Causes of Stiff Hands in Diabetes

Diabetes often creates trouble in the musculoskeletal system. The musculoskeletal system includes areas like the joints, tendons, ligaments, and bones. When you have diabetes, the likelihood of bone problems are great. The types of symptoms you will have vary according to the problem you are having. Hands are about the most common problem that will afflict people with diabetes.

One problem that can happen in diabetics as far as hands is Diabetic Cheiroarthropathy. This simply means that the mobility of your joints are quite limited. Another term for it still, is diabetic stiff-hand syndrome. You have very limited small joint movements in your hands. The ability to be flexible such as in bending the fingers, and also straightening the fingers is very hard to do. You will notice that there is thick skin with a waxy or shiny appearance of the affected hand. It will be hard to do the isometric exercise, which is where you put both hands together as in a clapping or praying figure, and find it hard to get your palms flattened together at once. This condition can occur either in type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Physical therapy may help a diabetic with this hand condition and stretching exercises assigned to do at home.

Diabetics can also come down with what is known as Flexor Tenosynovitis. This is known as "trigger finger," as I think I have talked about in some other article a ways back. This is an all too common complication in diabetic people. People that have this problem with trigger finger will complain that their fingers will be painful, and have a catch in them. The fingers affected will become very inflexible, and stuck all of the time in one position. People that have had diabetes for a number of years, are likely to have this condition. Steroidal injections may help this medical condition as well as surgery if the problem is very painful and disabling.

Dupuytren's Contracture is another stiff hand problem in diabetic people. Your palms will form a fibrosis and a thickening in the connective tissue directly underneath the skin. You can easily feel that there is nodules, bumps, and bands, within the area of the palms. Sometimes steroidal injections will help a person with this problem, and if the problem is really extreme, there may need to be a surgery. Doctor's usually won't operate unless they have to.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is common to some people with diabetes. The median nerve becomes compressed, which is the nerve that leads from the wrist to the hand. It is the changes in structures within the connective tissue of the hand and wrist area that can bring on Carpal Tunnel Syndrome . The negative changes that take place here in forming CTS all hinges upon how long you have had diabetes and what level of control you've had. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome causes a numbness or pricking sensations like needles in the hands, and the pain may go on upward. Treating CTS involves injections of steroids sometimes, or else carpal tunnel surgery. Anti-inflammatory medicines may also help to lessen pains.