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Thursday 30 September 2010

Tingling in Fingers

When you experience tingling in fingers all of a sudden, you get a strange sense of discomfort. You can call it as a pins and needles kind of sensation or you can say it gives a prickling feeling or numbness. This may last for few minutes and disappear on its own. If it happens once in a while, then it is not a cause of concern. However, in case, it persists or recur again and again then it is likely to be triggered by some underlying health problems. It is mostly related to problems in nerves, muscles or blood circulation.

What Causes Tingling in Fingers

Some of the most commonly found causes of tingling in fingers are given below.
  • Traumatic Injury: If you have sustained wrist or finger injury in the recent times, then it is possible that one or more of the nerves of the area got damaged and which can cause tingling feeling.
  • Diabetes: This is a key cause of tingling in fingers. Diabetic patients often experience tingling in hands and feet due to nerve damage caused by the disease.
  • Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: This is mostly caused by repetitive use of the wrist. For instance, people who are typing or playing keyboard or playing tennis regularly can have this problem. In such a condition, the median nerve of the wrist get pressed and gives rise to numbness and tingling in fingers.
  • Multiple Sclerosis: This disease affects the central nervous system and thus, all the nerves of the body get damaged including those in the hands and fingers. It is a progressive disease that can have such a bad damaging effect on the nerves that it can even lead to paralysis.
  • Circulation Problem: One fine morning, you get up from your sleep and discover tingling and numbness in fingers of one hand. This happens if you lie on your arm while sleeping. As a result, blood supply to the fingers get affected. It is a temporary circulation problem and it gets resolved as soon as the blood supply is resumed. There are some diseases like Raynaud's syndrome where the blood vessels of the hands are constricted and causes tingling in hands and fingers persistently.
  • Other Causes: Some people may get this prickling sensation just before the onset of panic attack. Infectious disease like leprosy, frostbite, ganglion cysts, over dosage of vitamin B6, side effects of medicines are some of the other causes of tingling in fingers.
Tingling in Fingers Treatment

When you experience tingling fingers quite frequently, then it is advisable to visit a doctor for proper treatment of the problem. The exact cause is diagnosed with the help of physical examination of the affected hand, medical history of the patient and a few laboratory tests such as x-rays and MRI scan. If any underlying disease is responsible for this, then it is treated with suitable medicines in order to get rid of the problem. Diabetic patients are advised to keep their blood sugar level in check so that there is no further damage to the nerves. To heal up injuries, the hand should be rested for some time which depends on the severity of the injury. When pain accompanies the tingling feeling due to carpal tunnel syndrome, then pain relieving medicines are given to reduce the pain. Physical therapy is also very helpful for pain management. In serious cases, surgical option is availed to release the trapped nerve.

As you can see, tingling in fingers can be a serious issue. Therefore, you should not ignore the problem. Timely treatment can prevent any further damage to the fingers and restore their ability to function normally. To prevent numbness and tingling in hands and fingers, you must avoid repetitive motion of the wrist. Regular hand exercises can also be highly beneficial in this regard as they make the muscles of the area strong and flexible and prevent any kind of injury.

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