When you are healthy, blood flow through your body turns your skin into a pink color. This is especially true of places like your fingertips where there are many blood capillaries just underneath the skin. If your skin is very pale, it might be a sign of blood loss; if your skin is purple or blue, it might mean you have too little oxygen in your blood. Purple fingertips sometimes happen for no apparent reason and might go away quickly. But if the purple color persists or if you have other symptoms that concern you, it’s time to get in touch with your doctor.
Possible Causes for Purple Fingertips
1. Finger Injury
When you have a serious injury of the finger, the digit might turn blue or purple because there is damage to the capillaries right underneath the skin. When the blood rushes there to attempt to heal the wound, it forms a purple or blue bruise.
2. Poor Circulation
If your blood doesn’t have enough oxygen, it looks darker than usual, which turns your fingertips into a blue or purple color. Cyanosis is another name for this problem, which can often show up when you have certain underlying medical conditions, such as anemia, blood clots, or even inhibited absorption of oxygen from smoking.
3. Raynaud's Disease
If you have this disease, the top symptoms are cold, purple or blue fingers and toes. Doctors don't completely understand the cause of Raynaud's attacks, but blood vessels in the hands and feet appear to overreact to cold temperatures or stress.
Color changes in your body when you are cold or stressed and there is a numb, prickly feeling when the stress is removed or your body is warmed up. If you ever develop an infection or wound on your fingers or toes while you are dealing with Raynaud's disease, this combination could be a problem, so be sure to speak to your doctor.
How to Deal With Purple Fingertips
If you have purple fingertips, it is probably not a serious issue. Some simple home remedies may solve this problem. But if your purple fingertips are caused by underlying disease, you'd better seek some professional helps.
1. General Treatments for Purple Fingertips
- If you are worried about poor circulation, apply hand warmers or hot compressed on both your hands, especially the fingertips.
- If you have an injury, rest assured that the purple color should go away with some time.
- You can also massage and squeeze them to see if that helps.
- Medications for Raynaud's Disease-Related Purple Fingertips
2. Treatments for Raynaud's Disease-Related Purple Fingertips
There are some medications that will help ease the symptoms of Raynaud's disease, thus helping you in getting rid of purple fingertips caused by Raynaud's disease:
|
Medical Treatment |
How It Helps |
|
Calcium Channel Blockers |
These drugs work to open up the capillaries that bring blood to your fingertips and toes. It makes Raynaud's disease attacks less frequent and less severe. |
|
Alpha Blockers |
These drugs counteract the hormones that constrict blood vessels, thus opening up those vessels for better blood flow. |
|
Vasodilators |
There are typically blood pressure medications or antidepressants. They work by relaxing the blood vessels in your body, especially the tinier ones. |
|
Chemical Injection |
Sympathetic nerves in your hands and feet are responsible for the constriction and opening of blood vessels in your skin. Your doctor might inject certain chemicals to block these nerves in the affected hands and feet. If your symptoms persist or return, then this procedure needs to be repeated. |
|
Nerve Surgery |
When sympathetic nerves are surgically removed, their exaggerated responses are interrupted, which lessens the frequency and severity of the disease attacks. |
- Lifestyles Changes for Dealing With Raynaud's Disease-Related Purple Fingertips
Keep in mind that Raynaud’s disease is made worse by stress, cold, or changes in temperature. Avoiding these can help avoid the symptoms of the disease and remove the purple color on your fingertips. Here are a few options to help make that happen:
|
Lifestyle Changes |
Description |
|
Avoid smoking |
When you smoke or you are around someone who does, the blood vessels in your body constrict that drops the temperature of your fingertips, often leading to purple coloration. |
|
Do exercise |
The more you get the blood flowing, the better! So try to do more exercises, but be careful about exercising outdoors when it is cold. |
|
Reduce stress |
Do what you can to reduce emotional stress and try to avoid the things that make your stress meter go up. |
|
Keep yourself warm |
Try to prevent the problem by avoiding cold air, such as sitting in front of an air conditioner or going into the frozen-food section at grocery stores. Stay in well-heated rooms and dress in a warm coat and mittens when you go outside in cold weather. |
- When Raynaud's Disease Attacks
If you know that you are having an attack, start immediately to remedy the situation before it gets worse, which means you must warm up.
- Get inside and spend some time wiggling your fingers and toes to encourage blood flow.
- You can place your hands under your armpits to get more body heat to them, or make wide “windmills” with your arms to get more blood flowing to them.
- Dip your fingers and toes in warm water and massage them. If you are stressed out, get away from the source of that stress while you do all of the things listed here.