Rheumatoid arthritis is an auto-immune disease that causes inflammation in your joints, with the main symptoms being pain and swelling particularly in the hands and feet. It’s the second most common form of arthritis in Ireland and typically affects women more than men.

How is rheumatoid arthritis diagnosed?

Your GP will do blood tests to measure inflammation and test for levels of antibodies such as rheumatoid factor.

What can help?

If those tests are positive, you are likely to be prescribed some form of medication to help manage your symptoms. Exercise can also help improve your ability to carry out daily tasks, particularly those involving your hands.

Exercise to help rheumatic hands

A trial published in 2015 (Lamb et al.) involved 490 people with this condition. They reported many benefits having followed a progressive hand flexibility and strengthening programme for 3 months.

Compared to the usual care people received, the benefits of exercise included:

Improved hand function
Stronger hand grip
Greater range of movement
Improved dexterity

And the people in the trial had on average been diagnosed for 10 years and had been on a stable drug prescription for at least three months before the trial started. So all those benefits were purely down to some simple exercises you can do while sitting down and watching TV!

What did people who took part in in the trial say?

“When I was first diagnosed with it I didn’t have any control over it whatsoever, where I’m actually doing something that’s practical that might help. I think this has been really quite valuable because it’s empowered me.”
“I’m looking to introduce changes to the way I act today in order to have a better long-term prognosis and I definitely see that this [exercise] is something that’s going to lead me in that direction.”
“To actually feel you can be doing something that’s active, positive and proactive for yourself… you can’t put a price on that.”

Physiotherapy can help

Get in touch with one of Chartered Physiotherapists to come up with a personalised plan to help improve your hands.

References

Lamb, S.E., Williamson, E.M., Heine, P.J., Adams, J., Dosanjh, S., Dritsaki, M., Glover, M.J., Lord, J., McConkey, C., Nichols, V. and Rahman, A., 2015. Exercises to improve function of the rheumatoid hand (SARAH): a randomised controlled trial. The Lancet, 385(9966), pp.421-429.
Nichols, V.P., Williamson, E., Toye, F. and Lamb, S.E., 2017. A longitudinal, qualitative study exploring sustained adherence to a hand exercise programme for rheumatoid arthritis evaluated in the SARAH trial. Disability and rehabilitation, 39(18), pp.1856-1863.