Visitor Question: Hands are wrinkled and hurting, what’s going on?
We recently had a visitor ask us to help look into a health problem he is having, if anyone has some suggestions for him, I’m sure he would appreciate the advise.
Issue:
The problem he described was that his right hand looked wrinkled, like he had soaked in water for a long time, but this was fairly constant and moisture didn’t seem to be a factor.
Wrinkling started on my right thumb and then mysteriously spread to nearly every finger on the right hand, to varying degrees. Fingertips are a lot better, though not less wrinkled, on normal days — not freezing, not hot — 70 degrees F.
He also describes having redness and discomfort, but so far no dermatologist have been able to help.
All the dermatologists say that the redness SHOULD cause the wrinkled fingers, but it doesn’t — it’s the opposite!
After doing some research we offered this list of possbilitieis and suggestions:
Found the below link, seems to have a good number of people with permanent or frequent wrinkling of fingers/hands accompanied by discomfort.
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Dermatology/What-causes-wrinkled-finger-tips-all-the-time/show/542401
- Low magnesium levels. (take a supplement or eat foods with it)
- Are you on a very low fat diet (where your body isn’t able to keep oils supplied to your skin)
- Contact allergy (one guy had a plastic intolerance/allergy) working with keyboards and mice all day, there might be a chemical in yours causing a reaction. (This is something I’ve actually heard about before, some people have to cover their mice/keyboards because of this)
- Low absorption of nutrients – Take some probiotics, check that your eating some fiber.
- Celiac Disease (Gluten allergy)
- Candida
- Thyroid function – (Just incase its a lack of iodine here is a quick check for that. (link)
- Many connective tissue disorders.
I’m on a balanced diet (meats, vegetables, fish, bread, fruit, etc.) and I don’t have any diseases mentioned there, except for psoriasis which is on/off. I’ve considered magnesium deficiency befire but that possibly doesn’t fly because it is on one hand because I eat a lot of bread — see http://apjcn.nhri.org.tw/server/info/books-phds/books/foodfacts/html/data/data5d.html.I have started to eat nuts (which contain a lot more magnesium) more often. (BTW: did you know nuts could be good for teeth, as a preservative coating? That’s according to my dentist) Of course, since it’s asymptomatic (only on one side of hands), it’s probably not that. Wrinkling is somewhat better than a few months ago, so it COULD be diet related (I started eating more nuts), to a degree.It is possible I’ve developed some sort of allergy to the plastic in my mouse, because my right hand is often on a mouse, though it would still be surprising because I have used mice all my life and this particular type for about 6 years — bought a few replacements over the years.My left hand is always touching the keyboard, so it must be a specific type of plastic. I did try a few weeks without touching the mouse directly, and it didn’t seem to help, but I can’t be sure. I saw someone said they used a coating over the mouse, so I will try that and see how it goes.(The redness could be explained by secondary psoriasis inflammation — it all starts with imperfect skin protection, little bruises and cuts, and then it snowballs to masses of red, inflamed skin if you don’t get rid of it right away somehow — that’s how psoriasis gets you!)So, it’s a mystery. My insane working theory right now is: minor magnesium deficiency (caused by my psoriasis “genes” or perhaps a side-effect of anti-psoriasis steroids?), aggravated by the specific plastic coating in my Microsoft Intellimouse. (I need to use my PC!) I am trying a few things (like eating moar nuts, and trying to cover my mouse) and with that link will try a few more (like spraying the coating) — thanks!