The fingers of the upper extremities play an important role in human life, helping him to perform delicate work at home or during the labor process. But inflammatory processes in thin joints also occur often, 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 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 area of 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 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 articular region is visible. In rheumatoid arthritis, the phalanges of 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 hand. At the same time, discomfort on the right and left hand does not appear;
- Psoriatic arthritis is characterized by impaired working functions of all joints, they stretch out, turn red. If the process is caused by infection of the articular components with viruses of different 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 ligamentitis, the main symptoms, in addition to pain at night, 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 one joint can be damaged, then gradually pains cover all 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 developing 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 becomes dark red, you cannot touch it, because the joints of the fingers are immediately pierced by acute pain;
- Sometimes pathology manifests itself only in the fingertips. Neuropathies of the ulnar nerve are manifested by painful sensations in the left hand, the tips of the fingers become numb, turn white. This is due to the fact that blood circulation is impaired in the tips of the fingers, they do not receive proper nutrition;
- Hypothermia of the upper extremities responds with unbearable joint pain, accompanied by cyanosis or severe redness of the affected area;
- With inflammation of the thumb ligament, de Quervain's disease, any movement of the hand causes a painful attack;
- Frequent injuries of the upper extremities include dislocations, accompanied by sharp pain;
- People who spend a lot of time at a computer keyboard tend to pinch the wrist nerve, which is reflected by aching pains. Also, professional 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 any inflammatory diseases of a viral or traumatic nature.
How to help your fingers if they hurt
There are various methods of how to treat hand joints, they are all effective in combination.
Medical procedures will reduce pain
Best of all, painful processes are removed by 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 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, antispasmodic effect. Local barotherapy is carried out using equipment that creates high or low pressure. Usually, this procedure is used to treat bone pathologies associated with neurological ailments, when other methods do not help.
To improve metabolic processes, eliminate pain, electrophoresis can be done, where the necessary medicine is injected into the joints of the hands using current strength.
Medicines are the basis of therapy when your fingers hurt
Still, one cannot do without the use of pharmaceutical preparations in the treatment of joint diseases:
- Non-steroidal drugs will help relieve puffiness, reduce pain;
- If the disease is caused by an incorrect functioning of the immune system, then potent drugs of 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 articular pathologies only with antibiotics, cytostatics, hormones, for rheumatoid arthritis, hypouricemic agents that remove 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 frying pan, used as compresses for sore joints, will gradually soothe 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.
- Gruel from grated onion is effectively used to treat joint ailments with compresses. The 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 in a month.
- A solution prepared in advance of twenty grams of celandine, a liter of olive oil, infused for two weeks, is rubbed in with massaging movements in the morning and 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 make your fingers work 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, flour, dairy products with a high fat content, salty, spicy smoked foods. Eating seafood, vegetables, especially cauliflower, radishes, lettuce, as well as consuming pomegranate, figs, ginger, adding olive, flaxseed oil, you can improve the condition of bones, remove excess salts, toxins from the body.
- Joints need to be given rest, a variety of light work, more often to carry out gymnastics for them. Working at a computer, you need to knead, shake your brushes every half hour to improve blood microcirculation.
- When working with vibrating instruments, it is necessary to protect the hands of the extremities with gloves that tightly support them.
Taking care of your hands, preventing hypothermia will prevent pain.