The Main Reasons you Have Burning Hands & Fingers

Many patients say they suffer from "burning hands" or "burning fingers". It means their hands or fingers have sensations like burning, aching, itching, pain -- or all of these abnormal feelings.

There can be several conditions causing your burning hands. They range from simple food allergies to more severe conditions like carpal tunnel syndrome. This article shows you what to look for.

• FIND OUT: do you have carpal tunnel? No strings attached self-test.

When people say they have burning hands or fingers, the sensation they describe can actually be one or more types of discomfort. They include feelings of burning, aching, itching, swelling or pain. Sometimes it's all of these feelings combined. 

What causes “burning” hands and fingers is usually due to one of the following six reasons:

• Infection
• Allergy
• Reaction to a drug
• Carpal tunnel syndrome
• Neuropathy
• Erythromelalgia

The first 3 main causes of burning hands or fingers (infection, reaction to a drug, allergy) have a more obvious origin. And they're usually easier to deal with.

Infection

If you have an infection, then it's likely the skin on your hand was broken and then bacteria entered. Subsequently, the burning sensation in the hands is merely the result of infection and inflammation. Topical antibiotics will usually eliminate the burning sensation.

Drug reaction

Having a reaction to a drug (medicine) also is an obvious reason for burning hands. If you began a new drug regimen or switched drugs and feel a burning sensation in your hands or fingers (or someplace else, like your cheeks or lips), then you could be having a reaction to the new medication. There may also be interactions between the new drug and other medications you currently take. You should check on the drugs you currently take for their interactions here. 

Allergies

Allergies are another clear culprit which can produce burning hands or fingers. For instance, if you recently ate anything unusual you could have a food allergy to a particular ingredient. Certain foods are known allergy triggers including eggs, milk, peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, soy, and wheat. Insect bites or touching certain plants can produce allergies that result in irritation and burning hands or fingers.

I will eliminate these more common and easily identified reasons for having burning hands or fingers. The remainder of this article will focus on the less-obvious disorders that can also cause the burning, specifically:

• Carpal tunnel syndrome
• Neuropathy
• Erythromelalgia

One of the most common burning hands causes is a condition called carpal tunnel syndrome (or sometimes simply called "carpal tunnel"). A progressive and painful condition affecting millions, the carpal tunnel burning hands sensation can also be accompanied by other symptoms like numbness, tingling, and weakness. Many sufferers feel pain (sharp or dull) as well.

 Want to know how severe your carpal tunnel really is?

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Carpal tunnel syndrome primarily affects the palm surface of the hand and most of the fingertips. The thumb and forefinger are usually more affected. But the little finger is never involved.

Usually, carpal tunnel syndrome appears as a result of performing rapid and forceful hand movements for a long time. This makes your wrist flexor tendons inflamed. When they do, they swell. And that’s when the real problems begin.

The tendons swell inside the wrist joint in a tight space called the “carpal tunnel”. This is a narrow, confined channel through which the tendons and the median nerve pass.

Unfortunately, the swelling pushes on the median nerve and slowly crushes it inside the wrist joint. This crushing action is what causes the unpleasant sensations.

The most common signs of carpal tunnel syndrome are hand or finger pain, numbness, and tingling. But feeling burning hands and fingers is certainly in the top level of complaints.  Most times, the palm, thumb and forefinger are most involved with burning feelings. 

You can tell if you have carpal tunnel syndrome by performing the self-tests here.

You can treat carpal tunnel symptoms like painful or burning hands or fingers fairly easily -- if symptoms are mild. But if symptoms are in the severe stage, then it's more difficult to treat. 

For most cases of carpal tunnel, symptoms respond very favorably to bracing, exercise and massage. You can learn more about treating carpal tunnel syndrome here.  These treatments are outlined below.

Brace your hand while you sleep. The brace gives your hand the opportunity to rest in its natural and "neutral position". That means there's no stress on the joint. And that rest is most crucial at night.

When we sleep, we unconsciously over-bend our hands. Hyper-flexing and hyper-extending the hand does tremendous damage inside the wrist joint. But a wrist brace prevents that movement while we sleep. That's why it’s the best way to rest the hand at night.

In contrast, never wear a brace during the day while working with your hands. That's because your hand will subconsciously fight the immobilization - if even a little bit. And that can make healing go a lot slower. 

Finally, never wear a compression glove if you have carpal tunnel syndrome. See this explanation why compression gloves can be harmful.

Simple stretching exercises of the fingers and hand loosen tendons. They also break up restrictions that cause tendon inflammation. Not surprisingly, stretching exercises are among the most potent carpal tunnel fighters around. 

The rate at which exercises relieve painful or burning hands or fingers is related to how often you perform them. The best exercises for carpal tunnel can be found here .

Massage of the wrist and forearm is perhaps the most powerful nonsurgical carpal tunnel treatment. By using myofascial release massage on the wrist and forearm, the actions break apart adhesions and restriction on tendons.

This reduces tendon inflammation and swelling. That means pressure on the median nerve is relieved, and so are the painful or burning symptoms.

There are two other benefits of carpal tunnel massage using myofascial release. First, it promotes blood flow which is crucial for the healing process. It also facilitates removal of excess fluid build-up inside the wrist joint. Both of these help the healing process and restore your hand to normal again.

The main cause of neuropathy is diabetes. Therefore, treating the diabetes is paramount to relieve neuropathy symptoms.

In fact, simple blood sugar control is usually enough to allow nerves to recover from any damage caused by diabetes.

Furthermore, if you smoke, then stop. Smoking constricts blood vessels. That means less blood gets to the nerves. If you stop smoking, more blood gets to the blood vessels and they can heal faster. People who have neuropathy and then stop smoking greatly improve their chances of diminishing neuropathy symptoms.

Enhanced blood flow is also why regular exercise is beneficial. Nerves receive more blood and therefore more oxygen. This helps the nerves heal and reduces any other complications from diabetes.

If you have chronic neuropathy that causes burning hands or feet, you can try taking medications approved by the Neuropathy Action Foundation. These include:

• Nortriptyline
• Pregabalin
• Gabapentin, 
• Serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors

Erythromelalgia (e-rith-row-mel-al-gee-ah) is a disease of the blood vessels. It's relatively rare, affecting under 10,000 people  per year in the USA. Erythromelalgia often occurs with systemic scleroderma which is an autoimmune disease.

Erythromelalgia symptoms include flare-ups of burning hands and feet. It's less common in the arms, legs, and face. Often, the skin is warm, swollen, and red.

If the cause of erythromelalgia is genetic (or not known) it's called "primary erythromelalgia". If another disease causes it, it's called "secondary erythromelalgia". Secondary erythromelalgia is associated with systemic scleroderma.

The reason scleroderma results in erythromelalgia is not well understood. But studies show it may be caused by abnormal widening or narrowing of capillaries in the limbs.

Unfortunately, erythromelalgia cannot be cured. However, treatments are available to reduce symptoms like burning hands and feet. 

First, you should try to identify which triggers are causing symptom flares. If you can prevent the triggers, then you can prevent the flare-ups.

Known triggers of erythromelalgia are eating spicy foods, increased body temperature (exercising or even taking hot showers) or drinking alcohol. If you can avoid or prevent these triggers then symptoms may never arise again. 

When lifestyle changes don't help, medications are available that have good results in most people. However, they don't help everybody with erythromelalgia.

A range of drug therapies can reduce the pain or burning hands associated with erythromelalgia. But not all medications work for every patient. Examples include:

• Lidoderm 
• Aspirin
• Tegretol
• Gabapentin
• Elavil

Again, lifestyle changes or drug remedies may not alleviate erythromelalgia in everybody. If so, the episodes of burning hands or feet may just be a another part of your life from now on.