Why Do My Hands Hurt? Arthritis and Other Culprits
Hands are very useful to us especially when you take into account that they come in handy, pardon the pun, in a number of common, daily activities. This range from preparing food, when washing stuff from dishes, laundry among others, to stuff like driving, operating machinery at work as well as at home when operating various machinery be it in the farm or simple yard machinery such as the lawn mower. Due to all these aforementioned activities, and many others, our hands are very much in the important category. As such any injury or condition that impairs a hand or both can lead to major frustration as far as one is concerned. Another thing about the hand is, as small as it is, it is actually a very complex structure with many little bones in it. This is without mentioning the muscles, ligaments and joints in it that opens up a number of avenues through which the hand could be affected and lead to pain. Given the ongoing, this article will look to highlight a number of conditions that may be the reason why your hand is hurting, and there are a number due to its complex nature.
As mentioned in this article’s heading, one of the reasons that may be causing you hand to hurt is due to arthritis. This is a condition that leads to the inflammation of joints, and is common in the hands, particularly in the wrist. There are a number of different types of arthritis, although rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis are the most common of them all. While osteoarthritis usually afflicts the older folk, mostly due to years of wear and tear articular cartilage, leading it to decrease and hence pain to ensue as bones begin to rub on each other, rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic disease that leads to inflammation of the joints in the hands, therefore causing them to hurt; as is covered in glorious detail over at frontlineer.com. Another reason that could be causing your hand to hurt is due to a traumatic hand injury. This can be due to a fracture of any of the 27 bones in the hand or a sprain or strain of the ligaments and muscles in the hand. What is for sure is that any of these conditions that are due to a traumatic hand experience can be quite painful, especially if they are of the severe variety and it is recommended that one go get checked out if they suffer an injury that causes a traumatic hand injury.
Another reason that may be behind the pain in your hand is a condition that is referred to as carpal tunnel syndrome. This ensues when the median nerve, which is contained in the carpal tunnel, gets squeezed by a narrowing carpal tunnel. The narrowing of the carpal tunnel, as is covered in detail over at frontlineer.com, can be due to a number of reasons such as the thickening of irritated tendons, their inflammation or their swelling due to a number of reasons. Symptoms as far as carpal tunnel syndrome is concerned can reach various levels of severity, mostly due its severity. Depending on the severity as well, treatment can vary from icing to surgery for severe cases. Pain, as far as carpal tunnel syndrome is usually felt around the thumb, middle finger or index finger. Another condition that may be causing your hand to hurt is what is referred to as De Quervain’s tendinitis. This leads to the developing of pain on the side of the wrist closer to the thumb which can then travel the length of the thumb and reach the forearm in severe cases. The culprits behind this condition are overuse and repetitive activities and motions with treatment ranging from using splints, anti-inflammation medications to surgery in severe cases.
Another condition that may lead to your hand hurting is due to gout. This is an extremely painful condition that affects joints. It is can affect the knees, wrists and hands and when it occurs in the hands it leads to severe burning, redness, tenderness and pain in the affected hand. The pain is usually very intense, such that even a bed sheet on the affected hand can lead to pain. Treatment is mostly about dealing with the symptoms as it has no cure, as is covered in detail over at frontlineer.com. Another reason that may be behind your hand hurting is due to lupus, which is an autoimmune disease, which basically means that it will cause your immune system to attack healthy cells in the body mistakenly, damaging healthy tissue. Flaring up of lupus, leads to inflammation, which leads to pain in the wrists, feet and hands. This condition has no cure, as such, treatment involves managing the symptoms such as the pain and stiffness when they occur.
The above are some of the conditions that may be causing your hand to hurt. Other conditions that may be to blame include ganglion cysts, Raynaud’s phenomenon, peripheral neuropathy, stenosing tenosynovitis also known as trigger finger, among others, all of which are covered in detail over at frontlineer.com.
