How to Keep Your Fingers Warm

Keeping your fingers warm can be challenging whether you are participating in an outdoor winter sporting event or just out shoveling snow. Chilly fingers are not only uncomfortable but can also pose a health hazard. A slight chill can turn into frostbite if you don't take steps to keep your fingers warm. Wearing gloves or mittens is a time-honored way to help keep your fingers toasty but there are other ways to warm up your digits too.

Things You'll Need

• Gloves or mittens
• Glove liner
• Hand warmer
• Hand dryer or hairdryer
• Scarf
• Long-sleeve shirt
• Vitamins B, C, E and iron
• Apple cider vinegar
• Distilled water
• Lemon juice
• Sarsaparilla root or fenugreek tea
• Ginger
• Cayenne pepper
• Fennel

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Instructions

Coverings

• 1

  An obvious solution to warming cold hands is to put on gloves or mittens. While that may sound simple enough, you need to ensure that you are dressing your hands for maximum warmth by wearing the right kind of gloves of mittens. Wear gloves that are durable and water-resistant. Ski gloves offer those qualities and contain lightweight synthetic fibers that mimic the insulating properties of goose down. Mittens can provide an even higher level of warmth because they allow your fingers to touch, using body heat to beat the chill.

• 2

  Insert a liner into your gloves or mittens for extra warmth, especially if you are going to be outside for an extended period of time. Place the lightweight liner right inside your gloves before you put in your hands. They provide an extra layer of insulation. Another option is to add a commercially available hand warmer inside your gloves or mittens. Hand warmers are small pouches that are sensitive to the air temperature. They help trap heat inside your glove and send it to your fingers.

• 3

  Keep your gloves or mittens dry. If they become wet, remove them immediately, dry off your hands and then put on a pair of clean dry gloves. Wearing water-resistant gloves will help keep them from becoming saturated with water, snow or ice. If you only have one pair of gloves or mittens, dry them under the hand dryer in a public restroom or use your home hairdryer. Commercial glove dryers are also available that plug into any electrical outlet..

Other Options

• 4

  Swing your arms forward and backward in an arc for several minutes to help warm your fingers. This will force the warm blood from under your arms down into your fingers, warming them. Rotating your wrists and clinching and unclinching your fists helps warm fingers too. Other physical activity, such as a few jumping jacks or jogging in place, will also help boost blood flow to the extremities.

• 5

  Cover your wrists and neck to help keep your fingers warm. The skin is thin in these two areas, which contain many primary blood vessels. Cold air will cause the blood vessels to constrict, reducing blood flow to the fingers; covering your wrists and neck to warm them will help keep that from happening. Throw a scarf around your neck and wear a shirt that has sleeves long enough to completely cover your wrists.

• 6

  Improve your circulation to your fingers by not wearing tight fitting clothing, which restricts blood flow. Instead wear several lightweight layers of clothing. Do not put on cotton as your first layer of clothing; it does not retain heat but does hold in moisture. Opt for a moisture-wicking synthetic fabric instead.

• 7

  Supplement your diet with vitamins, herbs, foods and beverages known to enhance circulation, thus offering a boost all the way to your finger tips. Vitamins B, C, E and iron are all essential for good circulation; talk to your doctor about the dosage that is right for you. Make a warm beverage with apple cider vinegar, distilled water with lemon juice or teas of sarsaparilla root or fenugreek. You get the immediate warming effect of holding a steaming mug in your hands and a circulation boost from the ingredients too. Add ginger, cayenne pepper and fennel to your diet; they are all reputed to enhance circulation.