The fingers of the upper extremities play an important role in human life, helping you to perform delicate work at home or during the birthing process. But inflammatory processes in thin joints also occur frequently, especially in old age, and then movements become difficult, painful, and the phalanges of the fingers are so bent that they disfigure the hand.
If the finger joints hurt, the causes and treatment are closely related. Consider them in more detail.
Fingers hurt - the cause of discomfort.
Pain, swelling in the area of the joints of the fingers of the hands can be due to several reasons:
- All types of arthritis usually affect the phalanges of the fingers. So, not only the bones become inflamed, but the tissues adjacent to them. The pain syndrome intensifies not only after physical exertion, but also after a night's rest. The mobility of the phalanges is limited, their shape changes, redness in the joint region is visible. In rheumatoid arthritis, the phalanges of the fingers, such as the middle and index fingers, become swollen and inflamed. First, the joint hurts, for example, on the right, then on the left. At the same time, discomfort in the right and left hand does not appear;
- Psoriatic arthritis is characterized by dysfunctions of all joints, they stretch, turn red. If the process is caused by infection of the joint components with viruses of various types, then to the signs of local importance is added a sharp increase in body temperature, accompanied by subsequent intoxication of the body. In children, the symptoms of infectious arthritis are more pronounced than in adults;
- For stenosing ligamentitis, the main symptoms, in addition to nighttime pain, are numbness. Almost all the joints of the fingers of the upper extremities swell, the right and left hand suffer. There is no swelling only in the area of the little finger;
- When the destruction of cartilage tissue begins, osteoarthritis appears, then painful sensations appear after performing physical work, which disappear at night. In this case, first a joint can be damaged, then gradually the pains cover all the phalanges of the hands. Sometimes the ailment captures the articular base of the thumb, which then begins to deform, capturing the metacarpal bone;
- Severe pain is a sign of the development of osteomyelitis, which is manifested by the formation of a purulent necrotic process;
- Traumatic pathologies lead to inflammation of the joint capsules, the accumulation of excess synovial fluid in them. The affected area turns dark red, you can not touch it, because the joints of the fingers are immediately pierced with sharp pain;
- Sometimes the pathology manifests itself only on the fingertips. Ulnar nerve neuropathies are manifested by painful sensations in the left hand, the fingertips become numb and turn white. This is due to the fact that blood circulation is impaired at the tips of the fingers, they do not receive proper nutrition;
- Hypothermia of the upper extremities responds with excruciating joint pain, accompanied by cyanosis or intense redness of the affected area;
- With inflammation of the ligament of the thumb, De Quervain's disease, any movement of the hand causes a painful attack;
- Common upper extremity injuries include dislocations, accompanied by acute pain;
- People who spend a lot of time in front of a computer keyboard tend to pinch the nerve in their wrist, which is reflected in aching pain. Also, professional pathologies include vibration disease, the signs of which are numbness of the fingers, episodes of painful sensations.
The reasons listed indicate that the joints of the fingers of the upper extremities are most affected by any inflammatory disease of a viral or traumatic nature.
How to help your fingers if they hurt
There are several methods of how to treat the joints of the hands, all are effective in combination.
Medical procedures will reduce pain
Best of all, painful processes are eliminated through a variety of medical procedures.
Regular massage helps to improve peripheral blood circulation when the joints of the hands receive adequate nutrition and oxygen. During a session that consists of stroking, rubbing, kneading, shaking, you can perform the procedure with one finger or all at once.
Microwave therapy, when exposed to ultra-high frequency electromagnetic fields, creates the conditions for the expansion of blood vessels, normalization of the passage of nerve impulses, and reduction of smooth muscle spasms. The effectiveness of the procedure is associated with its anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antispasmodic effect. Local barotherapy is carried out using equipment that creates high or low pressure. This procedure is generally used to treat bone pathologies associated with neurological ailments when other methods do not help.
To improve metabolic processes, eliminate pain, electrophoresis can be performed, where the necessary drug is injected into the joints of the hands using current force.
Medications are the foundation of therapy when your fingers hurt
Still, the use of pharmaceutical preparations in the treatment of joint diseases cannot be dispensed with:
- Non-steroidal drugs will help relieve swelling, reduce pain;
- If the disease is caused by improper functioning of the immune system, then powerful drugs from the prednisolone group are needed;
- Ointments that have a local anesthetic effect are helpful in relieving unpleasant symptoms with minor inflammations;
- Chondroprotective drugs restore the working function of the joints.
It is possible to eliminate some of the causes of joint pathologies only with antibiotics, cytostatics, hormones, for rheumatoid arthritis, hypouricemic agents that eliminate excess uric acid salts for gout, psoriasis.
Traditional medicine recipes will save you from pain
The main methods for relieving joint pain, developed by traditional healers, are associated with the application of compresses, rubbing the affected area.
- Sea or table salt heated in a pan, used as compresses for sore joints, will gradually relieve them. Applying it daily, alternating with rubbing fir oil in a week, will make you healthy.
- Compresses for diseased bones from an infusion of burdock leaves, as well as a decoction of wormwood, are applied for fifteen to twenty minutes. A burdock leaf applied to the joints will relieve discomfort.
- Grated onion porridges are effectively used to treat joint ailments with compresses. Cabbage leaf also has a beneficial effect, it strengthens the components of the musculoskeletal system.
- Effective treatment: rubbing the affected area with apple cider vinegar, diluted in half with water, will give a positive result in a month.
- A solution prepared with twenty grams of celandine, one liter of olive oil, infused for two weeks, is rubbed with massage movements in the morning and in the evening.
- The same amount of honey, glycerin, alcohol, iodine is thoroughly mixed, rubbed with this mixture of diseased areas. The positive result will be felt within a week.
The systematic implementation of therapeutic measures will help your fingers function and be healthy.
Recommendations for the prevention of joint pain.
- The organization of proper nutrition can save from pathologies of the skeletal system. To do this, it is necessary to limit the use of sweet, floury, dairy high-fat, salty and spicy smoked foods. Eating seafood, vegetables, especially cauliflower, radishes, lettuce, in addition to consuming pomegranate, figs, ginger, adding olive oil, flaxseed, can improve the condition of bones, remove excess salts, toxins from the body.
- Joints need to rest, a variety of light work, more often to perform gymnastics for them. Working at a computer, you need to knead, shake the brushes every half hour to improve blood microcirculation.
- When working with vibrating instruments, it is necessary to protect the hands from the extremities with gloves that hold them firmly.
Take care of your hands, prevent hypothermia, will avoid pain.