How to Relieve Palm Pain

Our hands, especially our palms are one of the most crucial components of our body. The work performed by your palms may vary from writing extensive homework as children to picking up heavy goods in a menial job, from typing on the laptop and clicking the mouse during office work to using your palms to hold the rope when doing rock climbing.

Surely, our palms smoothen our life in a big way by becoming part of almost every routine activity. We realize their necessity all the more, when they start throbbing in pain due to injury or overexertion. Here are brief ideas to help cure your palm pain along with its nature.

• The pain or stress to your palms may range from mild to excruciating pain.
• Based on the structure of your palm, there can be pain in your palm bones, muscles, nerves, blood vessels, tendons or skin.
• The extent of pain can range from dull, sharp, burning, stabbing, numbing to severe throbbing.

• Some of the most common problems causing palm pain include arthritis, common exertion, exposure to cold, muscle twisting, bruising and injury, etc. At times, the pain may not originate in the palm itself.

Here are some easy ways to take care of your palms and relieve them of their pain.

• Acupressure Techniques: For all those, who are engaged in extensive activities of physical labor such as menial jobs, weightlifting, rock climbing, it is essential to carry out a gentle massage on your palms at the end of the activity or at the end of the day.

Gentle circular massage motions and acupressure techniques help reduce the pain and soreness in hands to a great extent. An effective herbal remedy is to use warm coconut oil for massage purposes.

• Joint Bending: Gentle bending of your fingers at the palm knuckles and phalanges is known to release the gases shifting between the fingers and palm joints. When the joint is bent, there is a soft popping noise and an experience of immediate relief.

However, my readers are advised to get this pain relief technique done only from an experienced massager or physical therapist.

• Protection from Cold: During winters, your palms might be exposed to severe cold weather thereby causing pain and stiffness in joints. It is advised that patients must use good quality woolen gloves for palm protection. 

If it is not possible to don the gloves during your work, then make it a point to warm your palms by rubbing them against each other, holding them above a warmer or even dipping them in warm water. When dipping palms in warm water, you may first dissolve a teaspoonful of salt in the water before you actually dip your hands.

• Palm Support: When experiencing muscle pain in palms, use a good elastic band with a tight Velcro to strap around your palm. This gives sufficient support to the palm muscles and helps them recover from pain. It is advised to protect your palm for some time from any physical stress.

• Palm Exercises: For shooting pain in your palms and wrists, due to excessive use of computers and mouse, make it a point to stretch your palms at regular intervals. Make a circular motion of your wrists for immediate pain relief. You may also do a gentle finger stretching and finger pulling massage with the help of your other hand.

• Medical Help: For palm pain on account of any skin injury or bruising, consult a medical expert immediately. The injury might require an external application of medication.

Similarly, there might be an internal injury and pus formation in the cuticle of your finger causing severe pain to your palm. This requires a minor surgery on the finger to relieve the pain. The doctor may suggest ingestion of antibiotic medicines to rule out any internal infections.

• Hand Positioning: For a general throbbing in the palm, you may avoid leaving your hands loosely on the sides when you start experiencing pain. Instead, fold the hands in a cross position to support the palms appropriately.
• Choosing Appropriate Furniture: When at work, only use those chairs that have proper elbow rests. This helps avoid pain to palms and the overall arm.

• Cure Indirect Health Problems: When pain does not actually originate in your palms, it is essential to find its root cause and deal with the problem with appropriate medication. This will take away your palm pain instantly or gradually.

• Keeping Skin Healthy: An effective method to de-stress your palms and maintain a healthy skin on your palms is to get a manicure done. It is not always necessary to get professional manicure done. You may opt for some home treatments as well.

Arthritis is known to affect approximately 1% of the total world population including children. Almost 75% of the patients happen to be females. Arthritis can cause severe joint pain due to swollen and painful joints, stiffness in palms and a decided warmness in the affected area.

Common remedies to relieve arthritic pain include:

• Gentle massaging
• Physiotherapy
• Cortisone therapy
• Consume analgesics and anti- inflammatory medicine
• Avoid eating sour foods.
• Drink plenty of water
• Eat fat or oil based foods for joint lubrication.

Your hands are like your best friends... you love them but often take them for granted. No work is ever completed without inclusion of the palms and hands in the work. One usually realizes the importance of their palms when they start paining. If you have been ignoring your palms till date, then now is the best time to start looking after them well.

Disclaimer: This story is for informative purpose only, and does not in any way attempt to replace the diagnosis of a doctor. Visiting your physician is the safest way to diagnose and treat any health condition.