Why numb fingers: causes, diagnosis and treatment

If numbness of the fingers becomes regular, you should hurry to the doctor, because any treatment is most successful in the early stages of the disease, and this symptom is cause for alarm.

Why numb fingers

For various problems we may experience numbness in different parts of the brush. Quite often there is a numbness of the little finger, but unpleasant sensations in the thumb area are less common.

The causes of numbness of the hands or fingers may be different.

Most often this condition is associated with osteochondrosis, but it is not the only reason.

The causes of numbness

• Osteochondrosis;
• Carpal tunnel syndrome;
• Endocrine disorders;
• Inflammatory processes in the joints;
• Polyneuropathy;
• Raynaud's Disease;
• Injury;
• Violation of vascular permeability;
• Overvoltage muscle fibers;
• A lot of stress.

The most innocuous reason for which there is numbness of the hands is muscle strain. If uneasy lies the head on the pillow while sleeping, wrong posture when you work at a Desk or at a computer, there is a strong tension of the neck muscles. Muscle spasm squeezes located nearby nerve fibers.

The discomfort can be in different fingers of the upper extremities, from the little finger to large, depending on which nerve is and in what area were pinched.

The pinched nerve occurs at constant voltage brushes when man worked with his hands. Today it is most often associated with computer work, because the active use of the keyboard - an unnatural activity for our hands. From the monotonous work blood circulation, develop swelling, can become inflamed tendons or joints.

Vrezultate zaselyalsya nerves. Most commonly affected are the median nerve that passes through carpal tunnel. At first the numbness in hands is felt only in the morning, and later joined the pain.

If you do not pay attention to the symptoms, the condition will deteriorate, and hands will be sore by day and night. The disease is called the carpal tunnel syndrome, it may appear onlythe one hand, more often numbness of the right hand, because it is usually more stress.

About the same consequences and lead to inflammatory processes in the joints. Most often it happens osteoarthritis. It affects just one joint, but may spread to others.

If, for example, have you noticed numbness of the left arm and did not take action, then after a while it can become inflamed joint is symmetrical on the right.

The causes of numbness, too, will be pinched nerve.

Numbness in hands may be due to Raynaud's disease. When this occurs, the disruption of the microcirculation and discomfort apply to both hands. Already at the initial stage of the disease the fingers are cold, pale, and sick in the cold. The nerves responsible for the fingers and hands are affected in polyneuropathy. In turn, the causes of this disease can also be different.

The causes of polyneuropathy

• Diabetes;
• Hypovitaminosis;
• Anemia;
• Infectious diseases.

Trauma can damage nerve tissue and lead to irreversible consequences, then numbness of the hands will remain forever.

A troubling symptom can be one-sided feelings.

This may be due to narrowing of blood vascular due to various diseases. Atherosclerotic plaque or thrombus in blood vascular represent the risk of ischemic stroke.

The fact that the tingling fingers of one hand occurs when the compression or occlusion of the vertebral artery on one side. The vertebral arteries supply blood to the brain, and narrowing of the lumen, and the more overlap can be disastrous for the brain.

Thus, even a slight numbness of the fingers of the left hand (same as right) can be a symptom, warning of the impending stroke, and therefore requires attention.

Osteochondrosis as a cause of numbness of hands

The most common cause of numbness of the extremities is low back pain. This disease is so widespread, that the rare adult does not experience its symptoms. With a significant spinal lesion pathological process, possible numbness of the hands and feet, but the extent of the disease does not occur very often.

Numbness of the fingers causes the degenerative disc disease of the cervical spine. Degenerative changesin this disease damage the intervertebral discs and vertebrae themselves.

For this reason, compresses the nerve endings and disrupts the function of the vertebral arteries, in particular they become less flow of blood. These pathological processes and cause numbness of the upper extremities.

Damage to the intervertebral discs leads to the formation of protrusions and hernias that put pressure on the nerve roots, vascular passing nearby. Degeneration of the vertebral bodies can occur by formation of osteophytes (bone spurs), which also compress the nerves.

Thus, numbness of the fingers may be a sign of cervical degenerative disc disease, and can even determine which vertebrae were affected, because the compression at certain levels is reflected by numbness in the corresponding areas of our body.

For example, numbness in the little finger and ring finger indicates the damage of 8 cervical vertebrae. If the numbness extends to the ring and middle fingers, and then hit 7 vertebra. With such feelings at the level of the thumb, index and middle fingers of the cause of the problem is usually in the 6th vertebra.

Diagnosis of the problem

It is very important to make the correct diagnosis. The most alarming signal - numb fingers of his left hand. First you need to exclude pre-stroke and pre-stroke conditions.

Numbness of the fingers of the right hand can also be a signal of an impending stroke. Severe violations of cerebral circulation can be prevented by timely diagnosis of this pathology. Next, you need to find out the condition of the spine for degenerative disc disease. Its treatment depends on the stage, so the examination should be thorough, to do all the procedures that are prescribed by a doctor.

Further diagnosis of numbness in the upper extremities is associated with the identification of inflammatory processes, compression or damage to nerve endings, responsible for the work of the hand and fingers.

Diagnostic procedures

• X-rays of the cervical spine in different projections;
• Doppler and angiography of blood vascular;
• Magnetic resonance imaging of the spine;
• Computed tomography of the brain;
• Electroencephalography.

Treatment

If you Wake up in the morning or at night and feel numbness in your fingers, don't ignore this manifestation. Perhaps you need something to do, but it can be a signal of the body about trouble.

First and foremost, of course, we think the reasons are simple: uncomfortable pillow, posture during sleep. Most often in this case, we feel a numbness of the little finger,if you long to be in an uncomfortable position, the discomfort can spread to the whole hand, but usually it only happens on one side.

To rule out this option and not to bother you for nothing, try changing the bedding, you may want to purchase an orthopedic pillow that night when changing postures again not be in an uncomfortable position.

If that's a problem, then almost immediately is a positive result, and nothing else to do.

In the case when simple measures do not help, you need to contact the doctor to obtain adequate treatment.

A pinched nerve endings of the brush is treated by a neurologist with medications, vitamins and physiotherapy. If the cause is excessive exercise or wrong posture during work, then you need these causes to eliminate and pass a small course of treatment, restoring balance in the body and nerve endings.

Specific treatment should be given in inflammatory diseases or degenerative disc disease.

Possible methods for the treatment of numbness of the fingers

• Medication. Treating inflammation swelling, reduces pain, improves functioning of blood vascular and nerves. Vitamins and chondroprotectors help restore the functions of tissues.
• Local treatment involves manual therapy and massage.
• Physiotherapy treatments stimulate blood circulation and tissue regeneration. Most commonly used laser, ultrasound, magnetotherapy.
• Therapeutic gymnastics in many cases allows to fully cope with the numbness of the hands or significantly alleviate the condition.

Prevention of numbness of hands

Always much easier to prevent disease than to treat it. Can cause numbness of the upper extremities can disorders in the blood vascular and nerves. To preserve the blood vascular, you need to adhere to a healthy way of life, not to abuse alcohol, to stop Smoking, limit salty, spicy food.

Necessarily in the diet should be meat, fish, seafood, lots of vegetables and fruits, greens.