Thumb Arthritis Relief - Natural Remedies & Exercises w/ Sherry Zak Morris, Certified Yoga Therapist

A lot of times in life, we get ourselves into our own pickles, don't we? We do. Yeah, we just do things like we're a machine. And we have to be a little bit more mindful in what we do on an everyday basis. I got my x-ray results back today and guess what? I have arthritis in the basal thumb joint. So it's very, very mild. So I caught it really, really early. I was thinking about how this happened. My right hand, my dominant hand, I do so much with my right hand. But my right hand is my mobility hand. It's the things I use to stir and to wipe. But my left hand, I use a lot for stabilizing. And stabilizing with a joint that's a little bit on the, let's say, smaller side. Or I don't want to say weaker side, but smaller. I mean, the basal thumb joint is quite of a small joint. And to hold a heavy hand, maybe even full of food or soap suds, it's hard on that joint. And I think I overwork that joint a lot. So my doctor is an MD and also an Ayurvedic practitioner, which I just love and I appreciate so much. And she told me to do four things. The first thing is to ice it if it gets swollen or if it really starts to hurt. The second thing is to take 2,000 milligrams of turmeric every single day. Turmeric is an anti-inflammatory. It's great for your joints. It's great for your skin. Any kind of inflammation that happens in your body, turmeric is the go-to, basically, natural supplement to take. The third thing she told me to do was to wear a brace. And there's a special thumb joint brace, which I ordered on Amazon. And I will be using this when I kind of overwork myself. And the fourth thing that we need to do is to oil our joints. Yes, like the Tin Man, we need to oil our joints. This happens to be sesame seed oil. And it's a really nice kind of little bit of a viscous kind of quality. And it's really great to just smooth into the palm, into the fingers, into all the joints. I actually do this every single day. I do it on my toes and my ankles and my knees and my shoulders and my elbows and my wrists. All of that is just kind of the natural way of taking good care of your joints. And it's called avyanga in Ayurveda. So I highly recommend those practices. So as you see, there's four things we can do for these kind of arthritis things. I'm kind of bummed about it. But I'm going to start to take especially very mindful care of what I'm doing. You know, a lot of times in life, we get ourselves into our own pickles, don't we? We do. Yeah, we just do things like we're a machine. And we have to be a little bit more mindful in what we do on an everyday basis. I just started sewing. I'm really excited about sewing. And guess what? Sewing is a lot of working with your hands. So I'm going to be taking good care of my hands, especially this nice little thumb joint in the next couple of months. And hopefully, I'll recover well. If you wanted to know what kind of stretches are good for the basal thumb joint, you can do something for carpal tunnel, which is very close by, right? The thumb joint here, the carpal tunnel here, all related, right? They're next door neighbors. So these kind of stretches are really good. I'll have to do that with the other hand. So it feels good. Good. And then opening up wide like that, high fives, really good for the joints. They love traction. They love to be open. And then, of course, to use that joint and oil that joint and get it mobile is to do this one. Thumb to the pinky mound. Yeah, that one could hurt a little bit when my thumb arthritis flares up. So all of those things are very, very important to do. So I thought I'd share that with you just to let you know that, you know what? We do get ourselves into our own pickles. But with a little bit of mindfulness and a little bit of some self-care practices, I think we can just keep on keeping on. And, you know, we're going to keep moving, too. Signing off.