A friend of mine thought she broke her finger. It had swollen up and was painful to the touch.

We talked to someone known as an expert regarding this and it turns out the finger was not broken. It had calcium deposits on the joints... the early signs of arthritis.

In fact, as he checked her fingers it turns out that each finger had pain to varying degrees. The most painful being the finger she had noticed as swollen and thought was broken.

Hearing this, I took careful notes to not only help my friend, but to also make this information available to our readers.

Some may disagree with the following, but our expert assures me that it is the case.

Over time, we can get calcium buildup on the joints and it can cause swelling and painful joints. If left unchecked, this can then develop into arthritis.

Fortunately, there's two simple things we can do to help with this condition.

The first is to do a "finger joint massage." Finger joint massage sounds simple, and it works. Have a spouse or friend grab each joint and rotate the finger slowly and gently in a circular pattern. Start with the finger joint closest to the knuckle, slightly pull outward from the hand and rotate the finger around for 120 seconds. Then do the next joint on the same finger, also for 120 seconds. Do every finger in succession, even if only one finger is in pain. Do this entire procedure once per day.

You'll find that with finger joint massage, it can be very painful at first and 120 seconds will seem like a long time. After a few days of this,from what I've seen, the pain will subside.

What happens when you do this, is that the massage is breaking down those calcium buildups on the joints and will eventually help the body to cleanse itself in the finger joint area. Pretty soon those fingers can get back to moving around without all that extreme pain.

The second thing to do is get a good "joint" formula at the health food store. Trader Joe's has their own brand that is inexpensive and of high quality, they call it "Joint Support." There's many good joint formulas on the market, where they'll have glucosamine, chondroitan and MSM. These work well, just be sure to start slowly by taking a pill or capsule once per day. If you experience a rash or other strange contraindications, it could be from the MSM, and if that happens, you'd have to get a formula with just the glucosamine and chondroitan.

This article is not meant to give medical advice, but practical experience from what I've seen. If you have a condition that will just not go away and/or becomes extremely painful, get proper attention and see your medical provider.