What's the significance of "cold extremities"?
 

Every medical my AME asks "Do you suffer from cold extremities?" - the second, unasked part presumably being, "-or would you like to carry on working?"

As the honest answer, in the case of a "close friend" of mine is "yes", what is the importance?

Is it a grounder, or not?

I would guess they are looking at poor circulation here.

Cold extremities indicate poor circulation. The most common cause of which is HYPOTHYROIDISM or Low Thyroid Function. Easily corrected with a NATURAL Thyroid Extract tablet. Occurs with aging and common after age 25 to 40 years. Untreated leads to hardening of the arties, heart attacks, and strokes.

Easy to diagnose with questions:
1. do you wake tired after a good nites sleep?
2. Are you colder then others?
3. Do you get sleepy in the afternoon after a good nites sleep?
4. Weight gain?
5. Lose of muscle tone, dry skin, poor hair growth?

Thanks; in fact my friends mother also suffers from cold extremities, ie fingers and toes go white when cold, leading to chilblains, (possibly Reynauds disease).

Absolutely no other circulatory or thyroid symptoms. Does this matter then?

[This message has been edited by Leporello (edited 05 November 2000).]

I take the attirude that CAA etc medicals are done to complete their requirements. I answer no to their questions as most of what they want is of questional value. What I would do if I suffered from one of the questions is go to my own GP and discuss it.
I feel that we are a mob of ginnea pigs for their experimentation. I was once told by my regulatory authority they aim to have the same failure rate on medicals as aircraft. I said that my aircraft suffers an engine failure approx every 18 months in my Co, and I (then) knew of noone that had failed to complete an aircraft flight.

I had cold hands, (to the point it was hard for me to write) and they said it was from stress. They gave me something called "vasodila. . " something or other which had a cumulative effect. I was able to stop it after about 6 months, and haven't had the problem for about 15 years now.