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My thumbs have become quite painful for innocuous tasks like unscrewing lids recently, fits the description of arthritis. Any other sufferers have advice for pills, supplements, treatment or is it something else to suck up with age?
Just a simple experiment - try not having fast sugar of any sort for a couple of weeks. (Or even less than you currently do.)
This brings my joints on and off - night and day. I believe there is an inflammation element that can be caused by sugar.
Makes a huge difference to me. Put it like this - no one got worse by having a huge drop of sugar intake.
Another test is ibuprofen. Reduces inflammation and pain, if the pain goes away with ibuprofen it's a test for inflammatory joint disease. Seek a medical professional for a further consultation with the results of the above tests. It could just be age, but OA is common too - other arthropathies are available (I have one - psoriatic, mostly in my toes).
Ha ha back to the drawing board then.
Bodies are complex! But I do believe diet and particularly gut health is linked in interesting ways.
One of the few treatments with a good evidence base is strengthening exercises- the better the muscles can stabilise a joint, the less painful it will be
Sure it’s not tendonitus? Move your thumb to the middle of your hand, close the fingers of that hand over it and tilt your hand away from your thumb.
Apparently if you get pain on the thumb side of your wrist it’s the probably tendonitus. At least that’s what I think is wrong with mine.
I’m sure someone more knowledgable will comment.
I’m suffering from this, after some years of handling heavy blocks of paper to run through big folding machines. I’m now suffering from carpal tunnel issues, due to arthritis and the inflammation that goes with it, particularly in my right wrist. I already take Naproxen for an arthritic knee, but I was only taking one in the morning. Now, on my doctor’s recommendation I take one at night, and I wear a wrist brace to stabilise my wrist at night. It suddenly flared up last October, and the pain from my fingertips to my armpit was such I couldn’t sleep for three nights, and as my job involved a fifteen mile drive to work and back, and a twelve hour day, plus driving cars around at work, they were more than happy to give me the time off to get a proper doctor’s examination. It works for me, I get some tingling and discomfort occasionally, but the naproxen and the brace has made a big difference.
Where is the pain you're getting? topmost joint or either of the other 2? What have you done to potentially bring it on. I have OA due to climbing.
As Shermer says, strengthening is good. You can do exercises with rubber bands in different directions to build strength. Ibuprofen gel or germolene ointment rubbed into the joint provides some relief.
Pain comes and goes, and I haven't spotted the pattern yet. Couple of places on side of joint that are very focused pain - those are bone spurs for me apparently.
Hand doc says very little to slow the process (glucosamine or chondrotin has v little data) so strengthening/mobility exercises are my go to. Especially as if pain gets too bad only option seems to be fusing the joint🤔.
Hand doc also said she uses Di2 as changing gear is so much easier.