Burning hands: Is it a sign of health issues?

Do you feel a sense of burning hands while performing some tasks that you feel you cannot do anymore? Even small tasks may be hard to perform if you are having burning hands.

Hands are essentials for us as they help us perform various tasks ranging from a small task like washing clothes to doing hard and time-consuming like maintain electric circuits or performing surgery.

The reason for burning hands can be an underlying reason that you may not know but don’t neglect it either. Let’s look at the causes of burning hands and the treatment for it.

What are the causes of burning hands?

Burning hands feels like pins and needles, heat, or sharp pricky pain in your hands. You may not only experience the burning sensation in your hand, you can experience it on any part of the body.

Unfortunately, there a wide variety of conditions that causes a burning sensation in various part of the body, including your hands. So it is important to seek medical advice.  Here are a few of the things that can cause burning hands.

There are many causes of a burning sensation. Let’s look into it.

1. Peripheral neuropathy:

If you feel a burning sensation in your hands, then it can be a symptom of peripheral neuropathy.

Peripheral neuropathy is a condition that is related to a nerve dysfunction caused by nerve damage from an underlying condition.

The person may have symptoms like:

• There is a tingling sensation in your hands or feet
• Sharp pain or numbness felt in your hands or feet
• There is a weakness or a feeling of heaviness in arms or legs
• There might be a buzzing or shocking sensation in hands or feet as well

Genetics plays a role in the cause of peripheral neuropathy but it is due to an underlying condition.

Some common underlying conditions are the Presence of an autoimmune disease, diabetes mellitus, hypothyroidism or suffering from viral and bacterial infections

2. Fibromyalgia:

 It is marked by pain which is felt at various parts of the body. It is generalized fatigue. In some cases, people who are suffering from fibromyalgia will experience a burning sensation mostly in their hands and feet.

Symptoms of fibromyalgia may include:

• Unavailability to get good sleep
• Even if you wake after sleep you don’t feel rested
• Headaches, depression or anxiety
• Presence of irritable bowel syndrome with pain

3. Carpal tunnel syndrome

It is a syndrome seen when there is pressure seen on your median nerve. This nerve goes from your forearm into your palm. It finally goes into the carpal tunnel of the wrist. In some cases, the individual might feel a warmth or a burning sensation in their hands.

Other symptoms includes:

• There is a numbness and tingling feeling in your palm and fingers
• There is a weakness in your hand muscles
• The feeling of wrist pain, numbness, or weakness
• There are a pain and burning that moves up to your arm

4. Reflex sympathetic dystrophy:

It is also known as complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). It is a complex condition where malfunctioning occurs in the nervous system and the immune system. It is usually due to an injury or underlying condition like stress, infection, or cancer.

It mainly affects the hand, but it can affect other parts of the body too. The part which is affected that part seems warm in touching and can cause sweating.

Other symptoms include:

• Painful sensation
• Swelling in the affected area
• Sensitivity to heat or cold
• There is a pale or red skin
• Presence of muscle weakness or spasms

5. Trauma to a finger tip

Damage to the median nerve causes burning hands or sensation. median nerve supplies sense of feeling in the fingertip of your thumb, index finger, middle finger, half of the ring finger, and the ventral surface of the hand.  These nerves are not surgically corrected because of their size. They are often so small.

6. Sunburns

One of the important causes of burning hands is sunburn. It’s all because of the Uv radiation. So it’s important to use proper UV protection.

Sunburn can be hot, painful and even you can develop painful blisters in the affected areas. Many of us think that we can’t get sunburnt on our hands, but it’s totally wrong.  So you can conclude sunburn as one of the reasons for burning hands. You can use aloe vera to heal from sunburn.

7. Insect bites

You can develop some painful side effects after getting bitten or stung by an insect. Mainly spider bites are too dangerous. Learn more about spider bites symptoms.

You can develop swollen skin,  bumps, even high-grade fever after insect bites which may also cause different types of hypersensitivity reactions. Sometimes, these symptoms can be just the beginning of more serious side effects. So it’s more important to pay attention to all the symptoms you develop after insect bites.

An insect bite can be also one cause of the burning hands. You must seek immediate medical attention if you experience any serious and uncontrolled symptoms.

8. Allergic reaction with some plants and other products

The insect is not only allergens which may cause the burning hands but there are some plants that may lead to a burning sensation in different parts of the body. They can irritate the skin and causes painful burning, swelling, and redness too.  Some of the plants that may cause burning hands are:

• Poison oak
• Poison sumac
• Wood nettle
• Stinging nettle
• Baby’s breath
• Leadwort
• Ragweed
• Giant hogweed

Not even plants and insects, you may get a burning sensation in your hands with your household products too.  Household products that may cause burning hands are dish soap, bleach, and detergent.  These household products are meant to touch with hands. So this can be an allergen for the itchy and burning hands.

Summary

Hands are essentials for us as they help us perform various tasks. The reason for burning hands can be an underlying reason that you may not know. If this occurs for some time, but occurs for several days requires you to see a doctor immediately. I hope the causes of burning hands and the treatments given in this article have helped you know more about burning hands.