Basal Joint Arthritis

Basal Joint Arthritis

Basal arthritis, or rather basal joint arthritis is arthritis of the thumb.  To be more precise it’s arthritis of the carpometacarpal joint. You will find this joint where the thumb meets the wrist. And since there are acronyms for just about everything, this joint is also called the CMC joint.

You know, the thumb is really an amazing tool. We use it for all sorts of tasks without giving it a second thought. But do stop and think for a minute.  It helps us open jars and use can openers, we can grasp hold of a door knob and twist it so the door will open.  We can hold tools and utensils in our hand.  And we can put our thumb in front of every other digit on our hand or fold it into the palm of our hand.

Like all joints, it’s held together by ligaments. And the end of the bones that form the joint are covered with cartilage. That cartilage makes it possible for the joint to move smoothly.

Let’s imagine you pull the ligaments and they get stretched out of shape. They won’t be able to keep things together as well as they used to.  The joint might get a bit out of alignment.

You know what happens to a precision tool that is not aligned properly. It will wear out faster. It’s the same with our basal joint…all joints for that matter. The cartilage will wear down and the bones will start rubbing together.  They will become damaged and get inflamed.  The same could happen if we broke our carpometacarpal joint and maybe a small bone fragment will not align properly when healing. And it will have the same result.

Pulled ligaments and breaks in the joint are not the only risks to develop basal arthritis.  People in the industry section of society might have a job where they have to use their thumb and wrist repeatedly. Maybe on an assembly line, making the same movements over and over.

I wonder if digging with a shovel is hard on the basal joint. I trust that people will know themselves if they happen to have a job which puts them at a risk for developing  arthritis in the CMC joint .

It starts with a little bit of pain but can progress to quite a lot of pain.  I have basal joint arthritis in both thumbs. I think I mentioned in one of my posts that I was in a car crash .  With both hands on the steering wheel it is not very hard to damage both thumbs.

Prescription drugs are a no-no as far as I am concerned. The side effects can be worse than the reason you take them.

There is a product on the market, green-lipped mussel oil, derived from the green-lipped mussel. This product is hihgly anti inflammatory and thousands of people with arthritis have had great results after taking this supplement.

As soon as my bank account will permit it I will order this supplement. A friend of mine has had such great results he is back jogging again. Oops, I promised “no hype”…but this is just the truth so I’ll leave it.

Get rid of your basal arthritis pain or any other arthritis pain you might experience

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