Lacey Treatments for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
A frequent complaint of patients to chiropractors, especially here at Lacey, are the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome. The symptoms can range from barely noticeable numbness to awful pain in the hand or wrist; pain so bad that can prevent doing one from doing his or her job.
The most updated research says that CTS is caused by the compression of the median nerve as it travels through the carpal tunnel of the wrist. This can mean repetitive motions of the wrist, injury to the hand, wrist, or arm, and conditions like inflammatory arthritis, diabetes, pregnancy, and even more. Essentially, anything that is able to reduce the tunnel’s size results in median nerve compression (aka CTS).
Jobs that use repetitive hardforce, like with heavy tools increase one’s risk for CTS. Studies are not clear on whether or not repetitive motions with low force like typing on a keyboard, cause CTS. Lacey is going to show you more in depth studies on CTS.
A Danish study was conducted that monitored the wrist health of 5,600 technical assistants. The study found that the use of a computer keyboard is an unlikely cause of CTS. 11 percent of workers experienced tingling/numbness in the hands. Only 5 percent of the 11 percent were actually diagnosed with CTS, because of their symptoms. Using a mouse for 20 or more hours a week did not increase the chances of CTS.
While this is true, our Lacey chiropractor wants you to know that working at a computer all day can still cause pain in the hand, wrist, arm, shoulder, or neck without being CTS. Like in the study, only about half of the workers who had tingling in the hands were actually formally diagnosed with CTS.
Any sort of pain along the of the median nerve from the neck, shoulder, and elbow to the wrist is able to put pressure on the nerve which results in symptoms like those of CTS. Chiropractors, like us here at Lacey, will evaluate the whole body in order to pinpoint issues that could be imitating CTS. In most situations, a patient will not experience full relief unless another problem is addressed and fixed in the neck, shoulder, elbow, or lower arm.
If you are suffering from wrist pain, it could be carpal tunnel syndrome. Fortunately, in Lacey we have treatments for it which can help you. Call us today 360-951-4504.
