Learn What Causes Burning Hands & Fingers

Burning hands or fingers  may also include other sensations like aching, itching, and pain. Most often these are due to one of six problems. The underlying problems can range from simple food allergies to repetitive stress disorders like carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis.

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. 

Here are the primary causes behind burning hand sensations:

1. Infection
2. Allergy
3. Reaction to a drug
4. Carpal tunnel syndrome
5. Neuropathy
6. Erythromelalgia

Infection

Do you have an inflamed wound on the affected hand? Then this is the obvious source to check out. If you've tried topical antibiotics and the burning persists, keep reading!

Did you know drug reactions & allergies

are the most common causes of burning hand sensations?

Drug Reaction

Fiery sensations in your hands can be traced back to drug reactions. If you've recently started a new medication or switched drugs, then investigate this possibility. The likelihood increases if you also have burning in your cheeks or lips. New prescriptions could also be interacting with other medications you're taking. Check for drug interactions here. 

Surprisingly, allergies can also cause burning hands or fingers, too. Food allergy culprits include eggs, milk, nuts, shellfish, soy, and wheat. Insect bites or touching certain plants also are known triggers.

If you have questions about the above - ask us! We're here to help.

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

If you're tired of reading and simply want to know the probability that you have carpal tunnel, take the Quiz that Dr. Z designed. It's a very useful diagnostic tool that's quick and accurate.

 Take Dr. Z's Quiz to see if you have carpal tunnel

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. But other harmful activities can also cause this condition.

The harmful activities cause your wrist flexor tendons to get 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 more involved with burning feelings. 

• See if you have carpal tunnel by performing this self-test.
• Determine how severe your carpal tunnel is with this complimentary Quiz.

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. And choose a brace that's right for carpal tunnel.

A 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 your hand at night.

In contrast, never wear a brace during the daytime 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.

There are 4 Core Stretching Exercises of the fingers and hands to fight carpal tunnel. They loosen tendons and break up restrictions that cause tendon inflammation. Not surprisingly, these 4 stretching exercises are among the most potent carpal tunnel fighters around. 

The rate at which stretching 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 massage can be performed by a trained therapist or by the CarpalRx (which performs it automatically).

The massage 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.

Neuropathy is a common disorder - especially in diabetic patients. Neuropathy isn't a disease but rather damage that results from a disease, like diabetes. 

Under normal conditions, nerves carry signals from the brain to muscles of the body (motor nerves). Other nerves carry signals of sensation from the body to the brain (sensory nerves). But in some diseases causing neuropathy, those signals become disrupted. It's like having "crossed" signals in electrical wires.

The symptoms of neuropathy depend on which of those nerves are damaged. For instance, motor nerves can produce muscle cramping and weakness. 

In contrast, damage to sensory nerves can cause burning hands and feet. The burning sensation is usually more intense in the evening. Sometimes the burning feelings are accompanied by numbness and sensitivity to touch. That means a light touch can feel like bad pain. For instance, touching your bed sheets at night may feel like getting sharp cuts. 

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, and especially flare-ups. 

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.