BBC Morning Live's Dr Punam Krishan warns stress can be sign of disease affecting 10m people

Dr Punam Krishan has warned that a common problem could make a health condition suffered by millions of people even worse.

The BBC Morning Live star says up to 10 million people across the United Kingdom are living with Raynaud’s. The condition affects blood flow to the extremities, leading to whitening, pain, numbness, and pins and needles.

It traditionally affects people in the winter months, with “one or two people a week” presenting with the condition at Dr Punam’s Scotland surgery. And while the colder weather is one thing that affects Raynaud’s, Dr Punam says stress is another factor that leads to flare ups.

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The 41-year-old says she has first-hand experience of how Raynaud’s can impact the quality of life of people living with the condition after a family member was diagnosed with it. It has led to Dr Punam teaming up with Scleroderma & Raynaud's UK (SRUK) to encourage people to check if they have Raynaud’s.

Speaking to SurreyLive, she said: “I got involved because autoimmune conditions, Raynaud’s for example, is a condition that I treat quite commonly at the GP practice but I also have someone who is very close to me in my family that is affected by it.

“I have seen first hand the impact a condition like Raynaud’s can have on the quality of life for my patients and my loved ones. So when I heard about the campaign they were running, it was a no-brainer.”

Dr Punam says many people won’t even realise they have the condition. She continued: “From now until February time, I will see one to two patients a week, which might not sound like a lot but it does all add up. People that require medication on an annual basis and need to take precautions or measures to get through the colder months.

“At this time of year, stress is another cause of Raynaud’s and that is a less commonly known symptom. I tend to see a number of patients who find it affects their quality of life.”

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The medic says people with Raynaud’s can find themselves with low moods and not wanting to go out during the winter to socialise. She says symptoms can also be “extremely painful”.

SRUK has now launched a one minute test to a 60 second online test where people can answer a survey and find out if they are at risk of developing the condition. It could also highlight whether they are at risk of other autoimmune conditions such as Lupus or scleroderma.

For anyone with Raynaud’s, Dr Punam says there are some simple lifestyle changes that can be made. This includes stress management and knowing what triggers your condition.

She added: “Smoking is particularly a red flag when it comes to Raynaud’s and because the condition is a constriction of your blood vessels, smoking can increase that, so we’re offering smoking cessation support.”

She says a majority of people with Raynaud’s have it as an isolated condition, however, a small number of people will have it as part of scleroderma - which can cause hardening and thickening of the skin and muscles.

This condition, Dr Punam says, can affect your other organs. She added: “Raising awareness of that is important because we can diagnose those conditions and hopefully help support that before it becomes more serious.”

SRUK is also set to launch the Symptom Tracking App for Raynaud's (STAR) to help people manage the condition and to learn more about Raynaud’s. Sue Farrington, Chief Executive, SRUK, said: “There is so much we don’t know about debilitating auto-immune conditions like scleroderma and lupus, but we do know that many of the answers, the keys to unlocking breakthroughs in diagnosis and treatment, could start with the millions of people who have Raynaud’s. That’s why we are calling on as many people as possible who think they might have Raynaud’s, to take our simple test and be part of the answer.”