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The Health Brief
Hands

The jar of jam I could not open

Ten slow thumb touches, twice a day. The evidence is small and I will say so.

3 min read

Move it Monday

Carol makes beach plum jam every September. Last year I could not open a single jar of it.

I got the lid halfway and my thumb quit. Not the wrist… not the fingers. One small spot at the base of the thumb, where it meets the wrist, and it went from useful to useless in about a second.

I handed the jar back to her. She opened it, said nothing, and put the kettle on. That was worse than the pain.

So the hands get a week, starting today. And today we start where hand trouble usually starts.

The joint that quits first

There is a joint at the base of your thumb called the carpometacarpal joint. It sits in the fleshy part between your thumb and your wrist. Mayo Clinic gives it the plain name: thumb arthritis.

It is a saddle joint, which is a fair description of what it does. Your thumb rocks and swivels on it every time you grip, and it takes a load out of all proportion to its size. So it wears.

You will know the pattern if you have it. The pain arrives when you grasp or pinch, not when the hand is resting. Doorknobs. Jars. A key in a stiff lock. Mayo lists exactly those, and adds swelling, tenderness, a weaker grip, and sometimes a bony bump at the base.

It shows up more after forty, and more often in women. Old thumb injuries make it likelier. None of that is your fault and none of it is a verdict.

Today's move, and it takes two minutes

Warm the hands first. I run mine under warm water for a minute or two, or hold a mug. Cold hands do not want to bend… and there is no sense fighting them.

Then rest your forearm on the table, hand loose, palm up. Nothing braced, nothing gripped. What follows is slow on purpose.

 

One. Thumb to each fingertip

Touch the tip of your thumb to the tip of your index finger, making a soft round O. Then the middle finger, then the ring, then the little one. Come back the other way. That is one round. Do ten.

 

Two. A soft fist, then wide open

Curl your fingers slowly into your palm. Not a clenched fist, a loose one. Hold for a slow count of three, then open the hand as wide as it goes and spread the fingers. Ten times.

 

Three. Stop before it hurts

You are after the edge of the range, not the edge of the pain. A stretch is fine. A sting is a signal to stop and take a little less range next time.

 

Four. Twice a day, other hand too

Morning and evening, both hands, even the good one. Two minutes each. That is the whole thing, and it costs nothing but the two minutes.

 

Now, what does that buy you? Here I have to be straight with you, because the answer is: something, but not a lot.

Cochrane pooled the hand exercise trials back in 2017. Seven trials, and five of them, covering 381 people, could be added together properly.

Hand pain came down by about half a point on a ten point scale. Finger stiffness came down about seven tenths of a point. Hand function improved by roughly two points on a thirty-six point scale.

They called that evidence low quality and the benefit of questionable importance. Worse, it was measured about three months in, and by six and twelve months the picture went uncertain. It looked like something that faded.

But a newer review settled some of that. In 2024 a team added four fresh trials to the older ones and found a small effect on pain that did hold up over the long run. Still low certainty, and still small. On grip strength the evidence was thinner again, and they said plainly that nothing yet reliably builds it back.

So the honest scorecard reads: small, not certain, probably lasting. Now look at the other column. Across three studies and 309 people there were four side effects between them, and none serious.

So the cost is two minutes and the risk is close to nothing, for a small, honest gain.

That is a trade I will take. And I opened the jam myself in July… which is not a study, but it is my kitchen.

When to stop and call your doctor

Sore on gripping and easier at rest is the ordinary pattern. See your doctor if a hand joint is hot, red and swollen, if a finger locks bent and will not straighten, if you get pins and needles or numbness in the hand at night, or if your grip fails suddenly. Pain in several joints at once, with morning stiffness lasting over an hour, points somewhere else and needs a proper look.

Here is to an easier jar,
Walt

One useful thing a day

Start with tomorrow morning.

A stretch, a sleeping position, a heat trick for a stiff hour. Short enough to read with your coffee. If one does not fit, skip it. The next one might.

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