Swollen fingers are a big inconvenience, both in terms of mobility and pain management. Swelling can be caused for many different reasons. You can reduce swelling in your fingers with suitable home remedies depending on the underlying cause of swelling.
Main causes of swelling include water retention, injury or arthritis. Cut gives localized pain and discomfort. Arthritis swelling and pain also can be localized. In fact, the most common place for arthritis is hands and fingers. Water retention or edema generally swells the entire body but hands and feet are most prominent. Irrespective of the cause of swelling, the following home remedies will reduce swelling and improve mobility. However, knowing the underlying cause for the swollen fingers will help treatment faster.
Sometimes allergic reactions can also cause localized swelling. Such swellings usually do not last for long.
5 Ways to Heal Swollen Fingers
1. Elevate Your Hands
Sometimes poor blood circulation can cause swelling in the fingers. The stagnated blood needs to move. Keeping your hands above the head will instantly reduce swelling.
- Stand or sit in a comfortable position
- Keep both your hands above the level of heart. It will be best to keep them above your head for faster results.
- Keep it there for 10 minutes first time and gradually increase to 30 minutes in the next attempts
- Do it 3-4 times a day.
This will help in edema also. Even if you have severe water retention problems this will reduce swelling.
2. Move Your Swollen Fingers
Give sufficient exercise to your fingers. Try to type a few paragraphs on the computer. Move your fingers to clench and release a tennis ball. If you do not have a tennis ball then just imagine one and move your fingers.
Go for a walk for 30-40 minutes. This will improve overall blood circulation in the body. Even a 10-15 minute walk will do good but try to stretch it for
3. Eat Healthy
Eating healthy food also has a significant impact on your edema which may be a cause of your swollen fingers and may be for the rest of the body as well. If you are obese then edema become even more challenging because the lymphatic system slows down. Exercise and improved blood circulation in addition to diet of fruits, vegetables and protein will speed up the lymphatic system again. Drink more water and reduce salt intake to reduce edema.
4. Massage Your Swollen Fingers
Massaging your hand with your own other hand will be a duel effect effort for reducing swelling in the fingers. Since both your hands will be moving the mobility will improve. At the same time muscles will get stimulated to reduce pain.
- Raise your hands above the level of heart
- Massage the fingers of one hand with the other and repeat the process on the other hand
- Massage by gently rubbing the fingers from nails towards the wrist. This will help in reducing water from the tissues.
5. Wear Compression Gloves
Compression gloves are more of a preventative rather than a curative method. Wearing the gloves will not let water collect in the tissues. This will also improve the mobility of your fingers.