Helpful Hand and Finger Exercise for Rheumatoid Arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis is very common worldwide, even young generations also are suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, due to sedentary lifestyle, lack of nutrition specially for Vitamin D, lack of sun exposure. However, primary stage of rheumatoid arthritis can be controlled with right hand and finger exercises.

But before that we will give a you a basic idea about what is it?

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disease that not only affects joints also damage different body parts including eyes, lungs, blood vessels, heart and skin.

It is called autoimmune disorder

Auto means self, when your immune system mistakenly treat your own body tissues as a foreign particle and attack them; Consequently, the tissue got inflamed and create a painful situation even physical disability as well.

The symptoms we commonly seen in patients with RA:

• Swollen joints with feeling of warmness and tenderness
• Affected joints become stiff specially in morning
• Loss of appetite,
• Fatigue
• Even extreme pain causes fever also

In primary stage rheumatoid arthritis tends to affect smaller joints of patients , particularly associated with toes of our feet, or finger joints, thumb joints.

Some patients reported that they also experienced different symptoms associated with skin, eyes, heart, lungs, kidney, nerve tissue, bone marrow, and saliva gland. The increased arthritis not only affect patients joints but also other organs as well.

However, in this article we’re going to talk about the solution of hand and finger arthritis.  Patients often go through stiffness and pain just because of hand rheumatoid arthritis, consequently they lose finger  flexibility and range of motion which causes obstacles in accomplishing their everyday tasks.

In below section we’ll talk about few easy and simple exercise to increase your finger flexibility and boost their range of motions.

Let’s mention them one by one.

1. Touch all your Fingertips

1. Keep your affected arm up in a stable posture, then gradually bend the elbows while maintaining palm down to earth
2. Begin with the index finger, bend downward, and touch the thumb,
3. Repeat this process with all your fingers
4. Do it as much as you can.

2. Cross your Thumb

1. Again, hold your arm up with a very comfortable position, make your palm out while bending the elbow
2. Next gradually bend your thumb, until it closely approaches palm to the extent of base of your pinky finger
3. The bring back your thumb at its original position
4. Do this as many times as your orthopaedic guide suggests.

3. Make your Finger Curled

1. Here your palm should be facing outward, roll all your finger gradually from the tip to lower side, then they will touch your palm with the tips of your fingers
2. Then take your thumb, and cross it to make a light fist
3. Then open hand backup without making your hand unstable
4. Repeat this as many times as suggested by your doctor, but do this with both hands to maintain same range of motion.

4. Lift all of your Fingers

1. Keep your one hand flat on a table, palm moving down to earth with stretched finger
2. Keep your hands as flat as possible, then slowly lift your thumb as much as possible
3. Hold on this position for few seconds, then release by put it down
4. Do the same for each finger and then do the same exercise with another hand with its fingers and thumb as well.
5. Do it as many times as possible or suggested by your doctor

Encourage your Fingers to walk

It sounds really abnormal, but not like that.

Let’s describe the steps

1. Begin with hands on the smooth surface, it may be on the table, palm facing down and keep your fingers stretched as much as possible
2. Then gradually make all fingers of hands back beneath your pals
3. Then gradually come at the initial position
4. Repeat as many times as you can, or suggested by your orthopedic guide. If you feel pain stop doing the immediately, don’t put pressure on them.

Tug of war

1. Collect all your old envelope and make them in use. Take one, then keep them in between your thumb and index finger
2. Then make your other hand little active, and pull out the envelope from that condition with in three decent attempts, however don’t forget to put enough resistance with your thumb and index finger of the previous hand
3. Do this with all your fingers along with thumb to increase your pinching power
4. Then gradually increase the thickness of the envelop to make this exercise extra challenging.