Very often, patients complain that their finger joints hurt. All pathologies have pronounced specific symptoms, so a specialist will quickly make a diagnosis and prescribe the correct treatment.
Rheumatoid arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis is a serious disease accompanied by an inflammatory process. It causes pain in the joints and their deformation. The pathology usually occurs in people over 30 years of age. Women suffer from it 3 times more than men.
Rheumatoid arthritis appears suddenly and is associated with poor immune system function. In this disease, immune cells mistake joint cells for viruses or bacteria and try to eliminate them. The destruction process can last many years.
The following symptoms of the disease are distinguished:
- severe pain in the joints, which worsens at night or in the morning;
- joint stiffness after sleeping;
- high body temperature;
- Sleep disturbance;
- rapid fatigue;
- decreased appetite;
- sudden weight loss;
- Formation of nodules in the elbow area.
Rheumatoid arthritis develops due to the following factors:
- previous sore throat or flu;
- joint injuries;
- infectious pathology;
- long-term stress and depression;
- genetic predisposition.
A hallmark of OA rheumatoid arthritis is decreased pain during exercise. If the finger joints of the right hand hurt and swell, the same symptoms appear on the left hand. Over time, the disease can affect other joints.
If you start therapy at an early stage, you can avoid deformation and destruction of the joints.
Hue!Breastfeeding for two years reduces the risk of rheumatoid arthritis in women by 2 times.
Treatment
Modern methods of treating rheumatoid arthritis include the following:
- aurotherapy;
- cytostatics;
- taking antimalarial medications;
- sulfonamides;
- D-penicillamine.
On average, even an experienced rheumatologist takes about 6 months to select the correct treatment method, examining the patient's characteristics and his tolerability to medications.
What is aurotherapy?
Aurotherapy involves taking medications that contain gold salts.
Doctors recommend using gold preparations at the initial stage of the disease. With its help, it is possible to achieve a positive effect in the treatment of acute, rapidly developing pathologies with severe pain and early degenerative changes in the joints. Gold-based drugs are prescribed to patients in cases where non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs have not alleviated their condition.
The main advantage of aurotherapy is that it can be used for concomitant inflammatory pathologies and the presence of malignant tumors. In addition, during research, scientists discovered that gold salts actively fight fungi and some bacteria, including Helicobacter pylori.
The course of treatment with gold preparations is 2-3 months. If during this period the patient's condition has not improved, then this technique is canceled.
Note!Many people experience relapses of rheumatoid arthritis some time after gold treatment. The rheumatologist may prescribe aurotherapy again. Sometimes this treatment can last for years if it does not entail negative consequences for other organs.
Is cytostatic therapy effective?
To eliminate the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, it is customary to use cytostatics.
Since the disease is of autoimmune origin, it is not surprising that doctors prescribe immunosuppressants. Its main advantage is its high effectiveness with a relatively low dose. Patients with rheumatoid arthritis are prescribed doses of cytostatics 5 or even 20 times less than patients with cancer. The drugs have proven effective in combating severe forms of the disease with a high degree of progression.
Another advantage of treatment with immunosuppressants is the minimum number of side effects. Very rarely, patients complain of the following symptoms:
- acne;
- intestinal dysfunction;
- shaking chills;
- Difficulty urinating.
If the medication is stopped or the doctor adjusts the dose, the side effects disappear quickly. The treatment course is 1 month.
Treatment of finger joints with antimalarial drugs.
Treatment of rheumatoid arthritis with antimalarial drugs is extremely rare. The main advantage of this treatment is the good tolerability of the drugs. A major disadvantage of this treatment is that antimalarial drugs work slowly. Its effect is noticeable after 6 to 12 months, but the therapeutic effect is quite weak.
Will sulfonamides help with rheumatoid arthritis?
Medicines from the sulfonamide group are successfully used to treat pain in the fingers. Its advantages include:
- Good tolerance.
- Low degree of complications, if any.
- Payable price.
The disadvantage of these drugs is their slow action. The positive effect is noticeable only 3 months after the start of treatment.
How to treat the disease with D-penicillamine?
If the patient is suitable for treatment with gold preparations or the use of a cytostatic, then it is not necessary to prescribe D-penicillamine. It is much inferior to the listed treatment methods in terms of effectiveness, but significantly surpasses them in the number of side effects, the frequency of their occurrence and the degree of complications. Therefore, treatment with D-penicillamine is used in cases where patients do not tolerate gold salts and cytostatics well.
D-penicillamine is used effectively in patients who have complications with the heart, respiratory system, or kidneys. It should be taken for 3-5 years, then a break of several years will be necessary, after which the course will have to be repeated.
Gout: symptoms and treatment
One of the dangerous diseases of the joints and tissues is gout. It occurs due to a metabolic disorder in the body. Gout is characterized by an increased amount of uric acid in the lymph.
Symptoms of the disease include:
- inflammation of the big toe joint;
- severe, squeezing pain in the morning or evening;
- increased body temperature;
- redness of the skin;
- Growths on the legs or arms.
If treatment is not started quickly, the patient may develop gouty arthritis. Possible complications also include urolithiasis and kidney failure, which can lead to death.
To treat gout, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are used for 1 to 2 weeks.
To quickly reduce the concentration of uric acid in the body, anti-gout medications are prescribed.
To eliminate the acute symptoms of gout, experts prescribe a medicine based on the alkaloid of the bulbs of the magnificent lily family. Glucocorticoids are used to relieve swelling and pain. These drugs quickly relieve inflammation, but have a negative effect on the immune system.
Psoriasic arthritis
About 15% of patients diagnosed with psoriasis have problems with their finger joints. The signs of this disease are:
- joint deformation;
- pain syndrome at night;
- numbness of the extremities;
- burgundy discoloration of the skin at the site of development of the disease;
- swelling of the fingers;
- limited mobility.
Most patients suffering from psoriatic arthritis experience damage to the nail plates. First, small pits form on its surface, then its color changes due to impaired microcirculation.
Most often, pregnant women are diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis. This is due to the fact that the disease also has a hormonal origin and a woman undergoes hormonal changes in her body during pregnancy. Increased signs of arthritis in pregnant women are often associated with weight gain.
The following causes of psoriatic arthritis are identified:
- injuries;
- severe stress and emotional stress;
- excessive physical activity;
- infectious diseases;
- hereditary predisposition.
The following groups of medications are used to treat psoriatic arthritis:
- Non-steroidal medications. Designed to eliminate inflammation and reduce pain.
- Glucocorticosteroids: injected into the joint cavity.
- Cytostatic from the group of folic acid antagonists: it is the most popular systemic drug.
- Immunosuppressant that acts selectively on T lymphocytes: it is used to slow down the changes that occur in bone and cartilage tissue.
For psoriatic arthritis, it is recommended to abandon alcoholic beverages, reduce the consumption of citrus fruits and smoked foods, and follow a low-calorie diet.
Osteoarthritis: how to treat it and what are the consequences of the disease?
Older people often complain that they have swollen finger joints. This may be one of the signs of osteoarthritis. The disease can appear for the following reasons:
- hormonal imbalance;
- genetic predisposition;
- occupational stress and injuries;
- Age-related metabolic disorder.
Joint pain can help identify the disease. An accurate diagnosis is made by a specialist after an X-ray examination and MRI.
Gymnastics will help alleviate the patient's condition. The set of exercises is selected by the doctor, focusing on the individual characteristics of the patient with osteoarthritis. The therapy also includes following a diet to lose excess weight, if any. You can't do without thermal procedures. Paraffin baths are recommended, to which mineral oil must be added.
To eliminate pain and relieve swelling, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs from the group of propionic acid derivatives and acetylsalicylic acid are prescribed. Among analgesics, a drug from the anilide group is often used. Massage sessions will help warm up the muscles and improve blood circulation.
If treatment is not started on time, the person will be unable to cope with daily activities in the future. In such cases, joint replacement surgery cannot be avoided.
What is rhizarthrosis?
If a patient has pain in the thumb, this may indicate that she has rhizarthrosis. The reasons for this phenomenon may be:
- joint overload;
- past infectious disease;
- injuries;
- intoxication of the body.
Treatment of rhizarthrosis in stages 1-2 includes receiving chondroprotectors. They activate the process of appearance of new cartilage cells, which helps eliminate the disease.
It is quite popular to use manual therapy to treat rhizarthrosis. The therapist can realign the altered joint, as a result of which the pain syndrome will disappear. Additionally, you can massage the thumb to increase the tone of the cartilage tissue and improve joint mobility.
If the patient is diagnosed with the third stage of rhizarthrosis, intra-articular injections of hyaluronic acid are prescribed. The use of glucocorticosteroids and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs is also effective. They increase blood flow in the affected joint, eliminate pain and relieve swelling.
Traditional medicine for pain in the fingers.
You can cope with pain not only with the help of medications, but also by resorting to folk remedies. For acute pain, it is effective to use gauze soaked in apple cider vinegar. To relieve swelling, compresses with roasted onions or boiled potatoes are perfect. It is useful to warm the sore joint with hot sea salt and rub it with fir oil.
tinctures
A common treatment method is tinctures. You can use vodka to prepare. You should take 50 ml of vodka and 30 ml of valerian tincture, mix both components and add a couple of red pepper pods. After 3 hours, moisten a cotton swab in the resulting mixture and apply it to the phalanx. The positive effect is noticeable after a month of said treatment.
Another effective remedy is a tincture based on chestnut inflorescences. It is enough to collect the raw materials and mix them with vodka. Leave for 14 to 20 days. Rub the product when your fingers are numb and feel pain. Instead of chestnut inflorescences, it is allowed to use lilacs.
Ointments
If your joints hurt when you squeeze your fingers, you should use a honey mustard ointment. To prepare it, combine 5 g of mustard and 15 g of honey. Next, add 30 ml of olive oil, evaporate the mixture in a water bath until a thick consistency, cool and use daily to treat affected joints.
For pain in the joint of the index finger of the right hand, an ointment based on bay leaves and juniper needles is recommended. Both components must be mixed in equal proportions, and then add 50 g of butter. You can use the ointment during your regular joint massage.