The human body has more than 300 joints: from the largest, the hip and shoulder, to the smallest, the joints of the fingers and toes. And each of them is important and necessary for health and a full life. Minor and unreasonable, at first glance, pain in the joints of the legs and arms can indicate serious disorders in the body, problems with the circulatory and metabolic systems. Therefore, contacting an osteopathy specialist at the first manifestations of joint pain will be the correct and timely decision. After all, it is osteopathy with its idea of the body as a complex interconnected system of the skeleton, joints, muscles and internal organs that gives the most logical statement of joint diseases and demonstrates high efficiency in their treatment. .
Numbness and pain in the hand. Causes and diseases
Hand pain and hand numbness are usually caused by dysfunction (impairment) of the cardiovascular system. Also, the causes may be neuralgic diseases of the cervical spine, pinched nerves of the hands. In heart disease, numbness of the left hand is often noted, beginning as a slight decrease in sensitivity of the little finger and ring finger and gradually spreading along the limb to the forearm, mainly affecting the inner part.
Pain in the joints of both hands, accompanied by numbness of the thumb and index fingers, and sometimes the middle, indicates violations in the cervical spine, possible pinched nerves, displacement of the intervertebral discs or the vertebrae themselves.
Numbness of the fingertips, most likely, indicates a lack of vitamins A and B in the body. This symptom is most pronounced in late winter and early spring, when the body is as exhausted as possible.
From the age of 45, numbness, reaching the complete inability to move the hand, even after small loads on the joints (sewing, knitting, working with the keyboard) may indicate atherosclerosis of the vessels of the hands, as well as damage. to the elbow and shoulder joints.
Many age-related diseases and previous injuries manifest themselves in the form of pain in the joints of the hands. It may not heal at the same time as stretching, bruising and cracking of the scaphoid and lunate bones of the hand without attention. The consequences of such a distracted approach threaten with partial or complete loss of mobility. In addition, the diagnosis of fractures and cracks is quite simple, both with the use of X-rays and during a visit to an osteopath. The latter can also help with the consequences of such injuries, eliminating possible bone displacement and damage to blood vessels, pinching of nerve endings that cause pain.
Occupational diseases of the joints of the hands.
Pain in the joints of the hands can be caused by their regular overstrain, carrying out monotonous physical exercises, adverse external influences on the joints. Most injuries and illnesses resulting from such exposure can be classified as occupational.
So, the joints of the hands often suffer in the following categories:
- People who spend a lot of time in front of the computer. In right-handers, the right hand is most often affected, in left-handers - the left. Due to the constant presence of the hand in the same position, on a computer mouse, swelling of the ligaments (tendons) and the nearby nerve occurs. Over time, increased wrist pain can lead to numbness and even a complete inability to move your hand. The disease was called - "Tunnel Syndrome";
- Pregnant women. "Tunnel syndrome" is also manifested in them, becoming more pronounced after 3-4 months of pregnancy. Pain in the joints of the hands is usually preceded by swelling characteristic of late pregnancy. They, in combination with increased body weight, lead to infringement of the carpal nerve. Pain can be expressed in varying degrees - from slight discomfort in the joint to complete numbness of the hands. Usually after the birth of a child, the functionality of the joints is restored;
- Pianists, tailors, laundresses, cleaners. As a result of constant stress, which falls mainly on the tendon muscles responsible for the work of the thumb, the pain in the hand is localized in this area. Diagnosing the disease at an early stage makes it relatively easy to treat. The main thing is to contact an osteopath before the formation of scar tissue growths begins to change. This is often preceded by pronounced pain, inflammation, and swelling in the joints;
- Crane operators, carpenters, builders working with jack tools. The so-called Kienböck's disease (avascular necrosis of the wrist bones) develops as a result of severe injury or regular microtrauma of the hand joint. The disease is caused by a violation of blood circulation in the wrist area, due to which severe pain develops in the hand joint, and then changes and destruction of bone tissue begin. Usually the joints of the hand that is the worker of a person suffer.
Other causes of pain in the joints of the hands
Pain in the joints of the hands can be localized not only in the area of the hands. The shoulder and elbow joints are affected with equal frequency. Usually their injuries are caused by injuries to the hands, spine, as well as diseases and age-related changes, which lead to thinning of cartilage tissue in the joints. In each case, the treatment may be different, depending on the complexity and severity of the disease. Only an experienced osteopath can diagnose why there is pain in the hand, a crunch in the joint and other disorders of the mobility of the hands.
Osteopathic treatment of pain in the joints of the hands
Pain in the joints of the hands is not always directly caused by damage to these joints. Rather, the root causes of disease are often quite out of hand. That is why treatment can only be effective if it is aimed at eliminating the underlying causes. This is the approach practiced by osteopaths. At the same time, complex methods demonstrate high effectiveness in case of pain in the hands, when manual techniques are combined with moderate physical activity and, in parallel, the patient's nutrition is corrected and the primary source of the disease is affected.
At the first stage of treatment, the pain in the arm joint always stops. This makes the patient's body more responsive to osteopathic influences and allows them to fully relax during the session. Since the sessions themselves are carried out with quite long breaks (1-2 weeks) necessary for the body to recover and adapt to the changes introduced in its functioning by the osteopath, it is recommended to fix the joint in a fixed position during this time. period. . For this, splints, corsets, various support bandages, etc. can be used.
Once the pain in the arm joint has been eliminated, the osteopath begins to relieve muscle spasms and removes blockages that interfere with normal blood circulation in areas near the joints and throughout the body as a whole. Restoring the blood supply to the affected area improves the nutrition of the tissues, so the pain does not return, and the joints gradually begin to recover.
At the recovery stage, proper nutrition is very important, which will allow the body and damaged areas to receive the entire necessary set of trace elements, vitamins and nutrients. Thanks to the gradual renewal and restoration of the tissue, the joints of the hands acquire their lost mobility, not only the pain disappears, but also the sensations of numbness and discomfort.
In order to maintain the state of improvement of the hands, the joint must be gradually loaded to consolidate the positive tendencies and strengthen the hand muscles. Physiotherapy procedures and physical therapy exercises should be performed under the strict supervision of a specialist and be standardized. If the pain returns to the joints of the hands, it is necessary to reduce the load.
In parallel with the treatment of the hands, the fundamental causes of the disease are affected: the spine, the cervical region and the internal organs. Osteopathic techniques are aimed at improving blood supply and metabolism in the body as a whole, which, of course, has a positive effect on the work of all its systems. The advantage of going to an osteopath in this case is that while treating the pain in the hand, it simultaneously relieves other deeper disorders that have become the root cause of this pain.
Pain in the hand joint is not always a violation in the wrist area, so traditional treatment using symptomatic methods may not work. While an osteopath, who perceives the problem in a broader way, is able to help in a few sessions.