Physical Therapy for Arthritis of Fingers & the Hand

Arthritis is not really one disease but more than 100, all characterized by painful swelling of the joints. The most common forms are osteoarthritis--where the cartilage that cushion the joint breaks down, rheumatoid arthritis--an autoimmune disease in which the body's natural defenses attack the tissues and gout--a hereditary condition that results in a build-up of uric acid. Any loss of finger dexterity can have dramatic effects on your quality of life, but along with other treatments, exercises and massage can make a big difference in how well you cope with arthritic fingers and hands.

Finger Exercises for Osteoarthritis

• Some simple techniques have proven to do a lot of good for finger arthritis. Among the most basic and helpful are range-of-motion exercises, designed to keep the joints limber and the muscles and ligaments supple. These exercises should be done in a way that comfortable for you, not pressing beyond your limits or to the point of being painful. With all of these, talking to your doctor or therapist to find the techniques best suited to your specific conditions should be among your first steps.

  Start with one of the easiest--closing your fingers toward the palm of you hand. When you touch your palm and straighten your hand as flat as possible. Do this one for a count of three each time. It will help strengthen the finger joints and knuckles. Another good low-stress exercise is touching your finger tips to the tip of your thumb, like making the "Okay" sign.

  Laying your hand flat on a table or other flat surface, then gently lifting each finger, one at a time also can help maintain flexibility. Another exercise that will help with the pain and swelling as well as improving flexibility is rotating each finger joint in turn in a circular motion. That increases blood flow which helps eliminate impurities that may build up in the joints.

RA

• Hand exercises can help maintain range of motion, flexibility and strength if you suffer from rheumatoid arthritis as well. One exercise, and the starting position for several more, is simply holding your hand up and pointing your fingers and wrist toward the ceiling, holding that position for five to 10 seconds.

  From the starting position, try to bend the fingers downward from the knuckles while keeping the fingers themselves straight. Hold that for five to10 seconds and repeat the process twice a day with each hand. Another exercise is keeping the knuckle joint as straight as you can while bending the first and second joint of each finger in turn, holding each one for a count of five.

Massage

• Another good option for helping deal with the pain, swelling and inflammation of arthritis in your hands is massage therapy. In essence, massage is just stroking or kneading the fingers gently to ease the nerves and loosen tight muscles. There are various approaches to doing it but they all aim for the same results.