A few weeks back, I blogged about working on my rhythm guitar skills for jamming at the upcoming SPBGMA conference (https://luegra.design.blog/2023/11/11/1255/). I also briefly mentioned that I am feeling slight arthritic pain in my left index finger (the hand that I fret with on guitar). I have tried putting pain-relief creams on the finger, but they are either too messy or just don’t work.
So the next step for me was trying some light therapy at home and at work. I purchased the following three items to see how well they would help.
The first is a small, rechargeable hand warmer. I picked it up through Amazon for about $10.00. It is about the size of the roller on a toilet paper dispenser and is charged through a USB connection, either with your computer or an AC outlet adapter. It took a while to first charge it up, and because it is manufactured in some foreign country, the English directions for using, charging, and storing it made absolutely no sense. Once I figured the thing out, it proved to be quite useful. It has three heat settings, which you control by pushing a small button that is embedded into the end. Good luck at controlling it if you have fat fingers. You can see what settings are on by the small LED light next to the switch (which also has the USB port there). Anyway, the low (blue) and medium (green) settings are great, but the high (red) setting is almost too hot to touch. While it seems to be designed to be gripped by the whole hand, I roll the warmer on my finger for a few minutes for fast temporary relief. It re-charges pretty quickly (the heat lasts for about three hours), and can also be used to charge up a low-battery cell phone. People at my workplace have seen it and ordered it for themselves. Overall, a good purchase.
Next, we have the Musician’s Practice Glove, which advertised as being a therapeutic glove for arthritis. It looked to be sort of like the compression socks that I wear for my diabetes condition, but for the hand. Once I put it on, I knew that it was next to useless. While there is a small amount of compression around the palm of the hand, the fingers are loose, and there is stitching at the finger tips. So, trying to press your fingers on the fretboard is troublesome. If you form a chord with your fingers, the cloth on the glove tends to muffle any open strings next to that finger. Moreover, forget any type of solo fingering, as you have to press down even harder to not muffle the plucked string. I think that I paid about $8.00 for this through Amazon, and I would advise anyone to pass on this product.
Lastly, there are the Copper Fit Hand Relief Gloves. I picked up these at the local CVS Pharmacy using a coupon. They regularly go for about $20.00, but I paid about $15.00. These are compression-style gloves that fit tight all along the hand and fingers, while leaving the fingertips bare. The palm area has a rubberized grip to it for non-slipping. These are not designed with the guitarist in mind, of course. Trying to move your fretting hand along the back of the neck smoothly is impossible. However, they do feel good for compressing on my hands and fingers. The recommendation is to wear these for 6-8 hours. My hands are always doing something messy either at work or home, so I put these gloves on before I go to bed and remove them when I wake up. I do notice that my finger does feel better in the morning, so this was a good purchase as well.
I also have been doing some hand and finger exercises for temporary relief from the pain. My advice is that, if you are still young and playing guitar, check with a doctor on how to remain nimble for the longest time possible.
Chew on it and comment.
Luegra 