What are these orange stains that have appeared on my hands overnight?

Hello everyone
I woke up today with the same spot on my right hand, but it's not just me, my sister does too, she have spots on both her hands, and we think it's due to a medication we took together the night before (flu medicine)

Little green men eh making orange stains well they are Christmas colours 🤣🤣🤣

Dear All, About the Orange iodine like stains;
I have read most of the posts. I have had these stains twice. Definetly not fungus or allergy and not something I ate.
I’m a Canadian living in Turkey. Here in Turkey, there’s a kind of explanation for those orange stains, though it’s not 100% certain. There’s a belief that it might be the result of being taken, abducted, or kept by UFOs or UAPs. Another perspective is that it could happen when a person is in a spiritual environment beyond their conscious awareness, possibly encountering spiritual beings.

My stains were on the right side, specifically on my right hand, near the pinky and part of the palm. It was clearly visible that I had pressed half of my palm onto a surface with some kind of liquid. I’m quite sure it was a liquid. It looked as if I had used my hand to support myself or push off from the surface. The shape of the stain matched the wrinkles on my hand. When I opened my palm fully, I could see where the stains had been. But when I held my hand in a specific position, I could see exactly how the stain had formed and how I had positioned my hand at that moment.
In turkish this is called KINALANMAK so you can search and see yourself.
I am most curious.

I believe some of these case are contact related maybe fungal. I too found this thread by experiencing this a few days ago. My experience…

My work has a cafeteria with a pretty extensive fresh fruit bar that I frequent for breakfast. 2 days ago a grabbed a bowl of a favorite mix that I eat all of the time of melon, strawberry and blackberry. I usually eat this with a fork, but on this particular day I forgot to grab one. As I normally do I brought it back to my desk to eat and proceed to eat just using my left hand while I checked some emails with my right on the mouse. Later that afternoon, maybe 6 hours later, I noticed the same orange staining you all have shown or described on my left thumb, index finger tip and middle finger tip. Same experience as you all. It would not wash off. The location of the staining is too coincidental to me as that is exactly the contact point I would have as I ate the fruit with my fingers. That is why I suspect some kind of contamination on the fruit.

After a few days this has 90% faded and I would guess will be gone soon.

Hope this story helps some.

I just got these spots on two of my fingers that appeared overnight. Nothing recently changed in my diet. No carrots or orange fruit/vegetables.

The only thing that I can think of is some here have posted it could be with overripe produce. I did clean out our produce drawer in the fridge 2 days ago and handled some okra that had grown moldy. Perhaps it’s related?

I reside in Canada and have observed several people posting about this recurring issue on various websites. Recently, individuals from my homeland in Europe have also begun posting about the same problem. Surprisingly, no one appears to have identified the precise cause of this issue. I have searched these websites and discovered that there is no mention of this problem prior to the year 2020. It seems to be a novel phenomenon that has emerged within the past four years. What could it be?🤔

We had a friend who had something similar and the doctors said he had eaten too many carrots! He got it on his face as well.

I woke up with the same thing that everyone here is describing. I tried cleaning it off with soap and rubbing to no avail like everyone else. No handling of anything odd that I don't use everyday, I didn't go outside the day before, etc., same story like everyone in this forum.

I was convinced it was an internal issue until I tried what the poster Scientist suggested and rubbed it with acetone. It took a few minutes but it definitely went away. I let the acetone soak for like 20 seconds and rubbed for 2-3 full minutes. This makes me think that Scientist is likely to be right about the mechanism being DHA or something similar. I would suggest that others try to rub the stains off with acetone and see if it works. This has definitely made me feel much better that it is not a liver/kidney issue.

The question is still open as to what caused this--I saw that DHA is common in fish oil and nuts but I did not have contact with those recently. I will put a list of supplements/medications and products I use below in case anyone has any leads.

Orally: birth control pill, caffeine pill, Vitamin D, spironolactone, Cholestoff plant sterols and stanols, psyllium husk

On skin: Cerave cream/lotion, tretinoin gel .1%, hydroquinone (Melalite), Faded Serum by Topicals (Azelaic Acid, Kojic Acid). Potentially Tide detergent when doing laundry and I did come in contact with yellow sticky fly traps.

The day before the stains appeared I ate pasta with marinara sauce, tomato feta salad, prosciutto with mozzarella, some salt and pepper chips, and I had 1 glass of red wine. I also have a lot of tropical plants in my home and I live in San Diego CA.

Hello, I'm a scientist, and I just woke up with these on my hands, after various hours of running through these posts, as well as experimenting with different chemicals to remove this from my skin, I have found a solution:

The cause of this orangish stain on skin seems to be the same mechanism as self-tanner, but coming from different products that are NOT self-tanners.

Products containing DHA.

DHA is Dihydroxyacetone, and it interacts with the skin producing melanoids.

The reason we are all noticing it only upon waking up in the morning, is, like self tanners, it takes hours to develop, so we don't notice it right away, but upon sleeping for 5-8 hours we wake up and notice it on our hands.

Hands and feet are specifically susceptible to this process because they're the dryer parts of our skin.

Those who apply self-tanners for example will notice that if they're applied on the arm, and then applied on the hand, the place on the hand where it was applied will notice much more color change, and it will be much more difficult to remove from the hands.

So, how do you remove it? Using a cotton ball or paper towel soaked in acetone, press and hold on the effected area for about 20 seconds then begin to rub, using either the cotton ball, or an exfoliative pad, and this will remove the color.

Now for the bigger question:

Which products did we use containing DHA? And why weren't we aware of it, why wasn't it included in the marketing material? So think to yourselves, which liquid/moist products have you used that could contain DHA in the last 24 hours?

Baby wipes? Skincare products? Cleaning products? Paints? Lotions? Self-tanner?

So, don't panic, you may photograph it and show it to a doctor if you'd like, but it is a harmless interaction with your skin.

Also, give your hand a smell, does it smell a little sweet? Does it smell a bit like urine? Soy sauce? DHA causes these strange smells to be released from the skin when it is chemically interacting and causing the melanoids to be produced.

Cheers!

Had the same thing happen today. It looks like yellow marker. Only on my left hand and the three middle fingers at the tips. I tried everything to no avail. Alcohol Swabs and degreaser didn't work. Ended up sanding them down a bit. At first i thought i must have touched something at work while cleaning off the machines at night, but now I'm not so sure.

35 mtf. I do take multivitamins for the iron / low blood pressure, but have never had this happen before.

I found out why my hands would stain. I was using a steroid ointment on my hands for psoriasis. I went to the er because I was trippin my hands were as orange as an umpa lumpa skin. All my blood test and X-rays came out normal. The orange would not wash off tho if seemed like it was internal but it was actually external. I was getting orange from the ointment. It took about 5 days to be gone once I stopped applying it.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202408/medium-394150-img-9425.jpeg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202408/medium-985296-img-9427.jpeg

Just read through 18 pages on this thread to not find an answer… Come to the conclusion that we MUST be visited by aliens overnight!? Hehe.
This is the second time in the last month that I’ve woken up with these weird rust coloured stains all over my two hands. Like everyone else, it happened overnight! I definitely haven’t touched anything that would’ve caused it (no baby wipes, no fireworks/sticks etc). The only thing that I read is the common denominator for me is the stress/anxiety!
But surely this can’t be brought on by that…
Has anyone had any further info on what on earth this phenomenon could be!? My GP had no idea. He scrubbed it with an alcohol wipe and slight brown colouration was transferred onto the wipe. He then ruled it to be a “stain” from something I must’ve touched. But it definitely isn’t! So so so frustrating!
For context- I’m in Australia! Sososososoo weird!

Hi mcook12 still no confirmed answers but I check in every so often to keep the thread open and offer reassurance that it doesn’t seem to be threatening, just a mystery. We’ve established it won’t come off so is internal, tends to appear overnight and is usually gone within 2 or 3 days. Carotene and stress seem to play a part, but we cannot find out the exact process. It would be really great if a medic could come up with an exact explanation. Until then it’s nice to know you aren’t the only one.

Just woke up with this. I know this is probably a dead thread but just in case it’s not I’m posting to see if anyone has had any answers in the past two years.

Update: it came back later in the day and I noticed that it's only affected the parts of my hand that I use my computer mouse. I did just recently but a new one and am thinking it could be some kind of contact dermatitis. Going to revert to my old mouse to see if it comes back again (scrubbed like crazy again)

Woke up with the same thing this morning. It did sort of wash off with intense scrubbing but I can still see the outline. I seem to fit a combination of everyone. Gallbladder removed, recently flipped house, soreness in eyes. Tried a new Asian street food place last night so I'm blaming that. If it comes back tomorrow I'll go to the GP and report back. Thanks for all the helpful posts. It's forums like this that prove the internet can still be a great place!

I have had this come up twice in the last month it looks like a rust like stain on my hands. It won’t wash off but it has gone away with in a couple days it was freakin me out but this group has giving me some comfort because I don’t think it’s as serious as I thought it was but I am still going to see a dr just in case but I’ll try and update yall

Hi Niersena we are not absolutely certain. There seems to be a link with eating foods that contain carotene but it doesn’t always trigger. We think stress acts as a catalyst. Posters have seen doctors none of whom have come up with an answer. It disappears within a few days and seems to be harmless. It may come back. I haven’t had it for a while now but I do try to avoid eating red Romano peppers in excesss as I think is what first caused it for me.

Update: I woke up today to find the same thing on the soles of my feet
I was washing my feet until I realized it was similar to what was on my hand
It's not annoying but I really want to know why this appears

I woke up this morning to find my hands looking like this, not knowing what these orange spots were, like henna

I have read many posts and see that food is not the common factor in this condition

As for me, two days ago, I was in a state of panic because of something. That night, I felt pain in my entire body and did not give the matter any importance. Yesterday morning, I felt like my left half was paralyzed, so I knew that my blood pressure had risen because of that situation. The whole day passed while I was in bed because of the pain. I thought this was related to high blood pressure

I took a magnesium and B6 anti-stress pill .

Could the components of the light have anything to do with this?

Ali08

varian

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BEST QUOTE EVER!!
DT irresistible, haha, as if! 🤣🤣🤣🤣

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I have the same and want to chime in with my theories, those do wash off for me but it takes a whole shower session.

1. It's tinea nigra, but orange for some reason. Tinea nigra is a rare but harmless fungal infection. It has no other symptoms but dark spots on your feet and palms.
2.My sweat becomes orange for some reason and stains me in my sleep, it is possible and there are disorders that give you colored sweat.

It's weird that those are on palms and feet, it would be easy to explain if they appeared only on palms or only on feet.

varian

No matter how irresistible you find him, it's best to keep your hands off Donald Trump.

BEST QUOTE EVER!!
DT irresistible, haha, as if! 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Carotenemia is caused by a high intake of foods rich in beta-carotene or vitamin supplements.

Other causes are possible but need diagnosis by a doctor.

Grass stains, I would think. Grass is rich in beta-carotene.
Anything else is a cinspiracy theory.
I've had stubborn brownish yellow stains from stoning plums.
Scrubbing with salt and lemon juice removed them.