Tingling/stiffness in hands and lips
 

Hi there, I am new here.
I started having these strange symptoms about 8 months ago and they are by no means regular. I may have it pop up a couple of times in one day then not again for months: hands start getting stiff with each thumb pulling inward towards my palm with tingling. Last night it lasted over a hour. It made it hard to type on the computer. There is never any pain.

More times than not, when it happens in my hands, it starts in my lips. They tingle and get stiff.

I am never anxious when this starts so I don't blame hyperventilation. Usually I am just going about life normal. I was sitting in my chair watching tv when it happened last night.

What could be going on?

Welcome to NeuroTalk:

I think you'll need to see a doctor if this continues.

But there are a few things you can do yourself, to see what happens.

Tinel's sign usually is present when there is compression at the carpal tunnel. Turn your hands palm up and tap your inner forearm about 2 inches from the wrist and see if you get sensations into the hand. This compression can be from overwork of the wrist, which is common in pharmacy settings, or from hormone inbalance or hypothyroidism, or fluid retention at the the carpal tunnel.

Imbalances of calcium to magnesium also can be a culprit. The lip symptoms are classic signs of poor calcium and magnesium.
(and hence low vitamin D). Use of a magnesium lotion at night to the inner wrist can quickly remove Tinel's sign.
Morton Epsom Lotion is great for this... Available at Walgreen's and online at Amazon. Just a nickel sized dollop on the inner arms including the inner wrist at bedtime works very well.

You should get testing for cal/mag, Vit D, and B12 at the doctor's. The B12 should be at least 400pg/ml. The lab ranges for B12 are still out of date, and report lows into the high 100's or 200's as "normal". New guidelines have been slow to filter down to doctors after a decade now.

Most doctors when hearing about tingling lips think anxiety. So you may not get a good workup at first when giving that symptom.

If you continue with the thumbs having that spasm, then it is possible you have a parathyroid problem (or tumor), and this is difficult to evaluate, but does happen. glenntaj here had this happen to him.