Immobilizing tools: A brace, splint, sleeve, or taping may be used to stabilize the hand and/or fingers.

You can also get pain relief using medicated creams that you rub on sore joints.

Pain relievers: These include NSAIDs (such as ibuprofen) and analgesics (such as acetaminophen) to ease the pain.

Two famous examples of this are recruiting posters used during World War I by the United Kingdom and the United States. Gestures in artĪs an artistic convention, the index finger pointing at the viewer is in the form of a command or summons. The Arabic verb سَبَّحَ - which shares the same root as the Arabic word for index finger - means to praise or glorify God by saying: 'Subḥāna Allāh' (سُبْحانَ الله) Index finger in archaeoastronomyīefore the advent of GPS and compass, early humans used index finger for pointing direction of objects with the help of stellar objects during night time. In Arabic, the index or fore finger is called musabbiḥa (مُسَبِّحة), mostly used with the definite article: al-musabbiḥa (الْمُسَبِّحة). It is used to express the unity of God ('there is no god but Allah'). In Islam raising the index finger signifies the Tawhīd (تَوْحِيد), which denotes the indivisible oneness of God. In some cultures, particularly the Malays and Javanese in Southeast Asia, pointing using index finger is considered rude, hence the thumb is used instead. However, corvids, dogs and elephants do understand finger pointing. Non-human primates, lacking the ability to formulate ideas about what others are thinking, use pointing in much less complex ways. This gesture may form one basis for the development of human language. Pointing in human babies can demonstrate the theory of mind, or ability to understand what other people are thinking. Pointing with the pointer finger may be used to indicate or identify an item, person, place or object.Īround age one, babies begin pointing to communicate relatively complex thoughts, including interest, desire, and information. With the hand held palm out and the thumb and middle fingers touching, it represents the letter d in the American Sign Language alphabet.

UsesĪ lone index finger held vertically is often used to represent the number 1 (but finger counting differs across cultures), or when held up or moved side to side (finger-wagging), it can be an admonitory gesture. It does not contain any muscles, but is controlled by muscles in the hand by attachments of tendons to the bones.