The fingers of the upper limbs play an important role in human life, helping him to carry out delicate work at home or during the process of labor. But inflammatory processes in thin joints also often occur, especially in old age, and therefore the movements become difficult, painful, and the phalanges of the fingers are so bent that they disfigure the hand.
If the joints in the fingers hurt, the causes and treatment are closely related. Let's consider them in more detail.
Fingers hurt - the cause of discomfort
Pain, swelling in the area of the joints of the fingers can be caused by various reasons:
- All types of arthritis often 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 swell and become inflamed. First, the joint hurts, for example, to the right, then to the left. At the same time, discomfort on the right and left hand does not appear;
- Psoriatic arthritis is characterized by dysfunction of all joints, they stretch, turn red. If the process is caused by the infection of the joint components with viruses of various types, then a sharp increase in body temperature is added to the signs of local significance, accompanied by subsequent intoxication of the body. In children, the symptoms of infectious arthritis are more pronounced than in adults;
- For stenosing ligamentosis, the main symptoms, in addition to night 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, then painful sensations appear after doing physical work, subsiding at night. In this case, first a joint can be damaged, then gradually the pains cover all the phalanges of the hands. Sometimes the disorder captures the joint base of the thumb, which then begins to deform, capturing the metacarpal bone;
- Severe pain is a sign of the development of osteomyelitis, 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 by a sharp pain;
- Sometimes the pathology manifests itself only in the fingertips. Neuropathies of the ulnar nerve are manifested by painful sensations in the left hand, the fingertips become numb, turn white. This is due to the fact that blood circulation is impaired in the fingertips, they do not receive proper nutrition;
- Hypothermia of the upper limbs responds with unbearable joint pain, accompanied by cyanosis or severe 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;
- Frequent upper limb 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 the wrist, which is reflected in aching pain. In addition, occupational pathologies include vibration disease, the signs of which are numbness of the fingers, attacks of painful sensations.
The reasons listed indicate that the joints of the fingers of the upper limbs are more affected by any inflammatory diseases of a viral or traumatic nature.
How to help your fingers if they hurt
There are various methods on how to treat the joints of the hand, they are all effective in combination.
Medical procedures will reduce pain
Most importantly, painful processes are removed by a variety of medical procedures.
Regular massage helps improve peripheral blood circulation when the joints of the hands receive adequate nutrition and oxygen. During a session consisting of stroking, rubbing, kneading, shaking, you can perform the procedure for one finger or all at once.
Microwave therapy, when exposed to very high frequency electromagnetic fields, creates the conditions for the expansion of blood vessels, the normalization of the passage of nerve impulses and the reduction of spasms of smooth muscles. The effectiveness of the procedure is associated with its anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antispasmodic effect. Local barotherapy is performed using equipment that creates high or low pressure. Usually this procedure is used to treat bone pathologies associated with neurological disorders when other methods do not help.
To improve metabolic processes, eliminate pain, electrophoresis can be performed, in which the necessary medicine is injected into the joints of the hands using current force.
Medicines are the basis of therapy when your fingers hurt
However, one cannot do without the use of pharmaceutical preparations in the treatment of joint diseases:
- 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 useful for 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 remove excess uric acid salts for gout, psoriasis.
Recipes of traditional medicine will save you from pain
The main methods of relieving joint pain, developed by traditional healers, are associated with the application of compresses, rubbing the affected area.
- Pan-heated sea or cooking salt, used as a compress for sore joints, will gradually soothe them. Applying it daily, alternating with rubbing fir oil in a week will make you feel good.
- 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 relieves discomfort.
- Grated onion gruel is effectively used to treat joint ailments with compresses. Cabbage leaf also has a beneficial effect, strengthens the components of the musculoskeletal system.
- Effective treatment: rubbing the affected area with apple cider vinegar, half diluted with water, will give a positive result in a month.
- A solution prepared in advance of twenty grams of celandine, a liter of olive oil, infused for two weeks, is massaged with massaging 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.
Systematic implementation of therapeutic measures will help keep your fingers working and 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 smoked foods, flours, high-fat, salty and spicy dairy products. By eating seafood, vegetables, especially cauliflower, radishes, lettuce, as well as consuming pomegranate, figs, ginger, adding olive, linseed oil, you can improve the condition of the 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 on the computer, you need to knead, shake the brushes every half hour to improve blood microcirculation.
- When working with vibrating tools, it is necessary to protect the hands of the extremities with gloves that firmly support them.
Taking care of your hands, preventing hypothermia prevents pain.