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The mystery of puffy hands
By Dr. Jonathan Wright on 07/21/2010
Question: Recently, the backs of my hands have started looking oddly puffy and swollen. What could be causing this?
Dr. Wright’s Answer: While I can't say for sure without examining your hands (and you should consider having this done by a physician skilled in natural medicine), a Texas physician named John Ellis discovered years ago that many conditions involving the hands may be alleviated with vitamin B6.
The first thing to do is look for "Ellis signs" in your hands. Try holding your hands upright, keeping the joints joining your palms and fingers perfectly straight. Now try bending the middle and end joints so that your fingertips touch your palms. If you can't do it, it's a positive "Ellis sign," which could indicate a need for extra vitamin B6.
You may want to consider taking 100 milligrams of vitamin B6 three times daily for up to six months, or until all the puffiness and the "Ellis sign" is gone, and your hands are more flexible. And, if you're interested, you can try to find an old copy of Dr. Ellis's book The Doctor Who Looked at Hands at the library or on the Internet.
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Jonathan V. Wright, M.D. has degrees from both Harvard University (cum laude) and the University of Michigan. More than any other doctor, he practically invented the modern science of applied nutritional biochemistry and he has advanced nutritional medicine for nearly three decades.
As of today, Dr. Wright has received over 35,000 patient visits at his now-famous Tahoma Clinic in Washington State.
To learn more about Dr. Wright, and to sign up for his free Health e-Tips eLetter, please visit www.wrightnewsletter.com.
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Anonymous
I used to have puffy hands when eating a heavy diet of toast & eggs for breakfast, hamburgers, meat & potatoes with very
few fruits or vegetables for lunch and dinner. But what made them especially so were lunch-meat sandwiches on white bread. I had over-all body pain (muscular rheumatism) and periodic sciatica so bad I couldn't sit or stand. The sciatica ended when I quit my favorite meals of bread & gravy, and the swollen hands when I quit lunch-meats. Really a good colon-cleansing product and regular fruits, salads and and a low animal protein diet should lose the puffiness.
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