Dry, cracked, swollen, painful fingers/thumb.

45 year old male with same symptoms and all remedies, creams and PRESCRIPTIONS don't HELP. Both index fingers and both middle fingers are cracked in the middle (palm side) and this condition has been prevalent for the last 4 years, all seasons. Please email _[removed]_ if you have any ideas

Same problem as last 2 posts.
I am 53 years old and started with this dry, cracked skin problem approx.
6 mo. ago for the first time ever. As you know it is really painful not to mention, not pleasing to the eyes.
Went to dermatologist several times.
Paid $269.00 to see my hands clear for two weeks. Have tried numerous creams, etc. The one I like the most so far is "Psorzema creme" by dermae. It has all natural ingredients and really clears up alot of my troubled skin but of course not permanently. I put the cream on my hands and sometimes feet. On my hands I use vinyl gloves with the tips cut off whenever I can. And at night I use cloth gloves.

I just met a man with the same problem. That's why I looked this up. I haven't discussed this with him. Thought I might find out something about it first.
Has anyone tried things like pure coconut oil? I'm finding it's great for a lot of things, although I don't have this particular problem.
Has anyone tried to find out if this is related to diet? I'm finding I have some weird symptoms from regular foods. Most people don't believe how some of these foods affect me, but I can sure tell when I eat something I shouldn't. It could be worth exploring.
I'm going to do more research.

thanks,

My wife has cracks on the ends of her thumbs that are horrific to look at. o.O She's 65 now, we got married when she was 20 and she's had that problem in the winter for as long as I can remember. She's never found anything that helps. :-(

Hi folks,
I have had this complaint for 2 years, it comes when my Urine acid is to high, ( gout ) taking a gout medicine neutralizes the acid and hence also healing the cracked thumbs general healing seems to improve after taking the gout medicine,
PS i have had Gout some 15 years off and on, its only the last 2 years that cracked thumbs symtom has started i am now 54years old,
PPS i also found that placing a plaster over the cracked area hepls heal the thumb, It takes about 3 days for the gout to clear up taking the medicine, after that another 3 days and the cracks are almost gone
i hope this might help somebody out there.
kind regards Mark

I have had the same-same problem with my fingers. I have red splotches under the skin on my hands, which waxes and wqnes as I beat it off a lttle or not. I have had success with WORMWOOD medicine, although I had a reaction of an infective arm - whatever is in my body had to go somewhere. I also found that anti-worming prescription tablets from Doc cleared up a lot of it. At the moment I am trying a mix of staminade/berocca and niacin (B3) tabs It seems to keep it at bay. An an arthritis sufferer, I do not eat the nightshade foods , and I thought that some seafood (prawns) worsened it the other day. I noted on another blog that BLACK CURRENT OIL is being recommended. It has heaps of good atty acids. I have been recommended to take pure Fish oil, but it didn't seem to have any affect. I sympathise with fellow sufferers, because it is so difficult when your fingers don't handle well, and get to the sore, bleeding stage. Stress? I am retired.

I too have tried prescription cortisone creams which give temporary relief, and every over the counter salve and ointment made, with little or no help.
Finally a rhumatologist prescribed methatrexate (10 mg/week) which has helped tremendously.   Still get some swelling and cracking in a couple of fingers, but nothing like the agony I had before.

Think of food causes:  for me, it's CORN and processed food with corn derived ingredients.  The day after I eat processed food with corn starch, corn syrup or just corn, the corners of my fingers and thumbs crack and my fingers swell slightly.  They become so sensitive to the touch that it feels like an infected knife wound or a splinter left in place for three days.

no one mentioned Fingertip Ezema as the diagnosis which I got recently when it is just on the upper parts of your fingers, for me it is only on my two thumbs. Using Protopic Ointment and Halobetasol Ointment alternating each week and only at night with the cotton gloves. Recommend Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream over cracked areas all day long really helps with easing that tightness from the dry skin.

Just wondering how long you used the Clobetisol. It says 2 weeks. I originally had similar issue with thumb..dry cracked skin. Nothing was helping. I was put on Clobetasol and it really was doing nothing....and I pointed out to the dermatologist that It seemed to be drying my skin out more. So, she suggested Clobetasol OINTMENT...It took 4-6 weeks to work...even though it said to use for 2 weeks. It was very slowly getting better...almost gave up, but kept on going since I saw some improvement. I am about to stop it because my thumb is healed. just thought this might help. good luck

its not "urine acid" its "uric acid"

I have had this same problem, with tiny, extremely itchy water blisters the size of the head of a sewing pin. I've been using these two methods to treat which both come from the kitchen and were discovered by accident.

Both of these caused the swelling to go down, the dry parts to slough off much more easily, and the raw parts to heal noticeably after two treatments. For the simple syrup treatment, hands were looking almost normal by the end of the second day. The difference has been dramatic and very noticeable though I can't really explain why.

1) Knead a raw hamburger or turkey patty with your hands for about 10 min. When you are done, soap your hands lightly (but not vigorously - you want the meat fat and juices to stay in the dry parts), pat dry with a towel, and apply a normal hand lotion to your whole hand. Do this as many times a day as you can get away with, and for as many days in a row as you can.

2) Make a simple syrup with 1C orange juice and 2C sugar - boil, then simmer the syrup for 15 minutes. When it is cool, rub it into your hands for 15 minutes. Rinse with COOL water and no soap - you want to get the sticky off, but leave the syrup in the dry, cracked parts. Pat dry with a towel, and apply a normal hand lotion to your whole hand. Do this as many times a day as you can get away with. Refrigerate the syrup. The first application stings a little, but not very much, and after the second application is quite soothing.

I forgot to mention that at the time I began these treatments, the skin condition had persisted for a year despite taking supplementary vitamins, trying several different skin care lotions labelled especially for dry, cracked skin (including Neosporin, Eucerin and cortisone cream), and maintaining a very healthy diet.

I have a skin condition similar to what has been mentioned. I've been to numerous doctors, but no one can tell me what it is. I've had this condition since I was a child, though it's not as bad now that I'm older.

Originally, this condition occurred only on my thumbs. I used to suck my thumbs constantly, so my parents and the doctors tied it to that. The skin of my thumbs was raw, dry, and cracked. This dry skin would fill the pad of my finger from the knuckle line to under my nail. The dryness would be accompanied with minor swelling. It wasn't horrible, but there was an obvious increase in the size of the tips of my thumbs. My thumbs would throb constantly (though this was rarely accompanied with pain) and I lost some sensations of touch. I couldn't feel temp changes and several different textures. When it got really bad, a horizontal sore would open up. This sore would appear deep, cutting into my skin, but would rarely bleed even though it never scabbed until right before it went away. Occasionally, it would ooze red or clear fluids.

After a while, I decided to quit sucking my thumbs and went for other fingers, hoping that this would let my thumbs heal. Well, this backfired because the rest of my fingers started to break out. My thumbs remained consistently bad. Every finger on both my hands stayed like this until I hit puberty. Then, out of nowhere, it went away. Horizontal and vertical crease-like scars remained on my fignertips, though these slowly faded over the years. However, after this first recovery, the condition would occasionally return. The return was often right after occasions that involved large amounts of water (pool party, long bath, excessive handwashing, etc) or times where I was extremely stressed. After a while, the water trigger vanished and now it only returns during moments of stress. When it returns, the crease-like scars will start to get deeper and seem to pucker like how fingers look after a long time in water. The skin in the center of the finger pad will then start to peel away. Under this layer of skin will be the dry, raw skin. Once the dry skin is exposed, my finger pad starts to swell and throb. For as long as I have this condition, I lose much of my sense of touch in the affected fingers. However, my sense of touch returns once it goes away.

Various creams and soaps seem to help a little bit. Pine tar bar soap is rather soothing (even though it smells horrid). Mane 'n Tail brand hand cream seems to help heal minor breakouts and relieves some of the dryness of major breakouts. Aquaphor used to help when I was a teen. However, I've tried it again recently and it does nothing.

This isn't Eczema as far as I can tell. There aren't any blisters and it never  strays outside of my fingertips. I'm the only person in my known family to have this condition.