but that might be.
It's a placebo effect. Maybe you once felt warmer due to other reasons after consuming it, and now it's just a placebo.
Your experience that alcohol warms your fingers and the fact that the drug nifedipine is used in Raynaud's symptoms relief suggest that the mechanism involved in warming fingers is vasodilation.
From the list of ingredients in your product, L-theanine can cause arterial vasodilation and could therefore be theoretically responsible for symptoms relief.
Caffeine can have a vasoconstricting effect, but, according to UpToDate, "its xanthine-related properties may result in systemic vasodilation," which may result in fingers warming.
I have not found any credible medical source that would suggest either L-theanine or caffeine for treatment of Raynaud's, though.
Melatonin can also have a vasodilating effect (PubMed):
When ingested as a supplement in humans, melatonin enhances the
cutaneous vasodilating response during heating and blunts the
cutaneous vasoconstrictor response during cooling.
EDIT: Its thoracic outlet syndrome. If I do certain stretches it goes away
Old:
So I looked into it, and I found those ingredients are actually good for "carpel tunnel" which has been found to be related to raynauds in some cases... this is essentially a pinched nerve due to bad posture (common in computer scientists). I don't think I have this in my hands, but probably in my shoulders or back (from hunching over a computer all day over years). So I started looking into youtube videos relating to this and got some suggestions for things to try. Luckily I have found that when I straighten my neck back (and decompress the right bone/nerve), I can feel the problem going away immediately. Its weird, I can't really explain it but I also notice an almost immediate difference in the way my hands feel.
Anyways, I'm going to a good chiropractor to investigate and hopefully correct this problem, I will update this thread later with any updates. We will see.
Also important to note I've never had it in my toes or anything.
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