Bariatric Surgery & Reynard's Disease

[HealthyLifeStyle 351]

Ever since my surgery approx. 6 months ago, my feet are so cold that they hurt. Especially my toes. No matter what I do, they won't get warm.

I made a doc appt and went last week, she told me I have Reynard's Disease, and that it is common for bariatric patients.

Has anyone else heard of this?

[The Greater Fool 1,937]

Hello.

Reading of your cold toes that hurt caught my attention as this has become particularly problematic for me of late (18 years post-op). The pain is enough to wake me from a sound sleep some nights.

Like all early post-ops I recall being cold in the first 6-12 months. I don't recall specifically if it was more so in my toes then so I assume not. This is caused by massive reduction in calories/nutrients while losing gobs of nice, warm, insulating fat. It usually self resolves eventually.

I don't have Raynaud's syndrome. I don't have the characteristic discoloration that precedes/accompanies it.

I have always had balance issues and have broken every toe more times than I can count or recall over my 60+ years so I chalked cold/achy toes to that mostly.

In my reading I learned Raynaud's is found in obese people. I didn't look at the stats on how frequent it is among the obese so not sure if 'common' applies. At a guess I think a lot of WLS folks may have been obese before surgery. If it is 'common' in obese folks it will be 'common' in WLS folks.

Dietary changes/reduction and stress can cause Raynaud's, which again is textbook WLS. Plus cold climates like New Hampshire in winter increase risk. There are also lifestyle choices like smoking, or side effects of some other diseases.

But, in researching Raynaud's for your post it reminded me of issues for me that can cause or allow the symptoms:

I have a tendency toward anemia which can cause cold digits so I've upped my Iron. This may be something to review.

My heart Doc just prescribed a beta blocker about the time my toes started getting problematic. In my reading today (thanks to you) I found they can cause cold toes. Since my heart is a tad more important I may have to suffer through this bit.

The cold is an effect of constricted blood vessels which can be caused by some drugs and relieved by others. So I suggest you do a deep dive into your medications.

mayo has a good article.

Good luck.

[catwoman7 10,845]

I know being cold is very common in bariatric patients, but I don't know about Raynaud's being common in us - I think this is the first time I've seen anything about that.

I just googled it. Most of the hits were the same article, which was published in different databases. But there were a few mentions of it in different places...although again, most were of that one article/study.

Another article said being cold after WLS could also be due to rapid weight loss and the slowed metabolism that often comes with that. I suspect that's probably what causes the coldness for most of us - but I don't know. Interesting. I'll keep my eyes/ears open for this from now on.

Edited February 12, 2021 by catwoman7