If you had asked me a few days ago what chilblains was, I would not have been able to tell you. I would have said it was something like a minor form of frostbite. And while that might be somewhat true, it really isn't what chilblains is.
My journey into true experiential knowledge of this condition has been short (thankfully) but rather painful. It all started with a sensation. A very unpleasant sensation. About a week ago while I was driving home, the pinky toe on both of my feet started to feel like they were on fire and itched to an incredible degree. As soon as I got home, I kicked off my shoes and saw that those two toes were inflamed and bright red. They looked sort of like this:
My first thought was athlete's foot as I have had that before, but I found it strange that there was no skin peeling or anything - just that same intense itch. However, I figured I would try the same remedy I always use for any sort of foot fungus: vinegar. Well, long story short, it helped with the itch a bit, but the redness and swelling did not abate.
Next, I figured it was my new shoes. Maybe they had rubbed my toe the wrong way. Tried putting on another sock and got back to work. Still no improvement. After a few more days of limping around because it hurt so bad to walk, I figured I would look up the symptoms and see if I could figure out what it was.
As you can now guess, I found out it was chilblains.
Chilblains is said to be caused by going from intense cold to intense heat in a short amount of time. Your capillaries (the smallest of blood vessels) can't handle the rapid change and rupture. This causes inflammation and itchiness...intense itchiness. So, if you have cold feet, it is NOT a good idea to immediately plunge them into really hot water to warm them up. (That is what I did, by the way.)
I looked up in our herbal medicine book what to do, and they had a number of ideas. Soak your feet in a strong ginger solution. Rub garlic on them. Or even slice a potato and apply it to the area.
However, after trying a number of these, I found the most effective treatment to be a poultice of raw onions and salt.
It is VERY easy to make this poultice.
- Chop up a bit of onion (amount depends on size of area needing to be covered).
- Mash up the onion using a mortar and pestle.
- Add a bit of salt.
- Put directly on the inflamed skin (only if the skin is UNBROKEN).
- Leave on for 15-20 minutes.
Then, once you have removed the poultice, rub on a bit of aloe vera for extra soothing power.
And while it is not gone completely, yet, I can say that it helps tremendously. Give it a try and see what you think!