Many people experience tingling sensations in their hands and feet that come and go.
This tingling — or prickly pins and needles sensation — is called paresthesia. It happens when pressure is put on your nerves or blood vessels. You could experience temporary paresthesia in the hands or feet by sitting cross-legged or sleeping in an odd position. Paresthesia could also occur in your arms and legs.
Are these cause for concern? The short answer is many times, no but sometimes, yes.
Symptoms of this often temporary and harmless condition could include a prickly sensation, numbness, itching, or a subtle burning sensation that doesn’t usually lead to pain.
The range and severity of paresthesia symptoms depend on their cause. Especially if your paresthesia symptoms are long lasting and cause you discomfort, further investigation and treatment might be necessary.
Check out this list of eight things that may be responsible for your tingling hands and feet.
Injury
Nerve compression or damage caused by an injury could cause tingling hands and feet. Two injuries commonly resulting in paresthesia could include a herniated disc (of the spinal cord) and sciatica (pain that radiates along the path of the sciatic nerve, which branches from your lower back through your hips and buttocks and down each leg). These two conditions are related to radiculopathy.
Radiculopathy is the collection of symptoms related to pinched nerves in the spinal column. These pinched nerves can result from injury and cause symptoms of tingling or prickly sensations.
Vitamin deficiency
Your nervous system needs certain vitamins to work properly. This is especially true of B vitamins. Tingling of your hands and feet could occur as a result of deficiencies in vitamins B1, B6, and B12. Niacin and vitamin E are also important for a healthy nervous system.
Vitamin deficiencies aren’t the only vitamin-related culprits of paresthesia. Sometimes having too much of a vitamin can cause prickling sensations, as could be the case with too much vitamin B6.
Infection
Tingling sensations could be symptoms of certain infections; in particular that of shingles, herpes or HIV. Even after shingles or herpes outbreaks subside, symptoms of paresthesia may continue for the short or long term. In most cases of these infections, tingling sensations come and go.
Environmental factors
Environmental toxins could be a source of tingling hands and feet, if you’ve ingested enough of those toxins to cause harm. From industrial chemicals to an overload of minerals our bodies need to survive, environmental toxins can do life-threatening damage to the body.
Peripheral neuropathy (damaged nerves and blood vessels) resulting in tingling hands and feet could come from exposure to many different toxins like ethanol, lead, and mercury.
Being overweight
Considerable pressure against our nerves could also be caused by obesity. Carrying significant extra weight can put enough stress on nerves to damage them.
And, like someone with diabetes, an obese person is more likely to experience the kind of glucose fluctuations that could also cause damage to nerves and blood vessels.
Even carpal tunnel nerve damage and tingling can happen more often in those who are obese, due to higher probability of blood sugar dysregulation.
Sedentary lifestyle
If you have a sedentary lifestyle, you might experience tingling hands and feet more than very active people. Spending many hours a day sitting or lying down puts added pressure on your nerves. Movement helps prevent that kind of nerve compression from happening.
Though repetitive motion can have the opposite effect. For example, if it was your job to turn some kind of crank for hours at a time, you’d likely develop tingling in your hand, arm or elbow from that repetitive motion. You’d probably need lots of breaks and to switch hands regularly to try and prevent nerve damage.
As pointed out in the beginning, this sensation of pins and needles in your legs may just be as a result of sitting the wrong way for an extended period of time and will resolve as soon as you correct your posture. However, if you’re experiencing long-term tingling in your hands and feet, consult with your doctor to decide if further investigations are required and possible
therapies and medications that might help bring relief.
