Raynaud's and facial flushing from clondine and betablockers

[Froggirl]

I know heaps of people here also have Raynaurds so i was wondering if anyone else here has heard of primary Raynaurds causing facial flushing?

I was also wondering how many people developed Raynaurds only after being on betablockers or clondine? This was the cause for me and while it got better when i stopped it didn't go. I found some useful info including medications which can cause raynauds here:

http://podiatry.curtin.edu.au/encyclopedia/raynauds/

I hadn't read of this happening but my doctor has said that it is quite common for Raynaurds to affect the face, particularly the nose and ears. Looking back I am sure it affected my face while i was on clondine and propranol, at night once i got cold numb painful sensations in my face, followed by throbbing flushing. I stopped clondine when it became clear that i had Raynaurds, one night my toes became red, swollen and painful and i couldn't get my shoes on for two days.

I have to take betablockers for a heart issue, so swapped to Atenonol (which is less of a problem for Raynauds) and cut my dose right down. But now my nose has taken to flushing on it's own, and then last weekend one ear swelled up to twice it's normal size for an hour and it was incredibly painful. I thought that this was rosacea getting worse but my doctor is postive it was Raynaurds, particlarly since the same thing has been happening to my hands, feet and knees.

So does anyone else get this? Did anyone find it went once they stopped betablocker or clondine?

[phlika29]

Hi

I suffer from Raynaulds and when I started to take clonidine I had major flushing of my nose. It went crazy and started to swell. Took months to calm down, I put it down to a bad reaction and vowed never to go near it again.

Sarah

[Froggirl]

Sounds very much like what happened to me, although main problem was numbness weird sensations followed by throbbing flushing of my face.

[phlika29]

Froggirl

I definately suffered the throbbing thing. It felt like my nose had grown to about double the size. Just awful.

Hope your recovery form the v beam is going well

sarah

[Poum]

I have raynaud since 20 years (i'm 25).

It's a lot worse since 3/4 years. I ve got a lot of facial blushing too.

My raynaud is really bad on my hands and foot. I can't move my hands & foot sometimes. It's a really hard situation.

[Froggirl]

It is a hard isn't it?
I try to stay cold for the rosacea and need to stay warm for the Raynauds!

[Poum]

Yep, i plan to move in an another country with a warm winter :)

[phlika29]

Yeah I think summers in the UK and winters in Australia

[stb09]

I'm confused, I thought these medications were useful in preventing facial flushing?

[Froggirl]

They are useful for facial flushing, but like any meds they can have side effects and a really common one is Raynaurd's.

Everybody reacts differently to meds but for me both, but particularly Clonidine, gave me bad Raynaurds. Which is where the blood vessels first constrict (and the area goes white) and then goes red and swells when the blood rushes back. It most commonly effects the hands and feet which i had as well but i also got this on my nose and cheeks.

When i looked online i couldn't find any mentoin at all of raynaurds effecting the face but my doctor said it was actually quite common. So that's why i was asking to see if anyone else had this too.

It was slightly different to my ususal facial flushing, it would go extra pale before hand and then go red and throb. Icing it did not help and only seemed to make it worse which is the oppisite to my usual flushing. It also effected my nose which my usual flushing didn't and happened mainly at night when the temperature dropped. I can't tell you how glad i was to find out this was Raynaurds rather than rosacea getting worse. Treating it was so much easier, i just stopped the meds and it went.

If only my regular flushing was so easy to treat!

[stb09]

So, you use the medications to prevent facial flushing, and they end up causing a condition that causes facial flushing? :(

[Froggirl]

Exactly!!!

It is uncommon though and lot's of people use these without getting any side effects.

[IowaDavid]

If you've got Raynaud's, and an uncontrolled rosacea problem, you might very well have redness (vasoconstriction--not flushing) on your hands and nose if you take clonidine. Never had Raynaud's (yes, rosacea, tho) on my ears.

Of course, then, if you change ambient temps, your nose can go from vasoconstricted red to vasodilated red in a minute or so. It's a gigantic hassle and a serious pain in the ass.

I'd try to find out why your Raynaud's acts up, and, try to find a way of mediating that switchover from Raynaud's redness to rosacea redness--different actions at work, but, giving the vasculature a real spin that's frustrating and hard to control.

[Froggirl]

I didn't have Raynaurds before i took beta blockers and clondine and it went away again once i stopped them. So easily fixed. :wink:

I never had redness with contriction, just whiteness, then a touch of blueness and then later swelling and redness when the blood vessels dilated, like described below.

Attacks of Raynaud’s phenomenon are caused by an intensification of the body’s natural response to cold. When a person is exposed to cold, the body’s normal response is to slow the loss of heat and preserve its core temperature. Blood vessels in the surface of the skin are called thermoregulatory vessels because they react to changes in the ambient temperature. To maintain normal core temperature, these specialized blood vessels in the skin surface constrict and move blood from arteries near the surface to veins deeper in the body. But for people who have Raynaud’s phenomenon, the thermoregulatory vessels overreact to cold exposure with sudden and intense spasmodic contractions of these small blood vessels that supply blood to the skin of the fingers, toes, ears, face, and other body areas.

Once an attack begins, a person may experience three phases (though not all people have all three) of skin color changes – typically from white to blue to red – in the fingers or toes. Whiteness (called pallor) may occur in response to spasms of the arterioles (small branches of an artery) and the resulting collapse of the arteries supplying the fingers and toes. Blueness (cyanosis) may appear because the fingers or toes are not getting enough oxygen-rich blood. Finally, as the arterioles dilate (relax) and blood returns to the digits, redness (rubor) may occur.

During the attack, the fingers or toes may feel cold and numb as blood flow to them is interrupted. As the attack ends and blood flow returns, fingers or toes may throb and tingle. Typically, the blood flow to the skin will remain low until the skin is rewarmed. After warming, it usually takes 15 minutes to recover normal blood flow to the skin.

Something else i learnt with betablockers is that the non selective ones like Atenolol are much much less likely to cause circulation problems like Ryanuads than non selective ones like propranolol.