When something goes wrong with the body, each part of the body signals it in different ways. In particular, if you closely observe the hand, which is called a ‘miniaturized version of the human body,’ you can predict the disease in advance. In this regard, American health media ‘It’s Not That’ introduces ‘3 diseases that can be detected by looking at your hands’.
▲ Parkinson’s disease
In general, there are cases of tremor when the body accumulates fatigue or lacks nutrients. However, if the tremor persists for a long time, the early symptoms of Parkinson’s disease can be suspected. Parkinson’s disease is a disease in which movement is impaired due to the destruction of dopaminergic neurons in the center of the brainstem. However, most patients mistake the tremor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease for simple tremor and miss the treatment time.
There is a difference between hand tremors and tremors in Parkinson’s disease. In Parkinson’s disease, only one hand trembles in the beginning and later progresses to both hands. Parkinson’s disease trembles when standing still, but does not tremble when you move your hand. It is important to recognize the difference between the two and start treatment for Parkinson’s disease early.
Pulmonary fibrosis
When a disease in the lungs such as pneumonia, pulmonary fibrosis, or lung cancer occurs, ‘the clubbing phenomenon’ occurs in many cases. A club is a symptom in which the tip of a finger becomes blunt and thickens into a club shape. In addition to swelling of the fingertips and turning red due to heat, it is a disease in which the nails become too soft or sharply downward. If bronchial symptoms such as clubbing, cough, and asthma appear, it is recommended to suspect pulmonary fibrosis and be tested.
Rheumatoid Arthritis
It is necessary to suspect rheumatoid arthritis at least once when there is pain in the fingers. Rheumatoid arthritis is known to be an incurable disease, but if you start treatment at an early stage, your condition can improve enough that there are no problems with your daily life.
Early symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis include swelling, warmth, redness of the skin, and stiffness in the joints of the fingers or wrists and ankles. In particular, the stiffness of the joints in the morning, which makes it difficult to move, lasts for more than an hour. In general, the symptoms are similar to those of degenerative arthritis, so it is easy to confuse them. If joint pain persists for more than a week, rheumatoid arthritis should be suspected.
※This is an online article for Weekly Chosun.
