Pins and Needles??

[Dianyla]

You can also get pins and needles in the distal ends of extremities when your blood becomes alkaline from blowing off too much carbon dioxide. (lactic acid produced from exertion acts to help balance out the acidity/alkalinity of the blood, but when you stop the exertion there may be a lag before your breathing rate readjusts)

Heavy breathing could be the culprit (it often is for me) but certainly bringing it up to your doc is a very good idea.

This is really interesting. As soon as I saw this thread title my first thought was of diamox (acetazolamide) which I took for a few weeks in Peru while trekking at high (15K+) altitude. This drug causes major tingling and pins-n-needles at the extremities (hands, feet, face) which can be very annoying as you are constantly pawing at your face to get the spiderwebs off. Eesh.

Most of the discomfort of mild altitude sickness (nausea, headaches, etc) are due to the blood becoming more alkaline as people tend to hyperventilate due to hypoxia in the thin air. This drug inhibits carbonic anhydrase and acidifies the blood, which relieves these symptoms. So... is the tingling caused by acidity or alkalinity? Or, maybe going too far in either direction on the pH scale can cause this? Hmmm...

[KnottedYet]

Y'know, I wonder if it could go both ways, depending on how your body reacts.

I had one neurologist tell me I wasn't breathing deeply enough, so when I got the pins and needles to breathe MORE. (too acid)

Oooh, that backfired *badly*.

Neurologist #2 told me it was the other way around, that I was breathing too much and when I got pins and needles to breathe LESS. (too alkaline) He pieced it together from clues about how this didn't happen when running or biking or racing, but when I was resting. (lactic acid when I'm active makes me able to blow off all the CO2 I want, my blood doesn't get too alkaline cuz the lactic acid is my friend.)

That one worked.

Maybe it just depends on what symptoms you get when your blood gasses are out of whack? Some folks go one way, some folks the other?