From my personal experience, I have cold feet and a toe without feeling which my neurologist says is nerve damage. Sometimes I have a little tingling but when I first was diagnosed with diabetes, I had numbness and exercised my feet and it went right away. I did some of the exercise in the shower. I liked that. I have had two knee replacements and back surgery, and I think some of the numbness is from those surgeries. One knee was numb for many months and is now o.k. The other knee has problems since the back surgery. Actually my feet have been cold for years and I just laughed it off, but not now. It is difficult to reason it all out at my age. My son who was a paramedic years ago said the heart doesn't pump well and he saw a lot of swollen ankles and feet problems when taking elderly to the emergency room. He saw lots of diabetes because of poor eating habits. The answer to these problems is always exercise and better eating. For me, it boils down to less portions of good eating and more exercise. That helps everything. Wear socks to bed. Now I remember I used to have cold hands all the time, but not anymore. I still play the piano. I can sew up a storm when motivated.
My mother had terrible numbness in her hands with arthritis in her forties. She couldn't braid my hair, but I didn't want it braided anyway.
She had both osteo and rhumatoid arthritis. Our bodies are so complicated, but I continue to study and search. Dorisena