Human hand is made up of 27 bones and 15 joints, which together enable movement of hands, fingers and wrist. People may come across hand pain and aches that can be temporary or long lasting. Chronic hand pain can severely affect the usual movement of the hand. There can be several reasons that can generate pain in the hands. It includes arthritis, bone fracture, hand strain, hand sprain and carpal tunnel syndrome.
Carpal tunnel remains the commonest cause for usual occurring hand pains. Any fall or injury may result in excessive stretching of ligaments resulting in hand pain. A hand strain happens when the tendons or muscles get affected and the usual symptoms include muscle pain and swelling. Any movement that can cause muscle stretching can strain the hands causing pain. Therefore, for treating hand pain, the underlying cause must be known.
8 Home Remedies For Treating Hand Pain
Prepare Poultices Or Compresses
Use devil’s claw root or St John’s Wort and make a poultice from it. Apply this prepared poultice over the painful region of the hand and get relieved from swelling and pain.
In case, hand pain is due to carpal tunnel syndrome or arthritis, this remedy is bound to be very beneficial for the sufferers. Make use of poultice many times in a day to allow free and painless hand movements.
Gentle Massage
Massage or rub over the painful area to get relieved from the pain and enhance blood flow to the hand. In case, the pain is caused due to injury and massaging seems to cause pain, then avoid this remedy. While massaging, take help from a family member or friend and pay proper attention in massaging the tendons that require more blood flow.
If the cause of pain is not clearly known, massage the complete hand including forearm, wrist and palm areas. This is a great remedy for those having hand pain due to carpal tunnel syndrome. The enhanced flow of blood offer relief to all connected areas of pain in the hand.
Hand Exercises
Those who need to indulge in repetitive activities like keyboard typing, stitching, knitting or embroidery on routine basis must perform certain hand exercises in between the work by taking a break of 5 minutes, every hour. Bend the fingers forward and backwards, rotate the wrists first in one direction and then in opposite direction.
Perform back and forth flexing of the wrist and then wiggle all of the fingers of both hands. This ensures that all joints movements remain smooth and no specific joint gets restricted in motion, leading to stiffness and pain.
Heat Application
To restore hand movements, make use of heat application after 48 or 72 hours, in case of a hand injury. The swelling must have subsided before application of heat treatment. Then apply heat in form of hot compresses, hot bath or showers and perform gentle hand exercises with help of moist heat to regain the lost flexibility and mobility.
In certain cases, heat treatment can be followed by cold treatments to increase blood flow and prevent any recurrent swelling. For first 48 hours of the hand injury, heat application needs to be avoided as it can worsen the swelling.
Epsom Salt Water
For immediate relief, soak the hands in bucket of hot water mixed with Epsom salts for 10 to 20 minutes. Then apply over a hot wet wash cloth and put a gentle pressure over the aching region for 5 to 10 minutes.
Perform this Epsom salt hand bath and heat pressure for several times in a day. This will soothe the hand pain and improve the flexibility of hands to perform actions with normal strength.
Ice Packs Or Cold Compress
Hand pain that may have been caused due to sprain in the hand can be relieved with use of ice packs or ice compresses.
Early cure using ice packs can restore the normal hand movement instantly. Moreover, it will help to reduce any swelling that might have occurred due to severe hand sprain.
Essential Oils
Massaging with essential oils of lavender and rosemary can offer a respite from aching joints of the hands. Moreover, drinking herbal teas prepared using yarrow, ginger or elderflower is believed to improve the blood flow in the affected areas. Performing moderate exercises soon after oil massage will further improve the flexibility and mobility of joints.
Hand Brace
Wear a hand brace in case of chronic hand pain to keep the wrist straight and decrease friction of the carpal tunnel bone of the wrist that could possibly flare up and increase pain.
The hand brace can be used only during relaxing or night as the hand movements get restricted and are aimed at supporting the hand, while at rest.
Caution: Please use Home Remedies after Proper Research and Guidance. You accept that you are following any advice at your own risk and will properly research or consult healthcare professional.