West Idaho Orthopedics Hand Surgeon Offers Summer Hand Wellness Tips

(Boise, Idaho -- June 2012) - A hand surgeon specialist has important advice for maintaining hand health during the busy summer months.

Caldwell, ID (prHWY.com) June 25, 2012 - (Boise, Idaho -- June 2012) - A hand surgeon specialist has important advice for maintaining hand health during the busy summer months. Dr. Robert Hansen MD of the West Idaho Orthopedics and Sports Medicine center promotes hand and arm wellness through preventive care, reducing the possibility of future hand surgery or joint replacement surgery.

Hands and arms can accomplish everything from the finesse of needlepoint to the force of a diving tackle. However, few people think of their hands and wrists until a hand injury or osteoarthritis diminishes their grip strength and mobility. Maintaining these wonderfully versatile tools through consistent exercise and regular activity breaks can help keep them healthy for life, suggests Dr. Hansen.

Repetitive motion disorders can affect every joint in the hand and arm. Those rapid-fire texts can lead to a sore trigger finger/thumb. DeQuervain's tenosynovitis often results from playing video games. Typing and sewing often exacerbate carpal tunnel syndrome. Decrease the chances of developing a specific tendon injury such as tennis elbow, golfer's elbow and DeQuervain's tenosynovitis by taking frequent breaks to stretch.

As a hand surgeon and sports medicine specialist, Dr. Hansen has treated countless hand and wrist injuries in athletes. Attention to hand and wrist exercise can preserve flexibility for athletes well after they retire. To stave off a tendon injury caused by repetitive arm motions, Dr. Hansen recommends shoulder rolls and arm curls without weights to decrease the risk of rotator cuff tendonitis, tennis elbow and golfer's elbow.

Athletes aren't the only people who occasionally cope with a hand injury, develop ganglion cysts or require hand surgery. Data entry personnel with carpal tunnel syndrome, construction workers with rotator cuff tendonitis and cooks with tennis elbow also benefit from adhering to a schedule of regular stretching. Patients with osteoarthritis often find relief from physical therapy.

Offset activities that lock hands and wrists into a frozen position with stretches that move them in the opposing direction. If you've spent an hour with your hand curled around a rake, take five minutes to straighten your fingers and stretch them to your maximum reach. Keep an active trigger finger/thumb off the joystick for at least a few minutes out of every hour. Arthritis may limit your mobility, but moving to the extent of your range preserves flexibility.

When exercise no longer provides relief from the stiffness of arthritis or when an acute injury occurs, minimally invasive surgery can restore greater hand and arm function. Recovery times after tendon repair or aspiration of ganglion cysts is usually brief. However, even the most minimally invasive surgery requires physical therapy during your recovery period. Many of the same movements that speed recovery also help strengthen healthy hands and arms. Specialists at West Idaho Orthopedics in Boise can tailor a physical therapy program expressly for your hand and arm health.

An avid tennis player himself, Dr. Hansen has been an orthopedic surgeon since 1980. For more information, contact Dr Robert Hansen MD at 208-459-4511 or visit the West Idaho Orthopedics web site. The center provides the Caldwell, Meridian and Boise, Idaho area with the best in sports medicine, preventive joint care and joint replacement surgery.

West Idaho Orthopedics
206 E. Elm Street
Caldwell, Idaho 83605
208-459-4511

For more information about MD Robert Hansen and hand surgery please visit http://www.westidahoorthopedics.com/medical-staff/physicians/robert-g.-hansen-m.d.aspx

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Tag Words: hand surgery, md robert hansen

Categories: Health

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West Idaho Orthopedics
206 E. Elm Street
Caldwell, Idaho 83605
208-459-4511

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