Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
When exposed to very cold temperatures, skin and underlying tissues may freeze, resulting in frostbite. The areas most likely to be affected by frostbite are your hands, feet, nose and ears.
If your skin looks white or grayish-yellow, is very cold and has a hard or waxy feel, you may have frostbite. Your skin may also itch, burn or feel numb. Severe frostbite can cause blistering and hardening. As the area thaws, the flesh becomes red and painful.
If your fingers, ears or other areas get frostbite:
- Get out of the cold.
- Warm your hands by tucking them under your arms. If your nose, ears or face is frostbitten, warm the area by covering it with dry, gloved hands.
- Don't rub the affected area. Never rub snow on frostbitten skin.
- Don't walk on frostbitten feet or toes if possible.
- If there's any chance the affected areas will freeze again, don't thaw them out. If they're already thawed out, wrap them up so that they don't become frozen again.
- Get emergency medical help if numbness remains during warming. If you can't get help immediately, warm severely frostbitten hands or feet in warm — not hot — water. You can warm other frostbitten areas, such as your nose, cheeks or ears, by covering them with your warm hands or by applying warm cloths.
- Holiday and seasonal safety: Hypothermia and frostbite. American College of Emergency Physicians Foundation. http://www.emergencycareforyou.org/EmergencyManual/HolidayAndSeasonalSafety/Default.aspx?id=190&terms=frostbite. Accessed Aug. 23, 2009.
- Emergency preparedness and response: Winter weather FAQs. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.bt.cdc.gov/disasters/winter/faq.asp#frostbite. Accessed Aug. 31, 2009.
- Frostbite. In: McPhee SJ, et al. Quick Answers to Medical Diagnosis and Therapy. AccessMedicine. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill; 2008. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aid=3264952. Accessed Aug. 31, 2009.
