How Diabetes Affects Your Hands: From Trigger Finger to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
⌚️ read time: 5 minutes
Diabetes is a condition that affects millions of people worldwide, and its impact can extend into every corner of your body. We all know the effects it can have on your blood sugar levels and weight, but devastating effects on your kidneys, eyes, and even hands lurk around every corner.
If you have diabetes, you may be at an increased risk for a variety of hand issues, especially trigger finger and carpal tunnel syndrome.
Today, let’s break down how diabetes can affect your hands and what steps you can take to manage these conditions.
Understanding the Connection
The link between diabetes and hand issues primarily comes down to the effects of high blood sugar levels over time. This is due to a process known as glycation where aberrant sugar molecules are mistakenly added to proteins and fats. This results in “Advanced Glycation End Products,” or AGEs, that accumulate within tissues.
The build-up of AGEs within tissues causes them to function poorly. This is how elevated glucose can lead to a number of complications, including nerve damage (neuropathy) and changes in the connective tissue that can affect your hand’s function.
Diabetes and the Hand
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
As we’ve reviewed previously (link here), carpal tunnel syndrome occurs when the median nerve becomes compressed as it travels through a narrow passage in the wrist called the carpal tunnel. This causes tingling, numbness, and pain in the thumb, index, middle, and ring fingers.
Every human on the planet is at risk of developing this condition, at least theoretically.
In people with diabetes, the build up of AGEs within the nerves over time will cause nerve damage. This nerve damage then makes patients more susceptible to developing conditions like carpal tunnel syndrome when further nerve compression occurs.
Or in essence, the nerves in a patient with diabetes have far less reserve to deal with potential challenges in their environment.
Take this ‘at-risk’ nerve and subject it to the typical environmental or aging factors that lead to carpal tunnel syndrome in all humans? Now you see why this condition is more common in patients with diabetes.
Trigger Finger
Trigger finger is another common condition I’ve discussed previously at length (link here). In this condition, the fingers get stuck in a bent position as a result of thickening within the tendons that flex the fingers.
Do you know what’s a great way to thicken a tendon? The build-up of AGEs from chronically high blood sugar!
Some studies indicate patients with diabetes are nearly 10 times more likely to develop trigger fingers than the average person.
Even worse?
The trigger fingers in patients with diabetes are more resistant to non-surgical treatment than in the average patient.
Even worse?
The same AGE build-up products can delay wound healing and increase susceptibility to infection after any surgery in patients with diabetes.
As you can see, this is not a good situation. This snowball effect of multiple organ systems being at risk is something we encounter over and over again when facing diabetes throughout the human body.
Managing Hand Issues Related to Diabetes
Other than what’s discussed above, there’s nothing really different about treating these hand conditions in patients with diabetes compared to the average person. The treatment strategies are largely the same — they just have worse outcomes when blood sugar levels are elevated.
That means that mitigating high blood sugar levels before developing these conditions would be your best bet. I’m no diabetes doctor, but I’ve outlined a few basic common-sense strategies to pursue below:
Maintain Healthy Blood Sugar Levels
This is by far the most important step in managing your diabetes effectively. As you might expect, this includes monitoring blood sugar levels, following a balanced diet, exercising regularly, and adhering to any prescribed medications.
The higher that blood sugar level remains, the more glycation will occur. The more glycation, the more AGEs will build up in your tissues, often causing irreversible damage. This is how diabetes patients develop nerve damage and connective tissue changes.
Stay Active
It sounds cliche, but exercise is perhaps the most important “drug” we have available. And it can be free!
I want you to really hear this. Try to read this in a new light, rather than just another doctor telling you to exercise.
The evidence is overwhelming. If any drug performed as well in studies as exercise does, it would be the blockbuster of all blockbuster medications.
Regular physical activity controls blood sugar, increases circulation, and strengthens muscles, to name a few of the many benefits. There are many cases in which a diet and exercise regimen can cure type 2 diabetes…no meds needed!
Seek Professional Help
Remember. I am not your doctor, and I’m certainly not a diabetes expert. That being said, I do see it in my clinic all the time.
While a trigger finger is not necessarily a serious condition, it can be painful. And diabetes and carpal tunnel syndrome certainly are serious conditions. If you’re struggling with any of these, please seek professional help.
Often it’s the earliest interventions that can get you back on a healthy path and prevent many of the dreaded complications associated with diabetes on its own, as well as many of the hand conditions it contributes to.
Takeaways:
Diabetes can significantly impact your hands, leading to issues like carpal tunnel syndrome and trigger finger.
By actively managing your blood sugar levels and incorporating preventive measures, you can protect your hands and maintain their functionality.
Unfortunately, diabetes makes the above hand and wrist conditions more resistant to non-surgical treatment and makes surgery itself a higher risk
Diabetes is a complex condition with varying levels of severity among individuals. However, the elevated blood sugar levels associated with this disease cause progressive, universal damage throughout the human body.
The hands and wrists are no exception.
If you are struggling with diabetes or any of its associated conditions, your best bet is to seek trusted medical care right away!
