The fingers of the upper extremities play an important role in a person's life, helping him to do delicate work at home or at work. However, inflammatory processes in the thin joints also occur frequently, especially in old age and later, when movements become difficult, painful, and the phalanges of the fingers become so bent that the hand is damaged.
If the joints of the fingers hurt, the causes and treatment are closely related. Let's look at them in more detail.
Fingers hurt - a cause for concern
Pain and swelling in the finger joints 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 but also the adjacent tissues become inflamed. Pain syndrome worsens not only after physical exertion, but also after a night's rest. The mobility of the phalanges is limited, changes shape, redness is visible in the articular region. In rheumatoid arthritis, the phalanges of the fingers, like 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 there is no discomfort in the right and left hands;
- Psoriatic arthritis is characterized by dysfunction of all joints, stretches, turns red. If the process is caused by infection of the articular components with different types of viruses, a sharp increase in body temperature is added to the locally significant symptoms accompanied by subsequent intoxication of the body. Symptoms of infectious arthritis in children are more pronounced than in adults;
- The main symptoms for ligament stenosis are numbness in addition to night pain. Almost all joints of the fingers of the upper extremities are swollen, the right and left hands suffer. Only there is no swelling in the area of the little finger;
- When cartilage tissue begins to be destroyed, osteoarthritis, and then the pain subsides at night after physical activity. In this condition, one joint may be injured at first, and then gradually the pain covers all the phalanges of the hands. Sometimes the disease occupies the articular base of the thumb, then begins to deform and occupies the metacarpal bone;
- Severe pain is a sign of the development of osteomyelitis, which manifests itself with the formation of a purulent-necrotic process;
- Traumatic pathologies cause inflammation of the joint capsules, accumulation of excess synovial fluid in them. The affected area becomes 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 at the fingertips. Ulnar nerve neuropathies manifest themselves with painful sensations in the left hand, the tips of the fingers become numb and white. The reason for this is that the blood circulation is disturbed at the fingertips, and they do not receive proper nutrition;
- Responds to hypothermia of the upper extremities, cyanosis or excruciating joint pain accompanied by severe redness of the affected area;
- With inflammation of the thumb joint, Quervain's disease, any movement of the hand causes a painful attack;
- Frequent damage to the upper extremities includes dislocations accompanied by severe pain;
- People who spend a lot of time on the computer keyboard tend to squeeze the wrist nerve, which manifests itself in excruciating pain. Occupational pathologies also include tremors with numbness of the fingers and attacks of painful emotions.
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 if your fingers hurt
There are many different ways to treat hand joints, all of which work together.
Medical procedures will reduce the pain
Best of all, painful processes are eliminated by various medical procedures.
Regular massage of the joints of the hands helps to improve peripheral blood circulation when receiving adequate nutrition and oxygen. You can do the procedure with one finger or all at once during a session consisting of wiping, rubbing, kneading, shaking.
Microwave therapy, when exposed to ultra-high frequency electromagnetic fields, dilates blood vessels, normalizes the transmission of nerve impulses and reduces smooth muscle spasms. The effectiveness of the procedure is due to its anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antispasmodic effect. Local barotherapy is performed using high or low pressure equipment. This procedure is usually used to treat bone pathologies associated with neurological diseases when other methods do not help.
Electrophoresis can be performed to improve metabolic processes and relieve pain, where the necessary medication is injected into the joints of the hands using current power.
Medication is the basis of treatment when your fingers hurt
Again, in the treatment of joint diseases can not be done without the use of drugs:
- Non-steroidal medications will help relieve swelling and reduce pain;
- If the disease is caused by a malfunction of the immune system, strong drugs of the prednisolone group are needed;
- Ointments with a local anesthetic effect are useful to relieve unpleasant symptoms with minor inflammation;
- Chondroprotective drugs restore joint function.
Some causes of articular pathologies can be eliminated only with antibiotics, cytostatics, hormones, hypourisemic substances that eliminate excess uric acid salts for rheumatoid arthritis, gout, psoriasis.
Traditional medicine prescriptions will save you from pain
The main methods for relieving joint pain, developed by traditional doctors, are associated with rubbing the affected area and applying compresses.
- Sea or oven salt, heated in a frying pan, will gradually soothe sore joints by using them as a compress. Applying it daily, you will improve your health by rubbing fir oil for a week.
- Compresses for diseased bones from the infusion of burdock leaves, as well as wormwood decoction are applied for fifteen to twenty minutes. A burdock leaf applied to the joints will eliminate the discomfort.
- Gruel made from fried onions is used effectively to treat joint diseases 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 in half with water will give a positive result within a month.
- Pre-rubbed with twenty grams of celandine, two liters of brewed one liter of olive oil, morning and evening massage movements.
- The same amount of honey, glycerin, alcohol, iodine is thoroughly mixed, rubbed into the affected areas with this mixture. The positive result will be felt within a week.
Systematic therapeutic measures will help your fingers to work and stay healthy.
Recommendations for the prevention of joint pain
- Proper nutrition can save you from skeletal system pathologies. To do this, it is necessary to limit the use of sweet, flour, high-fat dairy products, salty, spicy smoked foods. When eating seafood, vegetables, especially cauliflower, radish, lettuce, as well as eating pomegranates, figs, ginger, you can improve the condition of the bones by adding olive and flaxseed oil, remove excess salts and toxins from the body.
- To do gymnastics, they need to rest the joints, give them a variety of light work. When working on a computer, you should knead and shake your brushes every half hour to improve blood microcirculation.
- When working with vibrating tools, the hands of the extremities should be protected with tightly supported gloves.
Taking care of your hands, preventing hypothermia will prevent pain.