Do you have pain in your palms? There are other reasons besides inflammation and triggers. Personal experience of a doctor who discovered an interesting observation.
- Doctors get sick too.
I first noticed pain in my palms 40 years ago: as a schoolboy, I did not attach any importance to it. Over the past 7 years, the problems in my hands have only worsened (by the way, problems also began to appear in the lower back and legs). And the main thing that bothered me so much was the pain. I was faced with the task of how to eliminate this pain. Fortunately, he who seeks finds. And so, later I learned about the phenomenon: myofascial syndrome (it’s a pity that we, medical students, were not told anything about this).
- Pathology in soft tissues.
It turns out that overworked muscles cause pain. I am sure that many already know about the notorious trigger points in muscles (just in case: a trigger point in a muscle is a compacted, usually painful area of a specific muscle). When I started working specifically with trigger points in the muscles, that’s when I got good results. I was extremely happy. However, over time I noticed that there are areas in the hands where pain still remains. And these areas are the fingers. The reader may logically assume that trigger points can also be worked on on the fingers. However, “smart” books on trigger points only talk about sore muscles. Note: there are no muscles as such on the fingers. But something in the fingers hurts.
What does medicine say? About tendon pathology. Indeed, tendons run along the inner surface of the fingers. What diseases does medicine describe? Tendonitis is a common occurrence. I studied the symptoms on the fingers: the existing symptoms spoke little in favor of tendonitis. I was at a crossroads – first: I don’t really know what kind of pathology I have; second: what should I do with the existing pathology. After thinking for a while, I decided: “What if I act on the painful areas in the same way as I act on trigger points?” No sooner said than done.
- Trigger points are not in the muscles.
And so, I began to act on all the painful areas in my fingers, as if they were trigger points in the muscles. To my surprise, I began to notice that the pain began to decrease, the soreness began to decrease, and sometimes even disappeared. I began to think: “I am definitely acting on the tendons located on the fingers; I am definitely acting on the ligaments and I am definitely acting on the capsule of the finger joints.” But here’s what’s strange: the lateral areas of the phalanges are also painful and sometimes very, very painful. But in these places there are no tendons, no ligaments, no joint capsules. So what is located there? From soft tissues, it is fascia. I began to assume that the listed soft tissues (tendons, ligaments, capsules and fascia) also acquire similar pathology over time as muscles. And what if trigger points of some kind also appear in these soft tissues. There is practically no special literature on this that would cover this pathology. What I have at the moment: I noticed that pain in soft tissues can be reduced just as successfully if painful areas are affected as trigger points of muscles. Every phenomenon should have its own name, since it is convenient. Well, I called this whole phenomenon: “non-muscular trigger points of soft supporting tissues”. I understand that this is unscientific. In general, I use what I have at hand.
- Non-muscular trigger points are practically an epidemic that affects people over 40.
My friends and relatives from time to time also began to complain to me as a doctor about pain in the hands, believing that I can give some advice. What was my surprise: almost every person over 40 had similar pains in the hands, the same as me. And this occurs, one might say, universally.
- Reflections on the possible causes of this ailment.
For myself, at the moment, I find only one reasonable explanation for why these same pains appear, caused in non-muscular soft tissues – this is a kind of “stagnation”, “stiffness” in soft tissues, which occurs over time. Look. What effect does each soft tissue structure usually experience? Of course, along its “axis”. For example, a tendon has its own length and it experiences tension along its axis (traction). But across the “axis” the soft tissue structure experiences extremely rarely. I can assume that evolution “took care” so that a person could function well until 40 years old and fulfill his main function – to give birth. And what will happen next, evolution is of little interest to this. Apparently, this is why we, humans, have not developed mechanisms that could push and massage our tissues in various directions. Hence: our task is to fill the gap that evolution has left us. We ourselves will have to work on our bodies.
- Instead of recommendations.
It is difficult to give advice on treatment in general. Unfortunately, this pathology is quite multifaceted. I will give simple advice: if possible, massage (sometimes with great effort) your fingers, palms, the back of your hands. This can be done in your free time (in transport, when you are a passenger, when you are lying down and not sleeping, when you are listening to someone, etc.). It is also good to take contrast hand baths.
