I heard about using ibuprofen prior to bowling to prevent finger swelling.
I would add a word of caution for seniors on the use of ibuprofen for this purpose.
My physician warns his older patients over age 63 on the use of ibuprofen due to the increased risk of stomach hemorrhaging in patients in that age group. I'm included in that group. In fact this warning is included on all ibuprofen labels. As a result, I only rarely resort to using ibuprofen unless I'm in pain that Tylenol can't quite handle. (just one more disadvantage of growing old).
My doctor recommends Tylenol for most of his senior patients.
Instead, I control thumb swelling by having my IT thumb slugs made slightly larger. If the thumb is too loose, I use thumb tape. I try to maintain soft grip pressure, and although I too, have several different IT thumb sizes, nothing "fine-tunes" my grip better than good old fashioned thumb tape.