What Is Good for Hand Pain Relief?

Pain in a person's hands can have many different causes. Whether it's arthritis, a sprain, bruising or just strain on the muscles, pain can still hamper a person. While taking painkillers is always an option, there are other options for eliminating, or at least easing, hand pain.

Massage

• If there is no serious damage to the hand, such as a pulled muscle, torn tendon or other physical damage, then massage is one of the most common techniques used for hand pain relief. If a person feels her hand cramp, the first thing she does is to reflexively rub the muscle to try and relax it. This is a basic form of massage. However, getting a professional massage can increase the pain relief several times over. It may be a little expensive, but the pain relief is natural, immediate, and best of all, centered on your hands. With painkillers or other drugs, the chemicals move throughout your entire body.

Temperature

• Another common method of relieving pain (and swelling in some cases) is to use extremes of temperature. Heating pads and ice packs will create the necessary temperature that should relieve pain in the hands. Which temperature will work better depends partially on the reason for the hand pain, and partially on the person. For injuries and swelling, cold tends to be more beneficial. For simple soreness or to help the sufferer relax, heat tends to work better. People should try both sides of the temperature coin to see what works best for them and their own hand pain.

Meditation and Imagery

• Meditation and imagery (or guided imagery if a person is listening to instructions) are two other techniques that are useful for hand pain relief, as well as for general pain relief. Meditation is when a person gets into a comfortable position, and he focuses his mind to the exclusion of distractions. Hand pain is a distraction, and if a person is skilled in meditation, it can be ignored and possibly relieved as the body relaxes into a meditative state. Imagery is similar, and is often coupled with meditation. It's the practice of using mental visualization and focus to bring about actual, physical results. An example of this might be to picture the pain in your hand as a red energy, and then to make it dim. The dimmer the energy becomes in your imagery, the less painful it should feel, if the technique is working correctly.