Arthritis in Hands: Best Treatment for Rheumatoid and Osteoarthritis

There are two main types of arthritis in hands, rheumatoid and osteoarthritis.

Rheumatoid is the most disabling while osteoarthritis is the more common.

Rheumatoid Arthritis in Hands

This type of arthritis specifically targets the synovium tissue. These are the cells that lubricate the joints in the fingers that when this disease kicks in, they swell up forcing the ligaments and tendons supported by the joints to deform and weaken.

Most prevalent in the knuckles and wrist, the bone and cartilage will begin to decay making them feel hot and sore, and rheumatoid arthritis in the hands tends to be symmetric- therefore if one hand's affected so will the other.

Treating Rheumatoid Arthritis in Hands

This disease is to date incurable so your only means of fighting it is to slow its progression.

Treated on a number of fronts, it's a collaboration with your rheumatologist, hand therapist, hand surgeon and your primary care physician.

The rheumatologist will advise you of which particular medicine to take while monitoring you along the way, with your hand therapist instructing you on the movements that will relieve stress and pressure on the joints and advising you of ways to protect them.

They may also provide splints or devices to help you cope better with certain activities.

Surgery in certain cases may be advised. This can involve removing new bone known as "spurs", extracting nodules, joint fusion and removing inflamed tissue.

Osteoarthritis in Hands

Like osteoarthritis that occurs in the cartilage of hip and knee joints, it is the deterioration of the cartilage - the protein that helps support the connection between the two bone endings in the joint - that inflames the bones causing them to grind and occasionally form spurs.

These spurs can sometimes become dislodged and surgery may be required, but this more often occurs in larger joints.

In the case of the hands, referred to as Herbenden's node, early development of this can be detected by the visual appearance of the smallest joint at the end of each finger looking knobby.

These knobs - or nodes - can also begin to take shape in the middle joint, known as Bouchard's node and while the development of these nodes may not be that painful, they may restrict the fingers movements.

If however there is some discomfort the following treatment may be prescribed:

Treating Osteoarthritis in Hands:

Troubling little pains in the joints of the fingers can be dealt with through one or a combination of methods.

NSAID's or prescription anti-inflammatory drugs and pain relieving medications may be prescribed, but these may put you at risk if they are being used long-term, as the jury's still out over the affect they have on the liver, kidney and heart, so don't be afraid to seek a second opinion if these are prescribed.

The preferred treatment now however is using a combination of medications.

Glucosamine, Chondroitin, Acetaminophen (Tylenol) and/or natural food supplements which include capsaicun, omega-3, reishi and tongkat ali, combined with topical creams and cold/heat pads are argued to provide a much safer, sustainable, natural and more effective treatment plan, and most of which can be bought over the counter - OTC - and/or online.