Name: Pins and needles in the hands | Symptom | Healthwords
Creator: Dr Roger Henderson
Published: 2021-06-23T13:00:03.398Z

Other causes of pins and needles can include side effects of some medications and treatments. Diets lacking in [vitamin B12](https://www.healthwords.ai/article/vitamin-b12-545) and drinking too much alcohol may all cause the symptoms.

Diet and medications

Learn abou the most common causes and symptoms of pins and needles in the hands and how manage them here at Healthwords.

Pins and needles in the hands | Symptom | Healthwords

Anyone can get pins and needles and most commonly it is something that happens in passing and doesn't last long. Nevertheless if you are worried about it, or it has been going on for some time then your doctor would want to hear about it. If your pins and needles is associated with any other more concerning symptoms such as:

- [fevers](https://www.healthwords.ai/symptom/high-temperature-fever)
- persistent weakness in the arms or legs
- severe pain 

**You should seek medical advice urgently**

When should you see your doctor?

Breathing very rapidly (hyperventilation) can cause pins and needles, commonly in the hands. This can occur with [anxiety](https://www.healthwords.ai/condition/anxiety) or [asthma attacks](https://www.healthwords.ai/article/asthma-attack-what-to-do) for example.

Hyperventilation

You may also get pins and needles with more chronic conditions such as [diabetes](https://www.healthwords.ai/article/diabetes-in-a-nutshell), multiple sclerosis or [Raynaud's](https://www.healthwords.ai/condition/raynauds-syndrome). 

Multiple sclerosis can occur anywhere on the body, whereas the other two typically happen on the hands and feet. 

[Sciatica](https://www.healthwords.ai/condition/sciatica) or a trapped nerve can occur with or without back pain and people can experience pins and needles that travel as shock waves down the leg towards the foot.

Long term conditions

Carpal tunnel syndrome is caused by the compression of one of the nerves in your hand (the median nerve) that helps you move your thumb. It also gives a particular area of skin the sensation to touch, pain and temperature - this is the skin over the thumb and parts of the first two fingers.

The median nerve runs through something called the carpal tunnel as it navigates through your wrist into your hand. The carpal tunnel, which is a gap formed from the bones in your wrist and a big ligament, can swell up and squash the nerve. This usually causes [pins and needles](https://www.healthwords.ai/symptom/pins-and-needles-in-the-hands), numbness and pain in your thumb, index finger and middle finger, and sufferers typically say symptoms are worse at night.

Sometimes, if you’ve suffered from this for a long time, the muscle at the bottom of the thumb loses power as the muscle wastes away.

There is no one specific cause of carpal tunnel syndrome but it is more common in women, the elderly and during pregnancy or [menopause](https://www.healthwords.ai/condition/menopause). Swelling of the carpal tunnel can occur from injury to your hand or wrist, joint conditions, such as [rheumatoid arthritis](https://www.healthwords.ai/condition/rheumatoid-arthritis), and from [diabetes](https://www.healthwords.ai/condition/diabetes-mellitus-300) or [obesity](https://www.healthwords.ai/article/obesity-and-being-overweight-the-scale-of-the-problem-and-benefits-of-weight-loss). You may be at higher risk if your job or hobby involves a lot of manual work, such as having to bend the wrist or grip things for a long time, or using work tools that vibrate such as a pneumatic drill.

It is thought to be more common in pregnancy and menopause as there is often increased water retention so the tissues in the wrists and hands may be more swollen, causing the carpal tunnel to narrow and put pressure on the nerve.

Named after the doctor who first described it in 1862, Raynaud's phenomenon – often just called Raynaud’s - is a condition that affects the circulation of blood in certain areas of the body, most often the fingers and toes, usually when exposed to the cold. It can cause the areas to change colour (white, blue and then red in an attack), become painful, numb, and restrict movement.

It is a fairly common condition that affects women more than men and the most common type usually develops before the age of 30, sometimes running in families. It can be triggered by various factors like [stress](https://www.healthwords.ai/article/stress), cold weather (the most common trigger), and even excess [caffeine](https://www.healthwords.ai/treatment/caffeine-833). It is not usually a serious condition although it can affect people's quality of life, and sometimes can also be linked to other underlying medical conditions.

We’ve all experienced physical pain in our lives – a cut finger, a stubbed toe, an ankle sprain, headache, sore throat, or even perhaps after an operation. We can understand that it varies from mild to severe, and can last briefly or a few days. 

*Pain serves a purpose* – if you break a bone in your leg, you avoid standing on it and rest up until the fracture heals. We also have a psychological response to pain, and it can really help to reassure us (and therefore reduce its impact or intensity) if we can understand the cause of the pain. Let’s consider the broad causes of pain and then hopefully we can tailor solutions to get ourselves better.

Dr Kim - Pain Relief

Lower back pain is a very common symptom. Up to 80% of us will experience it at some time, with men and women being equally affected. It occurs most often between ages 30 and 50, due in part to the ageing process but also as a result of sedentary lifestyles with too little exercise– but fortunately in most cases it’s not serious and typically gets better on its own within a few weeks.

Low back pain can often occur for no obvious reason – you can simply wake up with it, or it can happen during the day out of the blue – but it can also occur after lifting a heavy object or moving awkwardly. Other common reasons for back pain include [slipped discs](https://www.healthwords.ai/condition/disc-herniation-causes-symptoms-and-treatment), muscle spasm and some conditions and diseases, such as [arthritis](https://www.healthwords.ai/condition/arthritis-380), spinal stenosis and [fibromyalgia](https://www.healthwords.ai/condition/fibromyalgia-845).

In the majority of cases, lower back pain is typically on one side of your back and can spread down into the cheeks of your bottom or into your thighs. It’s often eased or helped by lying down flat, and made worse by moving, sneezing or coughing.

You can reduce your risk of making your low back pain worse or preventing it flaring up again, by maintaining a healthy weight, or losing weight if you’re overweight, [giving up smoking](https://www.healthwords.ai/article/quitting-smoking-how-to) if relevant, taking regular low-impact exercise and keeping your [stress](https://www.healthwords.ai/article/stress) levels to a minimum. If your job or hobby involves regular lifting, make sure you learn how to do this properly to protect your back, as this can leave it prone to injury.

Dr Kandi - Back Pain

The brain and the spine are a complex system that work together as part of the central nervous system. The spinal nerves send messages from the rest of the body to the brain, so it can process what’s in the environment and anything that might be feeling good or bad within the body. It is the brain that interprets some of these messages as pain.  

The brain’s response to pain is to one that has evolved to protect us, as animals, from threat and danger. In the simplest terms, it tells us of an injury so we can protect the area and recover. But pain can be complex: the brain occasionally misinterprets messages as pain when there is none, or the response to minor pain can be disproportionate.  

Pain is expected to settle down over time, especially when related to an injury or trauma, but chronic pain persists for more than 3 months and sometimes without any clear triggers. Behaviours build around this that can exacerbate the problem and reinforce the nerve signals, making treatment difficult. 

Chilblains: Understanding and Managing the Condition

Chilblains, also known as Pernio and Chill Burn, is a condition that affects the small blood vessels called capillaries in the extremities. It occurs due to exposure to cold and humid conditions, resulting in symptoms like itching, red patches, swelling, and, in rare cases, blistering. Although it commonly affects the fingers and toes, other areas such as the face and legs can also be affected. Chilblains predominantly impact women, but anyone can experience this condition, often leading to confusion with [Raynaud's Disease](https://www.healthwords.ai/condition/raynauds-syndrome). 

Chronic pain is one of the toughest conditions to live with – either it’s unrelenting and impossible to get normal activities done, or it can come and go unpredictably, forcing you to cancel work or social plans.

There are no clear figures as to how common chronic pain is but it may affect as many as one in three of the population. It's defined as persistent or episodic pain lasting more than three months and is a complex problem that isn’t just a simple physical one because it affects our mental health as well. As our nervous system adjusts to chronic pain, sensations become heightened and more widespread, and this complexity comes from our brain processing function, where pain can start to prevent everyday activities and dominate normal life. Our world becomes smaller and with less to distract us - and living in fear of pain - our pain sensation becomes even more heightened and worse.

Chronic pain is more likely to come about from the slow pain fibres, which are loudly telling you that there’s injury: you should rest and recover by not moving much. This is as opposed to the fast pain fibres that let you know your toe has been stubbed and makes you move away from the external threat (with much hopping and howling). But resting for months on end is not likely to serve any useful purpose, and often sets up new problems, both mentally and physically.

We also now know there are two forms of chronic pain called primary chronic pain, and secondary chronic pain. Chronic primary pain may affect around 1-6% of the population, and refers to the pain felt in conditions such as [fibromyalgia](https://www.healthwords.ai/condition/fibromyalgia-845), complex regional pain and chronic primary [headache](https://www.healthwords.ai/symptom/headaches). Chronic secondary pain is more common and refers to pain from conditions such as [low back pain](https://www.healthwords.ai/treatment/lower-back-pain-283), [joint pains](https://www.healthwords.ai/symptom/joint-pain-causes-symptoms-and-treatments-393) and [shingles](https://www.healthwords.ai/condition/shingles-837) pain.

Foot pain is common, and there are many different causes. If you have had some sort of trauma like kicking something hard or dropping something on your foot, there may be the possibility of a broken bone.

If you have not had any trauma, there are many different causes: skin problems like blisters and ulcers, joint problems like [arthritis ](https://www.healthwords.ai/condition/arthritis-380)or [gout](https://www.healthwords.ai/condition/gout-24), or muscle and tendon problems like [Achilles tendinopathy](https://www.healthwords.ai/condition/achilles-tendinopathy) and [plantar fasciitis](https://www.healthwords.ai/condition/plantar-fasciitis-708).

If you have severe pain, or pain that is not settling with simple pain relief then you may need to seek advice from your doctor.

Hypertension: I’ve been diagnosed, what now?

[Hypertension](https://www.healthwords.ai/condition/hypertension-what-is-it-358), or high blood pressure (BP), is a concept some patients struggle with. You’re told you have a health condition, and yet you feel well, it doesn’t give you any symptoms, and you don’t feel any different once treatment is started.

You’re buying into the concept that looking after yourself (with lifestyle modifications and medication) will protect you from serious illness such as kidney disease, strokes or heart attacks in many years to come. Perhaps it’s best viewed as paying into your pension – you won’t ever feel like you’re reaping the rewards, but you’d kick yourself if you hadn’t invested.

Trigger finger, also known as stenosing tenovaginitis, is a common condition. It usually affects middle-aged patients, especially manual workers required to frequently flex and extend their fingers. These repeated finger movements cause wear and tear to the finger tendons and result in inflammation, which eventually leads to [tendonitis](https://www.healthwords.ai/condition/tendonitis-530) (tendon swelling and thickening).

The swollen or thickened tendon can become trapped at the entrance to the tendon sheath -the fibrous tunnel that holds the finger tendon in position - and produces the triggering effect when the finger tendon is forcefully moved through the tunnel then releases.

Any finger can be affected, but the thumb and fourth fingers are most affected. You may notice that the finger clicks as it is bent, then when the hand is extended, the affected finger remains bent until it suddenly straightens with a snap. Sometimes, a lump (nodule) will be formed, and it can be felt along the tendon.

As the condition worsens, the affected finger may be trapped in the palm of the hand and can only be manually extended with the other hand. In the worst scenario, the flexed finger is completely trapped and cannot be manually released.

Toe pain is common, and there are many different causes. If you have had some sort of trauma like kicking something hard or dropping something on your toe there may be the possibility of a [fracture](https://www.healthwords.ai/article/fracture) or broken bone. If you have not had any trauma, you may have a skin problem, such as [blisters](https://www.healthwords.ai/symptom/blisters-91) or [ulcers](https://www.healthwords.ai/condition/pressure-ulcer), joint problems like [arthritis](https://www.healthwords.ai/condition/arthritis-380) or [gout](https://www.healthwords.ai/condition/gout-24), and many more. If you have severe pain, or pain that is not settling with some [mild pain relief](https://www.healthwords.ai/treatment/mild-and-simple-pain-how-to-manage), then you may need to seek advice from your doctor.

Dr Roger Henderson

Chief Content Officer

Pins and needles is an odd sensation that feels like tingling or numbness on the skin. It can occur anywhere on the body but commonly occurs on the arms, legs, hands and feet. Pins and needles are often a short-lived thing that happens when the blood supply to the nerve is stopped temporarily, for example, when you lie or sleep on a body part for a long time. Occasionally, there are also medical problems that can cause pins and needles. We will explain some of the varied causes below.

Pins and Needles in the Hands

Hyperventilation

Long term conditions

Diet and medications

When should you see your doctor?

Related topics

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Raynaud's Syndrome

Pain

Lower back pain

Chronic Pain

Chilblains: Understanding and Managing the Condition

Chronic Pain Relief

Foot Pain

Hypertension: I’ve been diagnosed, what now?

Trigger Finger

Toe Pain