The fingers of the upper extremities play an important role in human life, helping him to perform delicate work at home or during the process of labor. But inflammatory processes in thin joints also often occur, especially in the elderly, and then the movements become difficult, painful, and the phalanges of the fingers are so curved that they disfigure the hand.
If the joints of 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 joints of the fingers of the hands can be caused by various reasons:
- All types of arthritis often affect the phalanges of the fingers. Then 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 area 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, on the right, then on the left. At the same time, no discomfort in the right hand and in the left hand appears;
- Psoriatic arthritis is characterized by dysfunction of all joints, they stretch, turn red. If the process is caused by infection of joint components with viruses of various types, then a sharp increase in body temperature is added to signs of local importance, accompanied by subsequent intoxication of the body. In children, 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 hand and the left hand suffer. There is no swelling only in the little finger;
- When the destruction of cartilage tissue begins, osteoarthritis, then painful sensations appear after physical labor, fading at night. In this case, first a joint may be damaged, then gradually the pain covers all the phalanges of the hands. Sometimes the disease 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, 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 with the fingertips. Neuropathies of the ulnar nerve are manifested by painful sensations in the left hand, the fingertips go numb, turn white. This is due to the fact that blood circulation is impaired at the fingertips, they do not receive adequate 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 extremity injuries include dislocations, accompanied by sharp pain;
- People who spend a lot of time in front of a computer keyboard tend to pinch the nerve in the wrist, which results in aching pain. In addition, occupational pathologies include vibration disease, the signs of which are numbness of the fingers, bouts of painful sensations.
The listed reasons indicate that the joints of the fingers of the upper extremities are most affected by inflammatory diseases of a viral or traumatic nature.
How to help your fingers if they hurt
There are different methods of treating the joints of the hands, they are all effective in combination.
Medical procedures will reduce pain
Best of all, painful processes are eliminated by various medical procedures.
Regular massage helps improve peripheral blood circulation when the joints in the hands receive adequate nutrition and oxygen. In a session consisting of stroking, rubbing, kneading, shaking, you can do the procedure for one finger or all at once.
Microwave therapy, when exposed to ultra-high frequency electromagnetic fields, creates 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 hyperbaric therapy is performed using equipment that creates high or low pressure. Usually, this procedure is used to treat bone pathologies associated with neurological conditions when other methods are of no help.
To improve metabolic processes, eliminate pain, electrophoresis can be performed, where the necessary drug is injected into the joints of the hands using the force of the current.
Medication is the basis of therapy when your fingers hurt
However, one can not do without the use of pharmaceutical preparations in the treatment of joint diseases:
- Nonsteroidal drugs will help relieve puffiness, reduce pain;
- If the disease is caused by improper functioning of the immune system, then strong drugs of the prednisolone group are required;
- Ointments that have a local anesthetic effect are useful 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, hypouricaemic agents that remove excess salts of uric acid for gout, psoriasis.
Traditional medicine recipes will save you from pain
The main methods of relieving joint pain, developed by traditional healers, are associated with the application of compresses by rubbing the affected area.
- Pan-heated sea or table salt, used as a compress for painful joints, will gradually soothe them. Applying it daily, alternating with rubbed 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 the discomfort.
- Grated onion oatmeal is used effectively to treat joint conditions 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, diluted by half with water, will give a positive result within a month.
- A pre-prepared solution of twenty grams of celandine, one liter of olive oil, infused for two weeks, is rubbed with morning and evening massaging movements.
- The same amount of honey, glycerin, alcohol, iodine is carefully 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 to make your fingers functional and healthy.
Recommendations for the prevention of joint pain
- The organization of good nutrition can save from pathologies of the skeletal system. To do this, it is necessary to limit the use of sweet, flour-based, high-fat, salty, spicy smoked foods. Eat seafood, vegetables, especially cauliflower, radishes, lettuce, as well as consume pomegranate, figs, ginger, add olive and flax oil, you canimprove the condition of bones, remove excess salts and toxins from the body.
- Joints need to rest, a variety of light work, most often to do gymnastics for them. Working in front of a computer, you need to knead, shake your brushes every half an hour in order to improve blood microcirculation.
- When working with vibrating instruments, it is necessary to protect the hands from the extremities with gloves that support them tightly.
Taking care of his hands, preventing hypothermia will prevent pain.