Hand, wrist and joint pain is a common complaint as patients age. Years ago patients had their hands treated with paraffin wax and other heat treatments, however, these methods failed to improve the condition long term. Excedrin and many other pain relievers advertised their arthritis strength formulas for temporary relief of pain, yet the medications made patients more chronic since they did not address the reason your joints in the hands, wrists and thumb hurt. The health care system addressed this with specialists who ran tests that could be painful, yet they too often failed to find a long term solution to your worsening pain as the years went by. Eventually, you may develop numbness in the fingers and perhaps issues with circulation as well. The specialists would often try to treat the hand pain with injections, surgeries and other invasive methods that may have relieved the symptom, but did not solve the problem. As these problems worsen, patients often develop shoulder problems, elbow pain and even problems in the neck, shoulders and back. What is everyone missing. Was the hand and joint pain a symptom of a larger issue. Why do your hands, wrists and other joints leading up to your shoulder and beyond hurt even though you have seen the recommended medical specialists. The problem with diagnosis is that simple holistic evaluation and a deep history will lead to an understanding of the mechanisms behind why you ache. This is impossible to do in the medical system that has you seeing many people who are looking at you as your parts, rather than all of you. In other words, by adding complexity, we have made the medical treatment paths for something as simple as arm and wrist pain inefficient and ineffective. You cannot one size fits all body mechanics as we are all different. We have different ways we have grown, adapted to our body styles and different sexes are structurally different. Understanding arm, wrist and hand pain begins with a thorough history and exam. When was the last time you saw a doctor who did a deep history of not only where you hurt, but also questioned you about other parts of your body. Did they ask about surgeries? Did they examine your lower body and your structure? Did they show an understanding of how interconnected the body is through the fascial system. It does not take a village and multiple specialists to evaluate your hand, wrist and thumb pain. Nor does it require an x-ray in most cases unless there was trauma involved. It does require an understanding of how the musculoskeletal system works. There is one profession that performs primary care for the musculoskeletal system and is capable of performing a proper history and evaluation of your pain. This profession understands motion and mobility and why a lack of proper movement causes pain. These doctors are known as chiropractors. Why think of chiropractic first for your hand and wrist pain and numbness. When hand pain is improperly diagnosed and treated, the problems in those areas worsen over time as we age due to a lack of care. Chiropractors see these cases as they become chronic on a regular basis. Why not just keep things simple and see the chiropractor first? Patients who never visited a chiropractor first are often surprised a how much they understand and know about how the body is supposed to move and function. Sports certified or diplomate level providers have even more training in neurology, orthopedics, soft tissue evaluation and even have on the field skills which we often see at sporting events. In our case, we helped Johnson and Johnson save thousands of dollars after years of therapies to peoples arms and wrists failed to improve these patients. Our office averaged 10 visits a case to resolve the pain, and improve how these workers functioned at work. What was so different about the chiropractic approach? Patients were evaluated and treated the same day, and many patients saw improvement over a few visits and continued improvement with the rehabilitation methods given to them by the doctor. Patients saw one doctor which kept care effective and simple. As they improved, they referred others for care as well. Chiropractors save money by evaluating holistically. What you won’t read on google is that most hand, wrist, thumb and even should problems begin in the lower body which may be symptom free. Half the motion in the body moves through the pelvis. Mechanical problems in the lower body is the most common reason for hand, wrist and thumb pain and over time, these problems will also cause shoulder, neck and many other problems. Treating problems involving movement requires holistic evaluation meaning that the doctor is thorough. How chiropractors treat these conditions. Manipulation of the spine and extremity to improve how you move. Myofascial release treatment and methods such as Graston Technique to improve the flexibility and elasticity of the muscles and fascia. Exercises to improve function and improve how you move and readapt. Foot orthotics to correct imbalances from the feet up. Often, these imbalances along with improper shoe sizing can be a cause of upper body pain. If you have hand pain and it is now progressing to numbness and you are dropping things, the specialist you need is a chiropractor. Keep it simple, think chiropractic first.