Arthritis in Hands Symptoms

Arthritis is a disease that results in degeneration of the joints. There are mainly two types of arthritis in hands. They are: osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Osteoarthritis affects the cartilage present in the joints of the hands, while rheumatoid arthritis often affects the muscles, tendons, various tissues as well as the cartilages. Osteoarthritis is mostly found in the elderly as it is caused due to degeneration of the joints with aging. Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory disease and can affect people of any age group. Women are more prone to get arthritis in hands symptoms as compared to men.

Symptoms

Arthritis can be found in the wrist joints, thumb joints, and the finger joints. The main symptoms of arthritis in hands are follows:

Joint Pain: This is one of the earliest arthritis symptoms. The characteristic of hand arthritis pain is that it is a constant dull pain with a burning sensation that continue to bother the patients continuously. This pain intensifies when the hand is overused by activities like lifting of heavy weight, typing, writing, knitting, etc. When the hand is given some rest, the joint pain tend to go down. When the pain turns severe, it can disrupt the sleep of the patient. The pain usually tend to worsen in humid or rainy weather.

Swelling of the Joint: When the joint pain continues for a long time and the patient does not reduce the stress on hands, then it can result in swelling of the joint. This way our body try to give out the signal to stop further use of the affected hand. This occurs when the underlying tissues are damaged by arthritis.

Stiff Joints: The wrist joints as well as the finger joints becomes stiff due to persistent pain and swelling. It becomes noticeable when the patient experience extreme pain while doing activities like opening of the lock or the lid of a container. The stiffness can lead to reddening of the joint and it becomes warm and tender to touch. Many people ignore this symptoms of arthritis as it can happen due to various other causes. Stiffness of joints due to arthritis is mostly felt in the morning time and in cold weather condition.

Deformity: The deformity of finger joints due to hand arthritis is often referred to as Heberden's node. In this condition, the shape and size of the top of the arthritic fingers changes because of constant swelling. One may also feel that the joint has loosened up.

Other Symptoms: Other signs of arthritis in the hands a sensation of grinding or cracking of the joints during movements, loss of strength in the joints, loss of joint function, decrease in joint mobility. It occurs due to damage caused to the cartilages. Formation of cysts in the end joints of the finger can also result from hand arthritis.

Home Remedies for Arthritis in Hands

There is no complete cure for arthritis. One can manage the symptoms with the help of painkillers, pain relieving ointments and corticosteroid injections. However, these medicines of arthritis treatment when used for a long time can give a number of adverse side effects. There are a few good home remedies that can be used.

Application of heating pads can reduce the pain of hand arthritis. Another method of heat application to the painful hands of arthritis is to soak the hands in warm water in which Epsom salt has been added. The medicinal properties of Epsom salts can give a healing touch to the swelling as well.

Cold compression can also be used to get rid of arthritis symptoms. Do not apply the ice directly on the affected joint. Rather, take some ice cubes in a plastic packet and wrap it with a towel and apply it over the painful hands for about 15 minutes and not more than that. Then take a break for half an hour and apply it again.

Hand stretching exercises is the simplest method of relieving the pain and stiffness of the joints. They make the joints flexible and add strength to the muscles and thus mobility of the hands is restored. You can talk to a physical therapist in this regard. Activities like light gardening and housecleaning can also act as stretching exercises for the hand joints.

The importance of the knowledge of arthritis in hands symptoms lies with the fact that if it is detected at an early stage, then the treatment can start early too. This will prevent further aggravation of the condition. Due to late detection of the disease, it may happen that the joints get damaged so badly that surgery becomes the only option of treatment left.