Alternative Therapy for Hand Pain

Living, working, and socializing in the computer age can be very efficient and rewarding, however, sitting dormant at a computer screen all day can wear on your body. While searching the Internet or typing an email, your eyes are scanning the screen but the main body parts that are moving are your hands. Using your wrists and fingers to manipulate the keyboard and mouse can be particularly stressful on your tendons and muscles while the rest of your body is relaxed sitting at a computer all day. Here are some helpful tips for helping your hands get the relief they need after a hard day...whether you have an office job pecking on a keyboard, working outside with your hands, crafting, tending to a garden, or simply suffering from sore and overworked hands.

Posture

The way you sit or stand carries importance to more than just your mother. Posture professionals recommend sitting up while typing and leaning back a little at the keyboard to allow your spine to stretch. Finding the right office chair can be a hassle and they are also very costly, but you can find inexpensive lower back supports to keep you from slouching at your desk and helping to cradle your lumbar for the best possible seated position. Wrist guards, an ergonomically enhanced mouse, and supportive mouse pads can also be found and will help your posture and hopefully, your productivity.

Movement

Whether working with tools and machinery or living on the other side of a screen doing too much of one activity gets tedious and everyone needs a break. Experts say that if you are sitting for long periods of time, get up for two minutes every half hour and stand, walk around a bit, or just stretch from your toes up to your head.

Exercise

A little well known fact is that most of the crafty hobbies and everyday situations in which you use your hands actually need your finger strength instead of your palm strength. Sage advice from Dr. Alejandro Badia of the Badia Hand to Shoulder Center based in South Florida. Dr. Badia recommends finger exercises and wrist strengthening ideas to increase the blood flow to your hands and tighten the muscles in order to lessen pain. Common painful conditions that can arise from hurt upper limbs include: osteoarthritis, tendinitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, and general overall discomfort. Dr. Badia says that using a resistance band (or a device like the Xtensor, a popular resistance glove-like apparatus that works all your extensor muscles) hones in on certain finger extensor muscles that provide the basis of the finger strength necessary for healthy hands. Improve your range of motion by doing a couple exercises a couple of times per week.

More often than not we take our fingers for granted from driving, holding, gripping, touching, typing, eating, cooking, putting on makeup, shaving, and any other thousand things we do all the time that require the use of our hands we barely remember to take the time to pamper them and give them the support they need to help us throughout the day. Knuckle-cracking and joint pulling have often been used for relief however they have proven over the years not to be the healthiest idea because it can impair your dexterity and possibly decrease your flexibility over time. Ultimately by improving posture, remembering to move around while staying inactive, and building up our tendons, we can prevent injuries, stress, and strains that our joints would normally accrue over time.