AGING HANDS
The hands are such an important part of ourselves. We use them constantly, often abusing them in the process. As we age we usually suffer a loss of strength together with stiffened joints. The common conditions of arthritis and neuropathy wreak havoc, causing pain and difficulty doing the most ordinary things like opening up a jar.
Where many see wrinkles and mishapened fingers as they look at older hands, I see beautiful sculpture.
America is consumed with youth. Everyone wishes they were young again. Except me. In my opinion those older are magnificent, especially older hands.
One Thanksgiving we were visiting relatives. A young 13 year old was dating one of our nephews. As I shook her hand I realized something about youth. Her hands had no lines on them at all. They were the hands of a child, pudgy and without strength. These were the hands of an unwritten book, while an elder's hands are so rich with detail and a life lived. Personally, I find the latter far more interesting. An artist would too.
My father died of cancer when he was 82. He was a businessman whose avocation was woodworking. He had spent many, many hours working with wood, feeling it while sanding it. As my father lay dying, his hands took on a special powerful quality. They had transformed into incredibly beautiful and strong sculptures with long sensitive fingers that told the story of all those years of touching beautiful wood. It was the first time I realized how stunning an older person's hands are.
One Thanksgiving we were visiting relatives. A young 13 year old was dating one of our nephews. As I shook her hand I realized something about youth. Her hands had no lines on them at all. They were the hands of a child, pudgy and without strength. These were the hands of an unwritten book, while an elder's hands are so rich with detail and a life lived. Personally, I find the latter far more interesting. An artist would too.
My father died of cancer when he was 82. He was a businessman whose avocation was woodworking. He had spent many, many hours working with wood, feeling it while sanding it. As my father lay dying, his hands took on a special powerful quality. They had transformed into incredibly beautiful and strong sculptures with long sensitive fingers that told the story of all those years of touching beautiful wood. It was the first time I realized how stunning an older person's hands are.
As with everything else about aging, the trajectory your hands take depends entirely on what you do to keep them healthy and agile. Exercise and diet make all the difference.
As our hands age...
As we get older, our hands incur problems like osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and peripheral neuropathy. Arthritis is by far the most prevalent cause of hand and finger disfunction and deterioration.
Arthritis of the hands: 75% of people over the age of 65 have arthritis. Osteoarthritis is more prevalent (the wear and tear arthritis). It affects women more than men. There is a heredity component. Improving joint agility using gentle exercise is recommended.
Arthritis of the hands: 75% of people over the age of 65 have arthritis. Osteoarthritis is more prevalent (the wear and tear arthritis). It affects women more than men. There is a heredity component. Improving joint agility using gentle exercise is recommended.
- Pain is the most prevalent symptom: the achey pain of morning stiffness or the sharp searing pain that can attack unannounced.
- Often the finger joints become swollen and misshapened, sometimes with bony protuberances.
- There is a major loss of hand strength. We notice it especially gripping things, like trying to open jars.
- Stiffness settles in, mainly in the morning.
- The hand joints primarily affected include the first two joints of the fingers and the base joint of the thumb.
Neuropathy of the hands: With neuropathy, the nerve cells at the periphery of the body are damaged, often permanently. Neuropathy affects hands and/or feet. It is a side effect of some forms of chemotherapy. Neck joint impingement causes neuropathy as well. It may affect one side or both sides. Symptoms vary from person to person and include numbing of the fingers that progresses over time up the arm, searing joint pain, or sensation of the skin burning. Circulation improvement is an excellent goal with neuropathy. Nervous system stimulation is also very helpful.
The role played by inflammation.
The main goal for hand health is to reduce inflammation while increasing strength and agility. The conditions like arthritis that affect how our hands function create inflammation often accompanied by pain. It is not difficult to reduce inflammation. We can do so very effectively through diet and exercise.
I have arthritis in my hands. It has bothered me for about 10 years now. Gardening has become increasingly difficult because of it being hard to use pruners due to loss of hand strength. The pain in my fingers and thumbs has sometimes been tough to tolerate and it has kept me up at night. Two years ago I decided to reduce sugar intake. I gave up refined sugar for a year and now only eat it sparingly. I now have no pain in my fingers! My hand strength is returning. I still have the arthritis. But the inflammation associated with it has so greatly reduced that the pain has disappeared! That shows you the inflammatory power of sugar.
To find out about how to reduce inflammation and how we unknowingly often increase it, click on the button below:
I have arthritis in my hands. It has bothered me for about 10 years now. Gardening has become increasingly difficult because of it being hard to use pruners due to loss of hand strength. The pain in my fingers and thumbs has sometimes been tough to tolerate and it has kept me up at night. Two years ago I decided to reduce sugar intake. I gave up refined sugar for a year and now only eat it sparingly. I now have no pain in my fingers! My hand strength is returning. I still have the arthritis. But the inflammation associated with it has so greatly reduced that the pain has disappeared! That shows you the inflammatory power of sugar.
To find out about how to reduce inflammation and how we unknowingly often increase it, click on the button below:
Remedies for hurting hands:
- Movement: Inactivity is the enemy of aging joints. Gentle joint movement is certainly therapeutic. It reduces pain and inflammation and prevents an increase in deterioration. Gentle movement is the number one recommendation for anyone who has arthritis.
- Diet: Refined sugars and heavily processed foods are inflammatory. Reducing their intake reduces the body's inflammation level along with associated pain.
- Warm your hands before exercising them using a heating pad or by soaking them in warm water. Wear gloves to keep them warm during cold weather.
- Hot water soaks: Try rubbing massage oil into your hands, placing them in rubber gloves and immersing them in hot water.
- Massage your hands: Place your right thumb on your left inner wrist and draw your right hand down the entire left hand, massaging the tissue as you go. Reverse hands. Movement is always going outward toward the fingertips.
- Some tools really help: The most confounding problem I have had with the arthritis in my hands is that it is very hard to open any jar. There have been times I have had to go over to the neighbors to have them open a jar of spaghetti sauce. Then I discovered a great tool. I have never needed help since. See the link at the bottom of this article.
A note about ice: Normally the very best agent for reducing inflammation is ice. Typically heat increases inflammation and ice reduces it. However, arthritis reverses that logic. Do not use ice with arthritic joints. As you can see above, heat is what is recommended.
Exercises for the hands, fingers and thumbs.
Build hand strength:
- Squeezes: Grip a soft foam ball, squeeze and release. You can vary how long you hold the squeeze for. You can pinch the ball. You can grip it full handed. You can also grip it just with your fingertips. This is really the best exercise you can do to increase your hand strength. Then when out an about in life, when you need finger strength doing anything, use extra effort to improve your grip each time. Here it is quite true that if you don't use it you loose it.
- The Claw: Straighten and bend your fingers but instead of pulling them into a drawn fist, keep the fingers open as they bend. Think of the claws of an eagle. Claw and stretch, claw and stretch for a total of 8 times.
- Biceps Curls Without Weights: With your arms at your side, make a fist with your hands while bending your elbows. Straighten the arms and straighten the fingers and repeat 7 times.
- Stretch your fingers and your wrist backwards after strengthening.
Increase agility in the joints of the hands and fingers: Especially for arthritis. Agility brings relief from pain.
- Finger Stretch: With your hand on your thigh, lift each finger and pull backwards toward you, holding the stretch for 7 seconds each. You can also interlace your fingers, turn your palms facing away from you and stretch your arms to stretch your fingers and wrists. Do not include the thumbs in either exercise.
- Straight Finger Circles: This is a release, not a stretch. Place one hand on your leg. Using the other hand, gently grab the tip of each finger and circle the straight finger 4 times in each direction. The smaller the circles and the gentler the better. For both fingers and thumbs.
- Pull and Twist: Start at the base of each finger including the thumb and massage and pull as you move toward the tip of each finger. Stop at the fingernail and gently squeeze the nail as you pull and twist. I learned this exercise from a student who claimed that doing it every day had straightened her arthritic fingers. For both fingers and thumbs.
- Wrist Circles. Circle the wrists in both directions.
- Wrist Bends. Bend the wrist back by pulling all the fingers, including the thumb, back toward you at the same time. Bend the wrist the opposite way by placing the left hand on top of the back of the right hand and pressing the right hand down. Make sure the left hand is on top of the right hand's big knuckles. Reverse sides.
Nervous system stimulation: Especially for neuropathy.
- Finger Taps: Place both hands on your thighs, palms down. Keep all the fingers on the thigh except the one you are working with. Lift each finger up and tap down 8 times. Don't let the other fingers move. That is sometimes difficult. Persevere.
- Timed taps: Tap your hand on your leg in the 8421 combination: (R8 L8) (R4 L4 R4 L4) (R2 L2 R2 L2 R2 L2 R2 L2) (RLRLRLRLRLRLRLRL) Keep the taps precise. Make sure you get the first occurrence correct when you change timing. It is great to add in the feet using the same combination.
- Finger to Thumb Touch: Touch each finger to the thumb in sequence. Go in both directions. Try going one direction with one hand while going the opposite direction with the other.
The thumbs require a different approach: Arthritis affects the thumbs as well as the fingers but in a different way. The base joint of the thumb is the one injured. One reason we get arthritis there is because we misuse the thumb by sticking it out to the side. Try this with me:
Exercises for the thumbs: These exercises are especially for arthritis.
- Spread your fingers out wide with the thumb extended straight out as if you are saying: "Yikes!"
- Allow the fingers to relax, especially the thumb. Feel energy moving from your finger and thumb tips out in the same direction in front of you. This is a much healthier position for the thumb.
Exercises for the thumbs: These exercises are especially for arthritis.
- Twiddle Your Thumbs: Ironically this is the best thumb exercise of all. Twiddle going both directions. You can also do timed twiddles. Do the 8421 combination twiddling: Circle 8 times in each direction, circle 4 times in each direction and repeat, circle 2 times in each direction and repeat for a total of 4 times, circle once in each direction 8 times (2 eights, 4 fours, 8 twos, 16 singles).
- Pull and Twist: Just as described for the fingers but be careful not to stick the thumb out to the side.
The best hand exercise of all: sequential joint bends.
If you look at your middle finger and trace it down to the wrist, you will find 4 places that can bend: one below the fingernail, one in the middle of the finger, one at the base of the finger and one at the wrist. Sequential joint exercises bend the same joint for all 4 fingers at the same time. (The thumb is not part of this exercise.) There are several ways to do this:
Finger Pressing Against Leg:
Right Angle Curl:
Stretch your fingers and wrist backwards after sequential joint bends.
Finger Pressing Against Leg:
- Place your fingernails on your thigh.
- Press the surface of the nails down, bending the 1st segment of all 4 fingers down onto your leg at the same time, stretching the first joint of all the fingers.
- Next bend the 1st 2 segments of all 4 fingers down, stretching the middle joints of all the fingers.
- Then all 3 segments down, stretching the base joint of all the fingers.
- Finally, place the entire back of the hand down on the thigh to stretch the wrist joint backwards.
- Switch hands.
Right Angle Curl:
- Have your arms at your side and place your lower arms and hands straight up, palms facing each other.
- Bend your fingers at the base joint forming a right angle with the back of your hand. Try to keep your fingers straight.
- Curl the fingers into a fist.
- Straighten them back into the right angle.
- Straighten them back into your palms facing each other.
Stretch your fingers and wrist backwards after sequential joint bends.
Published June 8, 2020
Updated February 27, 2023
Updated February 27, 2023