Do not apprehend painful tingling toes as something too mild to be paid attention to. While in most cases, you can actual do that, but in some you may be inviting trouble. Know what this symptom may indicate…
Tingling, when accompanied by pain, is most likely to indicate something amiss in the nervous or the circulatory system of the body. Tingling, plainly defined, is an abnormal sensation that can be felt anywhere in the body. However, the limbs are the parts that are mostly affected. Painful and tingling sensations in toes could be associated with a variety of mild to severe conditions.
What Can Cause Your Toe to Tingle and Ache?
Speaking of the most common and mild reasons for the condition, it is associated with standing or sitting in the same place for prolonged hours, or wearing an improper pair of shoes. Factors such as these keep the blood supply from reaching the legs thus, causing numbness and tingling in toes and other parts of the feet. For a healthy individual, these happen to be the most common reasons for the problem. Now, speaking of people who are suffering from some or the other kind of medical conditions, especially those that are known to affect the circulatory and nervous system of the body, situation may be a serious one.
Condition I
Let’s begin with a disorder of the body that has become one of the most common medical complaints, not only in adults but in the young and children too. I am talking about diabetes – a condition that affects the way blood sugar is metabolized in the body. Diabetes essentially causes glucose to loiter around in the blood, without being able to enter the cells to provide the body with energy. This happens due to the lack or insufficient production of insulin.
So, as the blood sugar (glucose) reaches higher levels, it increases the risk of damaging the tiny blood vessels, which do the work of nourishing the nerves, especially in the legs. With time, and without treatment, the nerves begin to deteriorate. And one of the manifestations of this damage to the nerves are painful toes, which can also be felt to tingle or have gone numb. These sensations, later, spread to other parts of the body, until a time, when the affected limbs cannot be felt at all.
Condition II
Tingling in toes when exercising or while at rest, can also be an indication of a serious nervous disorder known as multiple sclerosis. It is an autoimmune disorder which causes the immune system to attack the body’s own cells. It damages the protective covering of the nerves in the body, causing disruption in the communication of signals between the brain and the rest of the body.
So as the nerves are not able to do what they are supposed to, they start going into a deteriorating stage, which becomes impervious to correction. So as the nerves are being damaged by this condition, they begin to trigger painful tingling sensations in parts of the body. To worsen this, the affected part may go numb, and the person may also experience sensations similar to that of an electric shock.
Condition III
Raynaud’s disease is a condition that involves the extremities of the body such as the digits, and the tip of the nose and ears. When this condition sets in, these parts somehow develop extreme sensitivity to drop in temperatures, and to stressful situations. When the body gets exposed to low mercury situations or stress, it loses heat. And in order to prevent this, it manipulates the small arteries that supply blood to the skin, to narrow down thus, limiting the blood circulation in these parts. So when these parts are exposed to warmth or the stress is over, the affected person can feel a prickly, tingling or stinging pain.
Condition IV
Here we have the condition of vitamin B deficiency. In case you did not know, B vitamins are responsible for taking care of the skin, gastrointestinal tract, and most importantly, the nerves. So if your toes tingle, aches, feel weak and numb, then it may indicate that your diet is lacking these vital vitamins.
Other Causes
- Stroke
- Shingles
- Atherosclerosis
- Frostbite
- Seizures
- Underactive thyroid
- Side of certain medications
- Radiation therapy
So if you think you have been feeling the same problem for some days, then you may want to check with your doctor to rule out potential causes.
