Hand swelling during running

[missmis99]

My whole life I have dealt with my hands swelling when I walk for a long distance and they are at my side. It commonly happens when I walk around the mall, zoo, etc. They get so bad that I can't take my rings off and I can't bend them all the way down and I can feel my pulse in my fingers. When I mentioned it to my doc, she suggested drinking more and limiting salt.

I find that it is worse when I am sweating. Now that it is warmer outside and I am sweating more, it happens almost every time I run. It gets really bothersome. Does anyone else experience this? Any suggestions on what to do?

[agrippa]

This happens to me if I haven't been hydrating enough, so it would make sense that when you are sweating, your fingers swell.

[juangela]

I have experienced it in the past, but not as severely as you are describing. I never workout or run with my rings on, but I have experienced some stiffness/swelling. It usually went away shortly after I finished my run/cardio.

Honestly, as my cardiovascular fitness improved, it went away. I've maintained a clean, paleo diet for a bit now and don't have those problems ever. Not sure if it is the diet or my fitness level that made the difference, actually.

Have you tried your doc's advice? I'd try increasing your water intake on your running days, too.

[osulori]

The same thing happens to me when it gets warm out, no matter how well hydrated I am prior to the run...the only thing that helps me is drinking more water during a run. I suck at carrying water with me, so if I'm running from home I do a 2-3 mile out and back, swing by home, grab some water, and head back out. When I underestimate the heat, don't drink water during, and my hands swell up after, running them under cold water for a bit usually takes the swelling down enough for me to get my rings off.

[mrs.jacinthe]

I have no suggestions, but I wanted to offer solidarity. Even if I'm just walking on the treadmill at the gym with a fan and a full bottle of water, my hands swell and start to itch and like you said, it is SUPER annoying. It goes away about 10 minutes after I stop.

I've had less of a problem since I stopped drinking as much coffee, but it is still an issue.

[dirtyred]

This is perfectly normal. Here's the physiology:

Our arteries have muscle that helps propel blood through them down to the capillaries. The veins, which return blood to the heart, do not. The veins need muscle contraction around them to push blood back to the heart. They are also our "reservoir," meaning a lot of our blood is sitting in our veins not doing much but being available if we suddenly increase our activity.

This combo of reservoir and no active return to the heart is the reason they tell people to get up and walk around on long flights to prevent blood clots--contracting your leg muscles will move some of that blood back up to the heart, keeping it from clotting in the "reservoir."

When your run or walk for a period of time, your legs are working hard and your heart is pumping out all kinds of blood. Your arms aren't doing very much, but are still getting a lot more blood than usual because of your leg activity. Because you aren't contracting your arm muscles as much as you are your legs, the blood tends to hang around in your arms. So you have a lot coming in, but little going back out. The pressure builds up in your veins, and this pressure pushes fluid out of your veins into the surrounding tissue, causing swelling.

To mitigate this, hold your arms over your head so gravity can help pull blood out of your arms, and open and close your fists several times. Doing this every 5 minutes or so will decrease the amount of swelling that you get.

[runforcookies]

More salt the day of a run or long walk seems to help me. I think I lose a lot of salt when I run so I get dehydrated quickly. I feels your pain though, swollen fingers suck!

[missmis99]

Thanks ladies. I am going to try to drink more before I run. I also do raise my hands up above my head every so often to try to relieve the pressure, but I feel like a total idiot and think people must think I am crazy. I ended up going for a bike ride today so I couldn't try it out, but will this weekend. I appreciate all of your knowledge.

[boston340]

This happens to me no matter what I do. It really sucks. I don't even wear my rings anymore at all because my hands swell so much all the time. Sorry I can't be of more help - this response was more of a "hey, I TOTALLY understand where you're coming from" post.