Hands/Fingers swell when walking/jogging?

I've had that happen before to (but not as much lately.) I've often wondered what caused it.

I noticed this too. Not sure why.
Advice/Answer would be great!

When you walk or jog, your hands are below the level of your heart. Especially when you are walking, your arms swing back and forth. All of this drives fluid into your hands, and they become edematous. That's normal, and it goes away. That is why, by the way, many hikers and backpackers will walk with their hands holding their backpack's shoulder straps up in front of their shoulders -- it puts their hands above heart level and stops them from swinging, so they don't get swollen.

All you have to do, I think, when either walking or running, is lift your arms to shoulder level once in a while and shake them out.

Yes. I hate it.

When you walk or jog, your hands are below the level of your heart. Especially when you are walking, your arms swing back and forth. All of this drives fluid into your hands, and they become edematous. That's normal, and it goes away. That is why, by the way, many hikers and backpackers will walk with their hands holding their backpack's shoulder straps up in front of their shoulders -- it puts their hands above heart level and stops them from swinging, so they don't get swollen.

All you have to do, I think, when either walking or running, is lift your arms to shoulder level once in a while and shake them out.

yep^ also this link explains quite a bit in detail.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100930164453AAJcO63

If you don't want to follow the link, here is what she(the poster in this link) said:

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker
That is normal. This happens to almost everyone. Our body is in a constant state of regulating itself to adapt to various external changes; this is called homeostasis. When you exercise, your muscles need more blood flow to bring oxygen in and take away byproducts. This process of homeostasis triggers your heart to beat a little faster and harder to increase blood flow. What happens is that blood pools to your hands and fingers as they hang below your heart. It does not tend to pool as much in the lower extremities because you are using those muscles and they are contacting and relaxing pumping the blood out. Your hands are simply dangling. Your are not using the muscles much so there is not the contracting and relaxing of muscle tissue to push the blood back towards the heart. However due to homeostasis, our body only allows a certain amount of blood to pool in the hands and soon after vigorous activity ceases, the blood that has pooled to your hands travels back up the extremity and to your heart.

Usually when using a treadmill one holds onto the handles so that the hands are elevated and the blood does not pool.

Homeostasis at work in our bodies balances our electrolytes. I very simple example of this is if you take in a lot of salt, you tend to get thirsty and drink more water to balance the salt ratio in your body. Since you drink a lot of water on a daily basis your body accommodates for this by not absorbing too much salt. If for some reason, your body is not functioning optimally, homeostasis can be a little slow and one can have an electrolyte imbalance. If this is the case, during and after walking there is actual swelling and it doesn't subside shortly after the walk. That doesn't sound like your problem because your hands don't significantly swell and they return to normal after your are finished with your walk. Also it doesn't happen when you are on the treadmill.

Homeostasis works to keep balance in our bodies when we are exposed to the atmosphere. Higher altitudes tend to add to the pooling of blood into the hands. In high altitudes there is a lower concentration of oxygen and our body responds to this by increasing the size of the blood vessels allowing the more oxygenated blood flow. When in cold weather your blood vessels are already are smaller in size as your body attempts to maintain it's warmth. The heart pumps harder and faster as you walk to oxygenate the muscles. The muscles in the lower extremity contract and relax pumping the blood through the muscles. However since you are not using the muscles in your hands as the blood pushes into them the constricted blood vessels have a way of "trapping" the blood not allowing for an easy flow back up the arms and to the heart. One of the reasons for this is to warm up your hands. After you stop exercises the blood stops pulling in the hands.

When we are exercising indoors we are not as effected by humidity or altitude and the temperature;

Another thing to consider is that as are hands "dangle" at our sides our arms are actually swinging back and forth as we walk. This increases the gravitational pull to the distal end of a lever that is moving. The distal end would be our hands and fingers. Therefore gravity tends to pool the blood into our hands and since we are not using the muscles in our arms and hands there is a lack of pumping action to push the blood upward against gravity. Once again homeostasis only allows a certain amount of blood to pull to the hands.

I hope this answers your questions. It sounds like you have some pretty good health habits.
Be well my friend.
Source(s):
I'm a doctor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_homeo…
http://walking.about.com/cs/med/a/swolle…