Skin Protection For Raynaud's Phenomenon

Poor blood flow may make skin dry. It may also cause cuts, cracks, or sores to heal more slowly than usual. Following precautions can help protect the skin:

• We should use simple, mild oil or moisturiser (no petroleum jelly)* on hands and feet,  atleast once in a week to keep the skin from chapping or cracking. (Very little of oil, well spread.)
• In winter or cold days, the use of oil depends on the temperature and the severity.
• We should examine feet and hands daily to check for ulcers. If a ulcer develops, keep it clean and covered. Then go and consult  a doctor as soon as possible.
• Wear rubber gloves while washing dishes or while doing any kind of .work where the skin is in the contact with the water.
• We should take care when doing activities that put pressure on the fingertips, such as using a manual typewriter or playing the guitar or piano. This kind of pressure may cause our blood vessels to narrow, thus triggering an episode.
• As mentioned previously in "Living Happily With Raynaud's Thingy" (Do's  For the Patient's of Raynaud's Phenomenon), wear clothes made of natural fibres, such as cotton and wool. These draw moisture away from the skin.
• According to most of the doctors, calcium channel blockers (Nifedipine) is the safest drug for us. It reduces the frequency and severity of the Raynaud's attacks. It has the usual common side effects of headache, flushing, and ankle edema; but these are not typically of sufficient severity to stop the treatment. Nifedipine also help heal skin ulcers on the fingers and toes.
• Oil for Skin:
  The only remaining thing here, is the "Miracle Oil", by Erthly Body.
  I know, the name of the product and the manufacturing company sounds a little weird,
  but the results are really miraculous regarding Raynaud's. o_0
  Surprisingly, this oil isn't made by keeping the patients of Raynaud's in mind, but it works perfectly for us!
  And this is not only my personal opinion, my several other friends found this oil useful during the cruel winter.
  Here is the link for it's official website:
  http://www.earthlybody.com/miracleoil.htm
• For skin ulcers nonspecific vaso-dilators such as nitroglycerinpe paste is useful.
  
  As usual, I recommend to purchase the products offline, that is in real life, IRL.

* =  The reason for "no petroleum jelly", is that it has several side effects.
Here are few of them:

• After applying the petroleum jelly, smoothness and softness that we feel is actually the layer of petroleum jelly that we keep on adding over the skin. It protects the skin but also restricts the pours of the skin from letting the toxins and actual moisture out.
• This makes the secretion of all the toxins and unwanted substances to form a layer under the actual layer of petroleum jelly. The whole process results into several skin disorders and leads to dandruff, acne, dryness of the skin and hair and skin irritation.

More of the side-effects can be found on following link:
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/petroleum-jelly-side-effects.html

Regards,
Kiran :)