Hand & Wrist Pain Causes, Symptoms and Natural Pain Relief Focusing on the Cause of your Pain

Wrist and hand pain can have many causes, such as normal wear and tear, overuse, injury, a systemic disease, or the natural aging process. Early diagnosis and treatment is important in order to avoid more serious symptoms and the adverse affect on the ability to recover completely.

The wrist and hands are very complex with many opportunities for dysfunction. Your elbow, arm, shoulder, and spine can also be involved in the cause of wrist and hand pain.

Symptoms of Wrist or Hand Dysfunction

• Burning
• Stinging
• Soreness
• Stiffness
• Tingling
• Numbness
• Too hot or too cold
• Swelling
• Immobility

Common Causes of Wrist and Hand Pain We Treat

Sprain or Strain

A sprain is a stretching or tearing of ligaments, which are the bands of tissue that connect two bones together in your joints. A strain is a stretching or tearing of muscle or tendon, a tendon is a cord of tissue that connects muscles to bones. Cold laser therapy is helpful to speed up the healing process and reduce the swelling quicker, whereby eliminating pain faster.

Tendinitis

Inflammation of a tendon that frequently causes a sharp, stabbing pain.

Peripheral Neuropathy

Peripheral Neuropathy is a painful condition caused by damage to the nerves that radiate out of your spine to your arms and legs. This potentially debilitating condition interferes with your body’s ability to deliver messages between your brain, muscles, joints, skin, or other organs. When the brain and nerves are not communicating properly, you may feel unusual and often painful sensations.

Peripheral Nerve Entrapments

Peripheral nerve entrapments are conditions where a nerve is “pinched” or entrapped by the surrounding bone, muscle, tendon or cartilage. Following are some of the common nerve entrapments conditions that affect wrists and hands.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Pressure put on the median nerve causes pain and numbness or tingling in the thumb and first two fingers.

Radial Tunnel Syndrome

The radial nerve becomes compressed in a canal in the elbow called the radial tunnel and is often mistaken for tennis elbow. Pain radiates to the wrist and hands.

Cubital Tunnel Syndrome

Pressure from a small bony bump in your inner elbow on the ulnar nerve can cause your ring finger and pinky finger to swell and weaken, develop pain, or numbness and tingling. Though the symptoms are in your fingers, the source of the pain is in your elbow.

Tunnel of Guyon

Impingement of the ulnar nerve in the Guyon tunnel, a canal in your wrist where the ulnar nerve passes into the palm of your hand and then to your ring and pinky fingers. Tunnel of Guyon is common with bikers and bicyclists.

Repetitive Use Injuries

Has aching or pain developed in your wrists or hands over time? Tennis, texting, keyboarding, or playing a musical instrument regularly over time can cause Repetitive Use Injuries in your hands and wrists. When your muscles are held in the same position or used in the same motion for long periods of time, they can become inflamed or compressed between other tissues.

Arthritis

Osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis cause wrist and hand pain.

Dorsal Impaction Syndrome

Common among people who do weight-bearing activities that involve hyperextension, such as gymnastics and weightlifting.