Have you ever felt sharp pain or stiffness in your hands that made everyday tasks—like opening a jar, buttoning a shirt, or shaking someone’s hand—nearly impossible? This kind of long-lasting discomfort might not just be a small annoyance.
It could be a sign of hand osteoarthritis, also known as hand OA. This condition affects the small joints in your hands and can make simple actions painful and frustrating.
Osteoarthritis is one of the most common joint problems in the world. It happens when the protective cartilage in joints wears down over time. When this happens in the hands, it can cause pain, swelling, stiffness, and loss of movement. These symptoms can seriously affect your ability to live independently or do your job.
While hand OA becomes more common as people age, especially for women after menopause, it can show up earlier in life too. Studies show that by the age of 85, nearly half of all women and one in four men will experience hand OA.
But despite how common it is, there haven’t been many effective treatments. Most people rely on painkillers, creams, or exercises to manage their symptoms. Unfortunately, these options don’t always work well, and they don’t stop the disease from getting worse.
That’s why a new study from researchers at Monash University and Alfred Health is giving many people new hope. Led by Professor Flavia Cicuttini, a well-known expert in joint health, the team explored the use of a familiar drug in a new way. The medication is called methotrexate.
It’s been around since the 1980s and is commonly used to treat conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, where the immune system attacks the joints. In those cases, methotrexate helps by calming the immune system and reducing swelling.
The researchers wondered: could methotrexate also help with the pain and stiffness caused by hand OA? To find out, they ran a clinical trial. People with hand OA were given either a weekly 20mg dose of methotrexate or a placebo—a fake pill with no medicine in it. Over six months, the team tracked the changes in symptoms.
The results were promising. Those who took methotrexate reported less pain and less stiffness than those in the placebo group. Even more encouraging, their symptoms kept improving during the six-month period. This suggests the drug might offer steady, long-term relief—not just a quick fix.
While this is just one study, it points to a major step forward. The next questions researchers want to answer are: how long can methotrexate keep working? What is the best dose? And most importantly, can it actually stop or slow down the damage happening inside the joints?
This research could be especially important for women going through menopause. Hormonal changes at this time seem to raise the risk of developing hand OA, and many women struggle with ongoing pain that affects their quality of life. If methotrexate proves to be a safe and affordable way to manage their symptoms, it could change the way this disease is treated.
The findings were published in The Lancet, one of the world’s top medical journals. While more research is still needed, the study offers real hope to millions of people living with hand OA. For them, this is not just another medical discovery—it could mean getting back the ability to cook, clean, work, or hold a loved one’s hand without pain.
In the end, this research shows the power of science to improve everyday life. A drug that has been around for decades may now offer a new chance for comfort, freedom, and independence for people living with hand osteoarthritis.
If you care about arthritis, please read studies about extra virgin olive oil for arthritis, and pomegranate: A natural treatment for rheumatoid arthritis.
For more information about arthritis, please see recent studies about how to live pain-free with arthritis, and results showing medical cannabis may help reduce arthritis pain, back pain.
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