Active Life Orthopedics Guides 26 - Thumb Arthritis Relief

The jar of pasta sauce is undefeated. That's how it starts for most people. A reach for something ordinary — a jar, a car door, a coffee mug, a key in a stiff lock — and a sharp pain shoots through the base of the thumb. Then it happens again. And again. Arthritis at the base of the thumb rarely takes everything at once. It takes things one at a time, quietly, over years. The gardening. The guitar. The knitting. Grocery bags. Buttons. Most people make a dozen quiet adjustments before they ever mention it to a doctor. This book is written to stop that. Dr. David Geier is a triple board-certified orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist with a focus on regenerative treatment. In Thumb Arthritis Relief, he walks readers through the full range of options for basal joint arthritis — from the free changes anyone can make today to the operations that end up being the right answer for some people — and tells them plainly which is which. Inside, readers will learn: - What's actually happening inside the joint — why a joint the size of a thumbtack head carries roughly 10 to 12 times the force of every pinch, and why the X-ray so often doesn't match the pain - Why it isn't their fault — what the research really says about genetics, sex, joint shape, old injuries, and the occupational "overuse" that gets blamed for everything - How to tell it apart from the imposters — de Quervain's tenosynovitis, trigger thumb, and carpal tunnel syndrome all hurt in nearly the same spot and get confused constantly - Which braces actually help — why most bracing "failures" are the wrong device or the wrong wearing schedule, and what the randomized trials showed - A progressive strengthening program — built around stabilizing the joint, not squeezing things, with modifications for flares,…