Arthritis is a degenerative condition, which means time can increase your pain. However, there are plenty of other factors that can lead to increased arthritis pain in your hands.
Unfortunately, there are far too many people who have to worry about this. A study of U.S. adults between the ages of 40 and 84 shows that 44.2% of the women and 37.7% of the men surveyed had hand osteoarthritis. A physical therapist can help you learn what factors could be causing your pain to increase. They can also provide effective treatment for the arthritis pain in your hands.
Factors that can increase hand osteoarthritis pain
As mentioned above, time is the biggest factor that leads to greater arthritis pain in the hands. Most osteoarthritis progresses through stages, and moving from one stage to the next means more joint damage and more pain. Other factors that can also cause increased pain for hand osteoarthritis patients include:
- Doing repetitive hand-related tasks like typing or writing.
- Keeping your hand in the same position while sleeping.
- Working with vibrating tools.
- Not doing exercises to strengthen and stretch your hands, wrists and forearms.
How can physical therapy help manage your hand osteoarthritis symptoms?
Effectively managing arthritis pain in your hands is the top goal of physical therapy. Accomplishing this goal is possible with an individualized therapy plan, and such plans can even help reduce your pain. One reason it’s possible for therapy programs to meet these goals is the therapy methods they include.
Some therapy methods that can be helpful for hand osteoarthritis management include:
- Therapeutic exercises that can reduce tension in the forearms, wrists and hands.
- Joint mobilization to improve joint mobility and increase synovial fluid levels.
- Dry needling to address knots in soft tissue that are adding tension to your joints.
- Ergonomic recommendations that can help you maintain better wrist and hand posture during normal daily activities.
Excel Sports & Physical Therapy offers treatment for hand osteoarthritis
Ready to find treatment that can help reduce the arthritis pain in your hands? Our certified hand therapists at Excel PT in our St. Peters and Wentzville, Missouri, clinics offer the type of treatment that perfectly fits the bill. We can do a free screening on your hands to determine how severe your arthritis symptoms are. Then, our team can create a therapy plan uniquely suited to your needs.
Contact our team today for more information about our treatment options for hand osteoarthritis or to schedule an initial appointment.
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