Published on October 13th, 2017 | by Guest

10 Simple Hand Exercises to Manage Arthritis Pain

More than 50 million adults and 300,000 children have some form of arthritis as per Arthritis Foundation.

Contrary to popular belief, arthritis is a not a single sickness but a loose term referring to over 100 types of joint pain or joint disease. Healthline demarcate three main types of arthritis:

Osteoarthritis (OA) – Mainly wearing out of the joints cartilage. OA is also called degenerative joint disease. It is the most serious joint disease.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) – Autoimmune disease. Mainly inflammation of synovial lining.
Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) –Mainly affects people with psoriasis.

There are different ways to treat arthritis including oral medication, injections, splint or surgery.

WebMd gives slides of some seemingly simple hand exercises for rehabilitation and management of rheumatoid arthritis symptoms. These include:

Alternately making a fist and then stretching the fingers
Stretching fingers one by one when palm is flat on the table
Bending your fingertips down to touch the base of each finger joint
Hold a soft ball in your palm and squeeze it as hard as you can then releasing it.
Pinch a soft foam ball or some putty between the tips of your fingers and your thumb.
With your palm down on a table, gently straighten your fingers as flat as you can against the surface without forcing your joints.
Wrap a rubber band on your hand then stretch your thumb as far apart as possible from the other fingers.
Extend your thumb away from your other fingers as far as you can, then bend your thumb across your palm so it touches the base of your small finger.
While holding your hand in front of you, gently touch your thumb to each of your four fingertips, one at a time, making the shape of an O.
Stretch your thumb towards the base of your index finger and back.
Using a Wrist Tape for Gaming.

Other hand exercises, WebMD continues, include playing with clay i.e. squishing the clay into a ball, roll it into long “snakes” with your palms, or use your fingertips to pinch spikes.

But if your hands and fingers feel painful and stiff, warm them up before you exercise using a heating pad or soak them in warm water for about five to 10 minutes.

Use of Stress Balls

Squeezing and pinching a soft ball as shown above is one of the steps in managing arthritis pain. The idea of the squeeze ball has been around for decades but Stringy Ball is a novel squeeze ball with a string attached to your plan or wrist. The string ensures the ball doesn’t fall or roll away when doing exercises or during break. String balls come in three categories:

Soft – For individual fingers of limited strength individuals
Medium – For grip training and users who need more resistance
High – For users who require high resistance and for core training

Author Bio:

James Pearce regularly writes on health related topics. He is currently keen on arthritis and how to use simple remedies like hand exercises for rehabilitation of arthritic conditions. He stays in Arizona with his family.

Tags: arthritis, exercises, hand, manage, pain, simple