Are you having trouble holding onto things? Do you find yourself constantly dropping your keys? Or does the fork you pull from the kitchen drawer or your coffee cup keep slipping out of your hands? While you might just be clumsy, you may also have a condition that is affecting your grip. Learn the 3 conditions that can cause hand weakness and what you can do about it to help answer the question, why do I keep dropping things?
3 Conditions that Can Cause Hand Weakness
1. Arthritis
Arthritis can cause your joints to lose the cartilage that allows them to move smoothly against each other. As the cartilage deteriorates, pain and swelling can occur. The pain, swelling, and stiffness of arthritis can make it difficult to bend your fingers and to pinch your thumb and fingers together. This occurs most often in the base of the thumb (known as CMC Thumb Arthritis) or in the joints of your fingers.
2. Tendinitis
Numbness and swelling in the hands can also be caused by inflamed tendons, a condition called tendinitis. In most cases, tendinitis is caused by overuse from activities such as typing, cleaning, painting walls and sports. When overworked tendons become irritated they can develop small tears causing pain and muscle weakness. With tendinitis you may experience numbness or tingling in any finger, including your pinky.
3. Repetitive Stress Injuries – Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Activities and sports requiring the same repeated motion, such as swinging a tennis racket or typing on a keyboard, can create stress on hands and fingers. Repetitive tasks can irritate nerves, tendons, and bone resulting in pain, swelling, and loss of muscle strength.
Those symptoms together are called Repetitive Stress Injuries (RSI’s), and one of the most common RSI’s is Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome can start with an aching in the wrist that extends to your hands or up your arm. Other symptoms can include tingling or numbness in the fingers, especially at night. Over time, your hand can become weak or numb.
Treatment for Conditions That Cause Hand Weakness
Treatment for these conditions should always start with talking to your health care provider who can diagnosis your problem and give you recommendations for treatment. Depending on the diagnosis, treatment options can include include applying heat and cold, wearing a splint or brace for support or rest, occupational or physical therapy and medications to reduce pain and swelling.
Wearing a splint or brace can help make daily activities easier, less painful, and more comfortable. Thumb Splints such as the CMCcare Thumb Brace help relieve thumb pain when pinching or gripping and can help alleviate your symptoms and improve your ability to hold objects without the fear of dropping them.
Protective gloves that have silicone dots or tacky material in the palm are a great solution if you have compromised hand strength. The Protexgloves with grips can help make it easier and safer to lift a coffee pot or hot water and put away your dishes.
The WS6 Wrist Compression Sleeve and Fix Comfort Wrist Brace can help relieve your symptoms of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome or tendinitis. Wearing a wrist brace rests your wrist in a neutral position, which helps decreases the swelling that may be filling the tunnel and decreases the pressure on the median nerve. This can help reduce numbness and the tingling feeling and improve your hand strength.
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Our blogs are educational in nature and are not intended as a substitute for medical advice. Because your condition is unique to you, it is recommended that you consult with your health care provider before attempting any medical or therapeutic treatments. We are always happy to answer questions about products mentioned in our blogs, however, we cannot provide a diagnosis or medical advice.
I cannot hold onto anything in my right hand and ] can’t use my right hand to eat or anything. The nuerologist says I don’t have MS or Parkinsons or anything like that but they don’t know what it is!
I’ve always had shaking hands especially on a morning, now if I use my hands to clean or vacuum my right hand uncontrollably shakes so bad I can’t grip anything for hours. I often drop things too as if I can’t feel what’s in my hand let alone grip anything. I’m getting very worried about this please help. my doctor just says it’s, coffee, stress,smoking, alcohol or lack of sleep,none of them apply to me as I don’t do any of them things and I’m very happy so not worried or depressed,thank you for reading
I can’t believe so many people have the same symptoms I do! I’m diabetic and have neuropathy in both feet. Is it possible to experience it in my hands? But like the others, I have no pain or notice that I’m dropping my cup or whatever. Any ideas?
Thank you for sharing such all these wonderful information with us through your blog . Your blog content is very unique.
I keep dropping things from my left hand and it’s as if my brain isn’t reaching my left hand. This has been happening for about 6 months and I don’t feel pain or pins and needles, I just suddenly loose hold of what I’m holding. I sleep very well and I have no reason for it.
I really don’t know what’s causing it.
Mine are doing the exact same thing, I have no pain ither . It’s just as if my hand/ hands just let go .
That happens to me too. I will be holding my IPhone and it just drops from my hand. No pain or numbness.
my fingers are the same if I rub my thumb along the tops of the fingers they feel like there coated with plastic? if I’m picking something up I have to be careful otherwise it either slides away from me or I drop it very very frustrating
have you tried fast twitch muscle exercises like simulating to hit a boxing bag at high speed (repeats 50 to 100)
I also have a hard time holding on to things. I can’t say how many times I’ve dropped plates of food. Sometimes if I kept thinking about holding onto things I could manage. Well, lately I can’t hold onto anything. I’ve been going through this from the age of 15 and I have yet to get a diagnosis. Every Doctor I saw would just thought it was in my head.
Reasons you find your hands tingling when wearing gloves. 1. The gloves might be too tight. 2. You probably have an allergic reaction to the glove material. 3. The gloves might not be breathable enough. 4. You might currently wear compression gloves to treat carpal tunnel syndrome. 5. You often handle vibrating machinery with the wrong kind of gloves.
Quite an interesting read! Arthritis, peripheral neuropathy, carpal tunnel syndrome, and ganglion cysts are just a few disorders that can cause hand weakness. A weaker hand or grip might make it harder to execute regular chores. It is critical to consult with your health care provider, who can identify the condition and make treatment recommendations.
It can also be because of less sleep .
have no feeling or pain in my fingers i camot use them to hang on to or pick any thing up. i ;ve had carbutel tunnel surey . I have this in both hands
I have 8 screws and a 10 ok nch plate in my right hand my right from thumb to middle finger stat numb. I drop things a lot from numbness all day what can i do do. I also have trigimanal nulragia on right side of face what doctor
I keep on dropping my phone out of my hands whether texting or playing games and i have trembling and shakes in bothe hands but it’s worse on my right hand it’s really beginning to scare me because my uncle has Ms please help me with some answers what it could be it’s getting worse like my phone could drop now 3 to 4 times in 5mins. Concerned and many thanks in advance
Did you ever find out what was causing this I’m wondering cause I been having the same condition let me know please an tia. Jay
I have the same problem. I sometimes drop the remote control seven times within five minutes. When holding a mug of coffee my thumb and fingers just let go and coffee all over the floor.
I have started doing the exact same thing in the past few months. I’ll be doing something on my phone and it falls out of my hands so fast it’s almost like someone knocked it out of my grip. I have been constantly spilling stuff too. my husband gets so mad at me because I’m constantly spilling stuff on my side of the bed on the floor. too the point he makes me cry. I try to explain to him that I can’t help it that I don’t know why this is happening but he acts like I’m just clumsy and he didn’t l doesn’t care. it’s so upsetting.
Ask your Dr if you could have Essential Tremor. This causes uncontrolled trembling/shaking of your hands/head/voice It’s worse when you’re using the affected body part i.e. writing, sewing, craft work & (unlike Parkinson’s Disease) it lessens or goes away while at rest.
It is a progressive neurological condition which often runs in families. My Dad, my brother and I all have it. Katherine Hepburn’s constant head/voice shaking was due to Essential Tremor.
https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/essential-tremor
I have about 95% loss of use in the 3 fingers from my middle to my pinky on my right hand i get shivers in my neck if i try to move them.. Neurologist thinks it may be the ulnar nerve, however in the last day i have started to experience loss of use in the same fingers on my left hand.
I’m going to get a tiny stress ball to strengthen my grip. I’m also going to start building back strength in my arm. Smallest dumbbells, starting out. I hope this helps anyone suffering from this annoying, embarrassing ailment!!
I don’t have any of these symptoms either, but I do drop things also. My main problem is when I’m doing anything on my laptop or my phone, I can be typing or playing a game and all the sudden when I lift my hand or finger up my hand will drop done with no warning. I do have MS and the drop foot. This is getting really annoying!!
Some of my fingers are over thick and one is bent. Is exercise for them, any good? Are there any tablets to aid arthritis?ru
Rudolph, Thank you for your questions. Please know that while we can provide information on certain health conditions, we are not medical professionals. We strongly suggest that you consult with your healthcare professional or a specialist who can diagnose your finger condition and give you recommendations for treatment.
I don’t have any of these symptoms but I frequently drops little things like brush keys foods etc and u always feels bad
I do not have all these symptoms but i drops things too from phone, cup, key etc and it is getting frequent these days
I have had 2 mri scans and I have degenerative 6 th vertabrew ana although my grip is strong i drop things an cannot hola fork in my left hand i have no pain
I’ve found that I have been dropping things. Why!! Pisses me off. What’s wrong with me?
It happen to me I drop the cigarette . Keys an other things they dont hurt only occasionally but they are silky and slippery same as my feet.
I don’t have any of those symptoms things just fall out of my right hand I don’t know until I raise my hand
This is happening to me, too. Plates, cups, all kinds of things.
I don’t have any of those symptoms either but I have the same problem. When I am using my right hand, I’ll let go of whatever I’m holding in my left hand without noticing until I raise my hand.