What causes numbness in fingertips? 10 signs of disease

When numbness occurs in the fingertips, we should pay attention to some disease factors. Common ones include cervical spondylosis, stroke, cerebral ischemia, and rheumatoid arthritis, especially stroke, which is most common among middle-aged and elderly people. Swelling and numbness of the fingers are also early symptoms.

1. Cervical spondylosis

Due to a series of pathological changes in cervical spondylosis, the spinal nerve roots may be compressed, stretched and irritated, causing numbness and swelling of the fingers. It manifests as numbness and swelling on the radial side or ulnar side, or on all five fingers, and may be accompanied by decreased grip strength. Cervical spondylotic radiculopathy can cause pain in the neck, back, head, upper limbs, and hands. The pain is usually dull, sore, burning, or a dull pain, or an electric shock-like pain. Numbness is often in the same area as pain, and the two often go together, but numbness often occurs in the fingers and forearms. The fingers and forearms have decreased sensation, and a few have areas of sensory hypersensitivity, which is often caused by irritation of the diseased segment.

2. Transient ischemic attack (TIA)

Elderly people who suffer from transient ischemic attack (TIA), also known as transient cerebral ischemia or "mini-stroke" often suffer from hypertension, hyperlipidemia and other symptoms. Hypertension can cause vascular spasms, high blood lipids can cause increased blood viscosity, and blood flow is relatively slow when sleeping at night. These factors can lead to transient cerebral ischemia and cause numbness of unilateral fingers. In particular, the initial symptoms of multiple cerebral infarctions are not obvious. Patients only feel numbness in their hands and feet, which does not affect their lives too much. If it is not discovered early, the best time for treatment will be delayed, causing limb movement disorders or even paralysis. Transient ischemic attack is a common and frequently occurring disease in neurology, accounting for approximately 7% to 45% of ischemic cerebrovascular diseases. 4% to 8% of patients suffer cerebral infarction within the first month after TIA.

3. Stroke

Stroke patients often experience symptoms such as headache, dizziness, limb numbness, and tongue swelling. Numbness and swelling in the fingers are one of the symptoms, but it is often accompanied by numbness in the arms and other parts of the body.

4. Diabetes

Diabetes can cause many complications. If peripheral neuropathy occurs, there will be symptoms such as numbness and abnormal sensation in the limbs.

5. Rheumatoid arthritis

Numbness and swelling of the fingers is one of the early symptoms, and this is more likely if accompanied by swollen and painful joints. If the skin on the face and fingers becomes hard, it may be scleroderma.

7. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Also known as carpal tunnel stenosis, it refers to a disease caused by wrist trauma, fracture, dislocation, sprain or wrist strain, which leads to thickening of the transverse carpal ligament, swelling of the muscles in the canal, tissue degeneration caused by blood stasis, or degeneration and hyperplasia of the carpal bones, which reduces the circumference of the canal cavity and compresses the median nerve, causing numbness and weakness of the fingers. This disease is common in people who engage in occupational carrying, lifting, twisting, pinching, etc. The main symptoms of this disease are as follows: numbness or tingling in the patient's 3.5 fingers on the lateral side, which is aggravated at night and causes sleep awakening due to pain. The pain worsens when the temperature is high and is relieved by movement or shaking the hand. In cold seasons, the affected fingers become cold and cyanotic, the fingers are not flexible, and the thumb abduction muscle strength is poor. In severe cases, the thenar and hypothenar muscles on the affected side atrophy. Numbness and pain in the thumb, index and middle fingers, often with a history of waking up at night due to numbness, which improves after waking up and moving around, is called "carpal tunnel syndrome."

8. Cell Phone Elbow

Cubital tunnel syndrome, commonly known as "mobile phone elbow" in recent years, is closely related to the frequent use of mobile phones in people's daily work and life. When people use mobile phones to make calls, their elbows are often bent more than 90 degrees. Maintaining the talking posture for a long time causes the ulnar nerve to be compressed or stretched in the cubital tunnel, which can cause the ring finger and little finger to become numb and turn into a "claw hand", or the thumb cannot be placed against the palm, the thumb and index finger cannot be placed against each other, and the fingers cannot be separated or closed. By the same token, people who use their arms as pillows while sleeping will have their elbows twisted to more than 90 degrees. If this sleeping position is maintained for several hours, it can also lead to "cell phone elbow."

9. Peripheral neuritis

If the digestion and absorption function is poor and malnutrition is present for a long time, it will cause vitamin B1 deficiency leading to peripheral neuritis and numbness of the hands. At this time, just pay attention to increasing some nutrition and supplement more vitamin B1.

10. Chronic alcoholism

For some people who drink frequently, numbness in the palms of their hands may indicate chronic alcohol poisoning. If chronic alcohol poisoning is not intervened in time, it can lead to dysfunction of various body systems and even irreversible pathological damage, such as chronic gastrointestinal inflammation and ulcers, alcoholic myocarditis, fatty liver or cirrhosis, central nervous system degeneration or brain atrophy.

In short, numbness in the fingers is an early sign of many diseases. If left untreated, it will often cause the condition to worsen. Early diagnosis can eliminate the disease in the bud.

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