The human body has more than 300 joints: from the largest - the hips and shoulders, 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 unjustified, 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 osteopath at the first signs of joint pain will be the right and timely decision. After all, osteopathy with its idea of the body as a complex interconnected system of skeleton, joints, muscles and internal organs gives the most logical declaration of joint diseases and demonstrates high efficiency in their treatment.
Numbness and pain in the arm. Causes and diseases
Hand pain and tingling in the hands are usually caused by dysfunction (damage) 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, which begins as a slight decrease in the sensitivity of the little finger and ring finger and gradually spreads along the limb to the forearm, affecting mainly the inner part.
Pain in the joints of both hands, accompanied by numbness of the thumb and forefinger, and sometimes the middle finger, indicates disorders of the cervical spine, possible pinching of 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.
At the age of 45 and older, numbness, reaching complete inability to move the arm, even after light 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 illnesses and previous injuries manifest themselves in the form of pain in the joints of the hands. One-time sprains, bruises and cracks on the navicular and lunar bones of the arm, left unattended, can be cured. The consequences of such a careless approach threaten partial or complete loss of mobility. In addition, diagnosing fractures and cracks is quite simple - both with the help of X-rays and during a visit to an osteopath. The latter is also able to help with the consequences of such injuries, eliminating possible bone displacement and damage to blood vessels, pinching 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 overexertion, the performance of monotonous physical exercises, adverse external influences on the joints. Most of the 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 the right, the right hand is more often affected, in the left the left. Due to the constant presence of the hand in the same position - on a computer mouse - there is swelling of the ligaments (tendons) and the proximal nerve. Over time, increasing pain in the wrist can lead to numbness and even complete inability to move the arm. The disease was called - "Tunnel Syndrome";
- Pregnant women. They also show the "tunnel syndrome", which becomes most pronounced after 3-4 months of pregnancy. Usually, pain in the joints of the hands is preceded by swelling characteristic of late pregnancy. They, in combination with increasing body weight, lead to carpal nerve damage. The pain can range from mild joint discomfort to complete numbness of the hands. Usually after the birth of a child the functionality of the joints is restored;
- Pianists, tailors, laundries, cleaners. As a result of constant stress, falling mainly on the muscles of the tendons 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 dealing with it relatively easy. The main thing is to contact an osteopath before the formation of scars begins to change. This is usually preceded by severe pain, inflammation and swelling in the joints;
- Cranes, 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 to the wrist joint. The disease is caused by a violation of blood circulation in the wrist, which leads to severe pain in the joint of the hand, and later begin changes and destruction of bone tissue. The joints of the hand, which is a worker's hand, usually 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 hands. The shoulder and elbow joints are equally often affected. Usually their lesions are caused by injuries to the hands, spine, as well as diseases and age-related changes leading to thinning of cartilage 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 arm, crunch in the joint and other disorders of hand mobility.
Osteopathic treatment of pain in the joints of the hands
Pain in the joints of the hands is not always caused directly by damage to these joints themselves. On the contrary, the root causes of the disease are often quite far from the hands. Therefore, treatment can be effective only if it is aimed at eliminating the root causes. This is the approach practiced by osteopaths. At the same time, sophisticated methods demonstrate high efficacy in hand pain when manual techniques are combined with moderate physical activity and at the same time the patient's diet is adjusted and the main source of the disease is affected.
In the first stage of treatment, the pain in the joint of the hand always stops. This makes the patient's body more responsive to osteopathic influences and allows him to fully relax during the session. Since the sessions themselves are held with quite long breaks (1-2 weeks), the body needs to recover and adapt to the changes introduced into its functioning by the osteopath, it is recommended to fix the joint in a fixed position for this period. For this you can use splints, corsets, various support bandages and more.
After removing the pain in the joint of the hand, the osteopath begins to relieve muscle spasms and removes the blocks that interfere with normal blood circulation in the areas near the joints and throughout the body as a whole. Restoration of blood supply to the affected area improves tissue nutrition, as a result of which the pain does not return and the joints themselves begin to gradually recover.
At the stage of recovery, proper nutrition is very important, which will allow the body and damaged areas to receive all the necessary set of trace elements, vitamins and nutrients. Thanks to the gradual renewal and recovery of tissues, the joints of the hands acquire lost mobility, not only the pain disappears, but also the feeling of numbness and discomfort.
To maintain the improving condition of the arms, the joint should be loaded gradually to consolidate the positive trends and strengthen the muscles of the arm. Physiotherapy procedures and physiotherapy exercises must 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.
Along with the treatment of the hands, the root causes of the disease are also affected - the spine, the cervical region, the internal organs. Osteopathic techniques are aimed at improving the 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 turning to an osteopath in this case is that while treating the pain in the arm, it also alleviates other deeper disorders that have become the main cause of this pain.
Pain in the hand joint is not always a disorder of the wrist, so traditional treatment with symptomatic methods may not work. While an osteopath who perceives the problem more broadly is only able to help for a few sessions.