Tarzan
Level 6 Valued Member
I suppose general flexibility work involving stretching does this by default but does anyone have any first hand experience with stretching adhesions for medical conditions ?
I was experiencing a lot of pain in my hands & elbows for quite some time, it was partly from complications arising from Ross River virus and I had something else going on that I'd just put down to aging and miles on the clock so to speak.
Then my mother sent me an email about one of my aunties who was suffering from Dupuytren's contractures of the hands. She sent me a few pics where her fingers were permanently contracted and she had nodules forming on the tendons in her palms, Apparently my grandfather suffered from it as well but he never spoke of it or sought any treatment.
Then I looked at my hands and my fingers were permanently flexed at rest, much like I was holding a small rod less than 15mm diameter. I also had nodules forming on the tendons. It was very painful and even holding a coffee cup was difficult because of the excessive tension all the way from fingers to my elbows.
I googled it for days and most of the treatments seemed very invasive and borderline barbaric in some cases for what just seemed like adhesions and excessive tension in the flexor tendons.
So I used myself as guinea pig and treated it myself. This is not meant to be medical advice, nor do I recommend anyone try this at home. I'd even suggest that you could do some serious damage if you were to attempt this yourself.
I began with some simple extension stretches where I just put my hand on a table and leaned slightly forward until I felt some minor discomfort and then used A RIS type of stretch where I waited out the tension and increased the stretch. That seemed to give me some minor relief but the next day nothing had changed and I was back to square 1.
Then one night after too much vodka I got a bit more aggressive than normal and pushed the stretch to the point of pain and beyond. Then I felt a pop which hurt a bit, so I stopped and evaluated my tendons to make sure I didn't rupture anything. There was a bit of pain but everything worked fine, seemingly a bit better than before the stretch.
The next day everything was fine and there seemed to a marked improvement in the finger where I'd felt the "pop". So I tried again the next night without the vodka and I wasn't up for that sort of thing sober.
Then the next time I had vodka I decided to try again on several target fingers to see if there was anything to it or if the first finger that seemed better after stretching was just an anomaly. So I focused on one hand and "popped" all the adhesions while forcing the fingers into hyper extension and just waited it out as long as I could, some fingers "popped" 3 or 4 times.
The next day the hand I'd done it to was a little bit sore but my hand was now holding a resting position where it looked relaxed and fingers were only flexed slightly - like a normal hand. The next day it was basically cured. I've since done it to the other hand and now it's fine too.
If it is a genetic condition I expect it will return over time, but it's got my hands working better than they have in years. If it happens again I can always buy another bottle of vodka and try again.
I was experiencing a lot of pain in my hands & elbows for quite some time, it was partly from complications arising from Ross River virus and I had something else going on that I'd just put down to aging and miles on the clock so to speak.
Then my mother sent me an email about one of my aunties who was suffering from Dupuytren's contractures of the hands. She sent me a few pics where her fingers were permanently contracted and she had nodules forming on the tendons in her palms, Apparently my grandfather suffered from it as well but he never spoke of it or sought any treatment.
Then I looked at my hands and my fingers were permanently flexed at rest, much like I was holding a small rod less than 15mm diameter. I also had nodules forming on the tendons. It was very painful and even holding a coffee cup was difficult because of the excessive tension all the way from fingers to my elbows.
I googled it for days and most of the treatments seemed very invasive and borderline barbaric in some cases for what just seemed like adhesions and excessive tension in the flexor tendons.
So I used myself as guinea pig and treated it myself. This is not meant to be medical advice, nor do I recommend anyone try this at home. I'd even suggest that you could do some serious damage if you were to attempt this yourself.
I began with some simple extension stretches where I just put my hand on a table and leaned slightly forward until I felt some minor discomfort and then used A RIS type of stretch where I waited out the tension and increased the stretch. That seemed to give me some minor relief but the next day nothing had changed and I was back to square 1.
Then one night after too much vodka I got a bit more aggressive than normal and pushed the stretch to the point of pain and beyond. Then I felt a pop which hurt a bit, so I stopped and evaluated my tendons to make sure I didn't rupture anything. There was a bit of pain but everything worked fine, seemingly a bit better than before the stretch.
The next day everything was fine and there seemed to a marked improvement in the finger where I'd felt the "pop". So I tried again the next night without the vodka and I wasn't up for that sort of thing sober.
Then the next time I had vodka I decided to try again on several target fingers to see if there was anything to it or if the first finger that seemed better after stretching was just an anomaly. So I focused on one hand and "popped" all the adhesions while forcing the fingers into hyper extension and just waited it out as long as I could, some fingers "popped" 3 or 4 times.
The next day the hand I'd done it to was a little bit sore but my hand was now holding a resting position where it looked relaxed and fingers were only flexed slightly - like a normal hand. The next day it was basically cured. I've since done it to the other hand and now it's fine too.
If it is a genetic condition I expect it will return over time, but it's got my hands working better than they have in years. If it happens again I can always buy another bottle of vodka and try again.