Do your fingers ever go numb?

We’re not talking about the kind of numbness you might get on a cold day. Rather, we’re talking about the tingling, pins-and-needles numbness that can come on without warning.

Tingling in your fingers can be caused by a variety of conditions, from pinched nerves to developing diabetes. It can even be a sign of a stroke or a potential neurologic condition like multiple sclerosis.

“We try to see where the problem is to understand what’s happening,” says Dr. Mac DeHart-McCoyle, a neurologist with Tidelands Health Neurosciences.

For people who spend a lot of time typing on their computers, tingling fingers can be a sign of carpal tunnel syndrome—a condition that evolves from nerves being pinched where they pass through a narrow band of tissue in the wrist.

In other cases, numb fingers can happen when you impinge or put pressure on a nerve in your neck or one of the two nerves that pass through your elbow, going toward your hand. Numbness on the outside of your hand (middle to little finger) means your ulnar nerve is being affected. Numbness on the inside of your hand (index finger and thumb) means it’s your median nerve feeling the pressure.

In all of those situations, the key to relief is to take the pressure off the nerve, either by changing the position of your neck, arm or wrist.

Things get more complicated when other conditions are involved. Because diabetes can also cause tingling and numbness in the fingers, it’s important to consider that for any diagnosis, Dr. DeHart-McCoyle says.

“Diabetes is going to be your most common cause of numbness in the hands,” he adds. “It also makes you more at risk for getting carpal tunnel syndrome. It then becomes a diagnostic puzzle – is it carpal tunnel or diabetes?”

Yet another form of finger numbness, a sudden onset of numbness in both hands at the same time, can be a sign of a stroke that needs immediate medical attention, Dr. DeHart-McCoyle says.

So, when do tingling fingers warrant a visit to your physician?

“When you start to drop things or the numbness lasts longer than it used to, or if you feel weak grasping things, you should schedule an appointment with your health care provider,” Dr. DeHart-McCoyle says. “If you experience motor fluctuation or decline, I would definitely get checked out.”