Help for Arthritic Hands

A reccommended remedy for arthritis besides exercise is cider vinegar with Mothers. Two tablespoons a day is supposed to help greatly. It's also good for other things as well. your adaptors are  ingenius! 

Don

 

I started using this around Christmas for my hands and shoulders and my wife now uses it for knees. It's a little costly but really works. 

 

A couple asprin a day and hot water several times a day works wonders for me. Rheumatoid is an entirely different story. 

Celebrex works reasonably well for me. Without it my hands are mostly useless. Creams like Blue Emu are worthless. 

Rob

Wild Mary, this sounds good, Where do you get this Austrailian Dream Cream? Creams are good for the hands and knees. My Dr. Prescribes salsasalate,which is a prescription drug, but, really a high powered aspirin. I take two in the morning and it works great, really relaxes the hands. I also take a couple of alieve tablets.  Good luck. Happy Railroading.

Fifteen years ago I had severe R/A in every joint in my body.  It was so bad tuat I could not squeez toothpaste out of the tube.  I had to put the tube on the sink and push it out with my elbow.

I wound up on enbrel for about 5 years.  I have not taken any meds for the last 10 years.

No pain, no swelling, no discomfort at all.

Talk to your doctor about a biological response modifier there are 4-5 currently on the market.  It worked for me.

Good luck.

Larry I bought it at Walmart.  I try to stay away from oral pain killers.  They play havoc with my digestive system.  Aleve tablets gave me a bleeding ulcer and I ended up in the OR for emergency surgery and spent 5 days in the ICU and required 9 units of blood and 2 units of plasma.  You really have to watch that stuff.

Guys, PLEASE ask the doctor lots of questions about these drugs. My sister took their advice blindly and ended up getting two types of Luekemia caused by the drug. Make them tell you ALL the risks!

This is why I only use Celebrex.

Rob

 

http://www.biofreeze.com/ this helps relieve pain for me

 

I have had severe osteo-arthritis for 23 years. (I'm 58 now)

I have tried almost every NSAID and the one that works best for me is ibuprofen.

I take between zero and 800 mg per day under my DR.'s supervision.

I do not have stomach issues from ibuprofen, but ALWAYS take it with or after food.

 

As far as other therapies go, I have found that supplementing calcium and vitamin D, worked well to reduce my joint inflammation.  I use coral calcium complex and take 500mg per day.  2000iu of vitamin D along with it.

 

My wife bought me a pair of spa mits that can be warmed up in the microwave.  They are stuffed with some kind of bead, and have a pleasant mint odor.  After warming them up I wear them for 10-15 minutes.  The warmth soaks into my finger and wrist joints and gives me greater flexibility and pain relief.  

Another spa treatment that has provided temporary relief is a paraffin dip.  Yep you dip your hands in hot wax.  Works great for a while, but like all treatments eventually wears off.

 

I have not modified any tools yet, but your foam fruit idea is intriguing.  So far my other treatments have been effective enough so I can still use unmodified tools.

 

WHATEVER you decide to do, PLEASE consult your medical practitioner BEFORE starting, stopping, or modifying your medication or supplements.

 

HTH

 

Jon

 

 

Rich,

I like your handle adapters!  Yes, larger handles do help.  As assumed, we have a lot of folks with arthritis, myself included.  Mine is osteo-arthritis and like Jon, I am also 58.  I have not taken any medication or vitamin that wasn't recommended by a doctor.  I take Aleve, D, Glucosomine-Condroitin.  I also had carpal tunnel surgery 20 years ago.  I am just recovering from surgery to remove scar tissue that caused carpal tunnel symptoms.  He also took out some degenerated cartilage and some arthritis.  Soon, I will be getting the same on the other hand.  Yes, it has all affected my modeling, big time.  I hope to recover enough to do most tasks.  

What do you folks do about those overzealous hand shakers who want to crush your joints?

Rah, Rah, Ree... kick 'em in the knee.

Rah, Rah, Ras... kick 'em in the... other knee!

 

Or simply explain to them that you're about to grab their "cajones" with your non-arthritic hand - the release and apology is darn near immediate!

 

Best,

Dave

RICHo

Are you on ENBREL!??

Bio freeze is very temporary,  DONT get close to your eyes

and the Amish, make a good, Amishorigins.com  and you will find the cream

also I have been on Mobic 1 a day for few years

And hip surgery ,3 months ago works wonders

 * nothing in this post, is a claim for your success, and also does not imply liability

      to me*,  merely my personal situation.

Oh the hand shakers? It hurts! I need to STOP letting people shake hands. Sometimes it happens so fast I just have to grit my teeth and tolerate it. 

Rob

Ah yes, I forgot to mention the rheumatologist put me on Mobic about 6 months ago.  With my other problems needing surgery I don't know how much it helps yet.

My father-in-law had a crusher handshake.  His hands seemed twice as big as mine.  Since he was my father-in-law, I just had to grin and bear it.

If you used real fruit, you could make whiskey sours with the juice.  This would help with the pain.  Just saying'.   

 

 

Another thing that sounds ridiculous, but helps about 80% of the people who use it: cinnamon. I got in a study years ago to see if it lowered cholesterol, which it did for me, and noticed my joints weren't as sore and my hands didn't show Raynaud's symptoms every time they got cold. (I have lupus.) When I asked, the study coordinators mentioned they'd heard that from many others. There's no mega-dosing-half a teaspoon a day, or two capsules, is enough, but it does have to be real cinnamon; some grocery store stuff is actually cassia bark, which doesn't work like that.

I went from needing ibuprofen daily to maybe once or twice a week. Bear in mind that I didn't know it could make a difference in joint health, so it wasn't placebo effect.

 

There are a couple of big studies now to see whether turmeric works as well as everyone thinks. Once again, there's no huge dosing and most people don't have bad side effects, but ask your doctor...or eat a lot of curry and/or mustard!

 

Sitting in the lobby of the Doctors office one day, I overheard two older gentleman discussing their prescriptions.  One of the men was telling the other about the miraculous results he had with the Little Blue Pill for his ED. The other man got quite upset when hearing this and loudly complained “The Doctor has had me taking Aleve for 15 years and it hasn’t helped my sex life one bit!” 

Moral of the story don't believe everything you hear; One persons inflammatory may be an others anti inflammatory.

Hey Guys;

 

One thing I've learned the hard way over the years is that with any type of anti-inflammant (NSAID), take it with food.  If not, it will tear up your stomach.  Several years ago I had a bout with bleeding ulcers because I did not take these meds with food.

Great scott!!Aleve can cause that kind of reaction!!Geting so the stuff you take to feel better.Will make you feel even whorse.On top of what you already have.

I know aspirin can cause this.  When first diagnosed 30 years ago, they had me take coated aspirin Ecotrin as it is easier on the stomach.  I haven't had a problem with anything, but I take as little Aleve as possible As recommended by my regular doctor.  The Rheumatologist prescribed me Mobic, so I don't take Aleve that much, but have for the carpal tunnel pain.

We are all getting a little older aren't we.......

 

Uncle Al

Actually, I have resigned myself from this "getting older" thing.  I refuse to get any older.  I will remain, as I am.  

Boy does this topic grab me.

When I was 50 I had a fractured Pelvis from a fall while running in a game.

The X-Ray tech came to verify my age because my arthritis was so advanced.

Joy, Turns out I have Paget's disease, think Osteoporosis for men but slightly different.

It picks one bone to eat until that bone is shot, then moves to an adjacent bone.

It had eaten a lot of one side of my Pelvis.

 

So I'm also on Mobic, Calcium, Vitamin D, and one other I cant recall the name of.

And the treatment for Paget's makes my arthritis worse,  Thus the mobic.

 

Hand crushers get the same right back. I grew up milking a cow, I've got a mean grip.

 

And yes, I wear gloves all the time except full summer. Cold really aggravates the joints.

Thus I agree with all the posts about heat application, It does help for a while.

 

Working on the layout out in the barn has been stopped for quite a while this winter. No insulation or heat there yet.

If you know someone who knits or crochets, fingerless gloves can be a huge help. It sounds silly to keep your fingers warm by covering your wrists and hands, but what the fingerless gloves or mitts do is keep the blood warm as it flows to your fingers. You can still handle things (but don't try handling metal outdoors bare-handed when it's below zero or we'll have a Christmas Story incident!) If you don't knit or have a crafter around, and you don't feel like sawing the fingers off an old pair of gloves, the ribbed cuff from a worn-out pair of athletic socks will do nicely on non-dressy occasions.

 

If you don't have a foamfilled lemon or lime around (great idea, by the way!) and need a tool handle in a hurry, a package of FunTak or similar poster mounting whatever that goo is will do, and so will an artist's kneadable eraser. Knead it a couple of times to soften it, wrap it around the tool handle and grip it. When you're done, you can peel it right off and use it somewhere else.

 

Another thing that is really handy is scraps of half-inch pipe insulation. It's already split, so you can wrap it around a whole lot of things that are too small or too cold to grip. Which reminds me, I never got around to buying or making a steering wheel cover for the Cruiser. As my hands said this afternoon, ow.