Do you wear gloves in the cold? There’s a better way to keep hands warm

My hands get so cold during the winter. What’s the best way to protect them from the cold weather?


Cold injuries from chilly temperatures most commonly occur on your feet and hands. While many of us protect the feet with bulky socks and boots, we often fail to keep our hands as toasty - or, to be specific, at a comfortable temperature of at least 59 degrees Fahrenheit (15 degrees Celsius).


Part of the problem? We’re not letting go of our gloves. We should all be wearing mittens, instead.


In 2016, an intrepid emergency medicine physician from the University of Arizona who was stationed in Antarctica during the winter systematically tested more than 20 hand coverings - gloves and mittens with various combinations of linings and disposable hand warmers - to see what would provide the most protection in extreme cold.


He attached a digital temperature sensor to his pinkie, donned one form of hand covering on both hands and walked a half-mile distance through a town adjacent to windy sea ice where the ambient outside temperature was on average minus-10 degrees Fahrenheit (-23.3 degrees Celsius).


He repeated that walk three times for each kind of hand covering. His findings confirmed what some of us have experienced firsthand: Mittens generally performed better than gloves in keeping fingers warm. Battery-operated heated gloves and mittens both effectively kept the hands above the temperature comfort zone. Otherwise, mittens plus liners tended to do the same. But generic mittens - without liners - outperformed gloves, even with hand warmers.

Chemical hand warmers tended to decrease the effectiveness of hand coverings, causing the temperature at his fingertip to decrease. The scientist attributed this paradoxical finding to the bulkiness of hand warmers and how they can create a pocket of air at the wrist that exposes the hand to the outside elements.

Why mittens keep our fingers warmer

While the 2016 study was an example of just one set of experiments (one that I especially like because there was no funding from any mitten or glove manufacturer), mittens have been recommended over gloves for decades by the Wilderness Medical Society, a nonprofit that supports medicine in remote environments.

Mittens allow the fingers to share body heat with one another, creating a warm microenvironment that would be lost with individually gloved fingers. Gloves also place a greater surface area in contact with cold air. For extra fortification, the Wilderness Medical Society advises layered hand coverings, such as thick mittens coupled with a thinner lining.

Gloves do allow more dexterity and freedom of movement. But as many of us know, the colder our fingers get, the clumsier they become.

Our hands’ skin temperature is normally around 87 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit (approx 35 degrees Celsius). Researchers have found that manual performance starts to plummet when skin temperatures hit around 54 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit (12 degrees Celsius to 19 degrees).

So if what you’ll be doing outside doesn’t require complex finger manipulation - like when you’re going for a walk or on a hike - opt for mittens. Save the texting for when you get back indoors. But if using your fingers for a longer period in the cold can’t be avoided, consider investing in heated gloves.

Do hats really trap body heat?

A decades-old US Army field manual suggested that you could lose 40 percent to 45 percent of your body heat through your head if it is unprotected - but more modern experiments have since debunked this idea.

In one small experiment, researchers in Canada compared heat loss in men whose heads were submerged in cold water - around 63 degrees Fahrenheit /17 degrees Celsius - for 30 minutes with those whose heads were above water. (All submerged participants were breathing compressed air, like during scuba diving). The researchers found that those fully under the water had an increased heat loss of just 10 percent - far less than people had previously guessed.

It turns out you lose heat in proportion to how much of your body is exposed - whichever part of the body that is. So you should still wear a hat in the winter, and this is especially important for younger children and infants whose heads account for a larger portion of their overall body’s surface area. But it’s just as important to cover up the rest of your body, too.

How to treat cold injuries

Frostbite is a medical emergency, but frostnip, its precursor, can be treated at home. Both most often affect the extremities - such as fingers, toes, cheeks and nose.

Frostnip occurs when your skin becomes very cold but no ice has formed in the tissues. You may feel some numbness, too. To treat frostnip, get out of the cold and gradually warm yourself up - for instance, if it’s your fingers, put them under your armpits for warmth.

Frostbite, when body tissues freeze and cells subsequently die, often starts as a painful numbness and tingling sensation. Frostbite can develop within 15 minutes of exposure to temperatures 5 degrees Fahrenheit (-15 Celsius) or below - and the chillier it is, the more quickly it can occur, even in higher temperatures if the wind chill is low. When in doubt, get to an emergency room as fast as possible, especially if your skin is losing sensation or is turning yellowish-gray or waxy.

If that’s not an option, remove any wet clothing and jewelry such as rings and try to get inside a warm area. Don’t rub frostbitten hands together or use a fire or space heater to warm them up - you’ll have decreased sensation and can cause burns or worsened tissue damage.

When available, try rewarming the extremity in a bathtub or basin of warm - not hot - water of around 99 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit (37 to 40 degrees Celsius). If you don’t have a thermometer, use an unaffected elbow to test the water if you need to. Don’t let your injured hand be the guide.

What I want my patients to know

Some people have an extreme reaction to cold sensation in their fingers known as Raynaud’s phenomenon, which can predispose them to frostbite. It’s a fairly common condition triggered by cold temperatures or other forms of stress and causes the blood vessels to spasm, reducing blood flow. People with Raynaud’s may find that during an attack, their fingers may turn pale or blue. For people who experience this, minimizing cold exposures is especially important, and others may benefit from medications from their physician.

- Washington Post

Trisha Pasricha is a physician and journalist who writes the Ask a Doctor column for The Washington Post. She is an instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.