Arthritis Hand Pain

Arthritis in the hand is one of the most severe and crippling diseases that you can ever suffer. We use our hands to eat, drink, touch, control and all sorts of daily activity that is vital for our life. But arthritis in the hand is manageable if diagnosed and treated correctly and quickly. Here is a quick and effective guide for the management and treatment of arthritic hand pain.

Arthritic Hand Pain 

Before you can treat arthritic hand pain, you have to know what it is and the causes of arthritic pain.

Arthritis is basically inflammation of the joints in your hand. This can be caused by overuse, disease, injury or trauma to any of the joints in your hands. Rhematoid arthritis is one of the common causes of arthritic pain which is a condition where the immune system destroys the cartilage in the joint. Osteoarthritis is another common cause where the joints are basically worn out by overuse or constant injury which usually affects elderly people.

The joints that arthritic hand pain can affect are the carpal joints, meta-carpal joint, interphalangeal joints, radial and ulnar carpal joints. Interphalangeal (also known as finger joints) and radial carpal (wrist) joints are usually the ones that are most affected which gives you unpleasant looking deformities or bulges in the finger and wrist joints.

With Arthritic hand pain, you will usually see:

·         deformities in the joint – fingers aren't straight and point in different directions and reduced range of motion in the joints. Your joints in the fingers don't bend as far back as it used to be. X-rays is the best way to show the deformity of the joints in the hand.

·         redness or swelling around the joint

·         pain – can be numbness, hot, sharp, aching, pins and needles

·         decreased hand function like gripping, pincing, fine motor actions like drawing or writing

·         weakness – holding a cup of coffee can be hard or painful

With arthritic hand pain, depending on the severity, it can be treated.

There are several options for the treatment of arthritic hand pain. The can help reduce or even get rid of arthritis of the hand. They are:

·         strenghtening exercises

·         electrotherapy

·         heat and ice therapy

·         massage

·         TENs

·         anti-inflammatory's

·         stretching exercises

·         aquatherapy

·         parrafin wax baths

·         Physical therapy, chiropractic, osteopath, naturopath etc

·         surgery

·         cortico-steroid injections

·         infra-red and laser treatment

·         accupuncture

·         supplements – glucosamine and fish oil – will help prevent and get rid of arthritic hand pain

The above treatment above help to get rid of the inflammation in the hand and hence help relieve pain in the joints. There are many ways to get treatment of arthritic hand pain, so there are many ways that it is possible to cure your symptoms.