Cold Feet (literally)

[Endless]

My feet are sometimes ice cold. As in, literally like ice. They don't even warm up in a hot shower.

Does this have anything to do with our E or our meds? I have TLE, and if it was E wouldn't something like this come from the frontal lobe??? My cold feet have been happening on several meds, but only since I started taking AEDs. A coincidence?

While we're at it, Trileptal made me feel like I had arthritis in my feet, hands, shoulders, hips. After I went off the trileptal the pain and swollen joints went away in most parts of me, but my hands are still pretty bad. It hurts to type. Anybody else had this? Was it permanent or did it go away eventually?

 

[Nakamova]

I don't think my feet are any colder since I've had E, (although they do tend to the cool side), but I seem to have lost a little sensation in some of my toes. I know that can be a side effect of Dilantin, which I was on for a few years. But I've only really noticed it since I've been on Lamictal.

Lamictal is known to cause painful joints -- maybe Trileptal does too.

 

[seizingbeauty]

I haven't related my cold feet and hands to my E but I'm well known for always being ice cold. My Gran use to say "Cold hands, warm heart"

 

[neilB]

My Grandmother used to say the same thing, so my HEART must as hot as hell! :roflmao:

 

[Cint]

My feet are sometimes ice cold. As in, literally like ice. They don't even warm up in a hot shower.

Does this have anything to do with our E or our meds? I have TLE, and if it was E wouldn't something like this come from the frontal lobe??? My cold feet have been happening on several meds, but only since I started taking AEDs. A coincidence?

While we're at it, Trileptal made me feel like I had arthritis in my feet, hands, shoulders, hips. After I went off the trileptal the pain and swollen joints went away in most parts of me, but my hands are still pretty bad. It hurts to type. Anybody else had this? Was it permanent or did it go away eventually?

Have you had your thyroid checked lately? I also have hypothyroid (along with all my other problems) and when my thyroid is acting up, I am unusually cold, especially my hands and feet.

Changes of thyroid hormone levels in epileptic patients.
Zhu SQ, Liu XM, Ruan XZ, Cai Z.

Department of Neurology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical University, Wuhan.

We measured serum T3, T4, FT3, FT4 and thyrotropin (TSH) by radioimmunoassay in 150 patients with epilepsy. Of the 150 epileptic patients, 120 cases received single antiepileptic drug, including Sod valproate (VPA), carbamazepine (CBZ), phenytoin (PHT), or MixtBrodsky (MB). Each subgroup consisted of 30 cases. The other 30 were untreated epileptics. The results suggested that there was no significant difference in serum thyroid hormone levels among healthy control group, untreated group, and hepatic non-enzyme-inducing anticonvulsant group (P < 0.05). As compared with the three groups mentioned above, the serum T3, T4, FT3, FT4 concentrations of the enzyme inducer groups were decreased, however, significant decrease was found in PHT group and CBZ group (P < 0.05, P < 0.005). All 12 patients with circulating thyroid hormone concentrations below normal reference values were given enzyme inducer. None of them revealed any clinical manifestation of hypothyroidism. There was no significant difference in serum TSH level among the above 6 groups (P < 0.05), and the serum TSH level of all patients was within normal reference limits. Our study showed that the changes of thyroid hormone in epileptics were due to the effect of some AEDs and not the disease itself. The disparity between the effect of enzyme inducer and that of non-enzyme-inducing anticonvulsants indicated that the hepatic microsomal enzyme system metabolizing thyroid hormone to be induced was the main mechanism for decreased serum thyroid hormone concentrations. Though the serum thyroid hormone levels of the enzyme inducer groups were decreased, no significant increase of the mean serum TSH concentration was found. This implies that AEDs may interfere the HPA function in some way.