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Hand Arthritis
Arthritis is commonly identified with pain. Since it affects
the joints and is degenerative in nature, it causes a lot of
inconvenience and despair. Often it starts with a tiny pain
jolt in any one of the joints in the body – it could be the
wrist, the fingers, the ankle, etc. Sometimes, arthritis is
triggered by the weather changes, while other times it is
directly caused by trauma.
Hand Arthritis Symptoms
There is no such specific arthritis that is called hand
arthritis. However, the pain and swelling of the wrist, hand
and fingers is caused by many types of arthritis such as
rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis among others.
Osteoarthritis has been known to attack the joints of the hand
and fingers in particular. You could say that the majority of
people who suffer from hand arthritis are patients of this type
of arthritis.
The main cause for osteoarthritis is aging. There is loss of
water in the joint and hence, friction occurs while moving.
This, in turn makes the joint cartilage rub against one another
and hence be gradually frizzled. With time, the cartilage is
ruptured and the bone is affected causing pain and swelling in
the hand – hence, the hand arthritis.
Other causes are hormonal imbalances, lack of vitamins, protein
and calcium, and sometimes even a very sedentary life.
Overweight tends to aggravate the diseases and often the
patient needs to lose weight to alleviate and check the pain
and progress of the disease.
It is common with hand arthritis to find that fingers have
grown extra bones (called bunions) which are extremely painful.
The disfigurement is very common wherever the joints are
affected by osteoarthritis. Hand arthritis also causes fingers
to fuse together. Such deformations can be corrected only with
the help of surgery. Doctors usually advise the patients to
exercise the affected part continuously, lest the loss of
cartilage would cause bone fusion.
You will find very similar symptoms (to hand arthritis) caused
by rheumatoid arthritis as well. This usually affects women
more than it usually affects men. A blood test would be
sufficient to confirm this diagnosis as it will show antibodies
meant to fight alien organs – this is a direct result of the
malfunctioning of the immune system. Regular treatment can help
checking the progress of this disease; a good diet coupled
vitamins and calcium supplements can help a lot.
Normally, doctors prescribe NSAIDs and regular exercise. Yoga
and a good number of herbal medicines have been found to be
very useful as well in controlling the pain and restoring the
capacity to move the joints freely.
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