Hand Blisters

Podiatrists are insured to treat hands as well as feet…… a little-known fact!

Every year when the weather is glorious, everyone gets to grips with household tasks like gardening and repairing jobs. After the winter of cosiness, our hands often suffer from blisters more due to their increased workload.

Blisters are all created in the same way on all areas of the body, not just feet but the feet carry a bigger force in the body weight.

Firstly by pressure

Increased digging, hoeing, mowing in the garden increases the pressure on a part of the hand that is carrying out that activity, much more than it is normally used too. Using a trowel in digging will cause pressure in the palms of the hand.

Secondly by sweating

Well when we do activities that generate hard work and the hands will sweat causing moisture to remain on the skin, which we already know that moisture on the skin causes blisters.

Thirdly by lack of conditioning and preparation

This does not just apply to athletes but anyone that has started to do an activity that the body isn’t familiar with or hasn’t done for a long time; therefore the skin is not conditioned to do that activity and blisters readily.

Fourthly …friction

Well this is the one most people would recognise as a causative factor for blisters. Friction simply put is where the skin is stretched beyond its comfort zone and is damaged from what most would recognise as rubbing. Most folk think heat causes blisters…. it kind of does but not directly, more of a secondary cause. The body gets hot due to the exercise and therefore the skin sweats and the moisture becomes a major factor for blisters.

So the take away from this would be, to prevent a blister forming in the first place… so as you can see in the photos Suzanne is in the garden in her free time and it is magnificent. She does struggle with blisters on her hands especially in the spring when she hasn’t done much gardening over the winter months and her hands are not conditioned to digging etc. Like most people in the UK…you get out in the garden whilst you can as the weather can change very quickly.

Hand blister prevention

The product she is using is `Pellitec` blister pads, there are two in a packet and they can either stick to the gardening tools or your hands, Suzanne says she can reuse them and they re-stick really well.

We know Pellitec blister pads were designed originally to go in footwear which they do that job really well but we do like to try all our products in all sorts of situations and see how they fare. They have a medical-grade and not industrial glue which means they are kind to the skin.

Hand blister treatment

If you have already gone onto having blisters on the hand then we find the `H` Plasters in the kits are great at wrapping around awkward fingers and toes and protecting the blister as it heals.

Follow all of our advice for the different blister stages, hot spot to infected blister as the treatment is the same. Dressing a foot is often easier as once you are done you can protect it in a sock and shoe but it is difficult to fully protect a dressing on your hand; so please be careful.

We hope you make the most of the weather, your garden looks glorious so that you can sit back and enjoy the view.

As always, if you are concerned about any blister on your foot or hand, then get in contact.