Carpal tunnel syndrome is a condition that causes numbness, tingling, or weakness in your hands. The pain is caused by compression or pressure on your median nerve. The median nerve originates in the neck, traverses down the upper arm, to the anterior forearm and through a passage in your wrist called the carpal tunnel. The median nerve controls sensation and movement in all of your fingers except the pinky.
Symptoms of Carpal Tunnel
Typical symptoms of carpal tunnel include burning, numbness and tingling, itching, into the 2nd thru 4th digits of the hand. Patients can also experience weakness in the hand and thumb. These sensations can also extend up into your forearm. The feeling of tingling or static energy in your extremities usually is pretty mild. However, over time this condition can lead to severe pain in your entire arm and dysfunction of the hands. The symptoms are more noticeable when your wrist is in a compromised position compressing on the nerve. That’s why you may experience discomfort at night while sleeping, driving, riding a bike, keyboard or phone use, or when you bend your wrist to do actions like lifting or reading.
Causes of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is a repetitive stress injury, which occurs in individuals who make repetitive wrist and hand motions over sustained periods of time. Activities that may aggravate this condition include typing, texting, sewing, knitting or assembly line work. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome can also occur in pregnancy, weight gain, or as a result of an underlying health condition. Diabetes and some autoimmune disorders are frequently linked to a Carpal Tunnel diagnosis.
Progression of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
When you first start experiencing Carpal Tunnel Syndrome symptoms, you may be able to shake out the numbness, tingling and weakness. As your condition progresses you’ll have less grip strength because the muscles in your hands will shrink or atrophy. You’ll start to experience more pain and muscle cramping due to the fatiguing of these muscles. Although the pain usually originates in your hands, it can also travel up your arm and radiate through your shoulders. The symptoms can become frustrating and be debilitating, so it’s important to get diagnosed and treated by an experienced chiropractic neurologist professional as soon as possible.
Chiropractic Care for Carpal Tunnel
Traditional Carpal Tunnel treatments rely on pain medication, splints, and surgery. However, these can actually cause more damage than good. Pain medication helps manage the pain, but ultimately just covers up the underlying problem. Prolonged splint use can further weaken your wrist, and surgery can cause lasting damage if there are complications.
Our doctors at Neurolink Chiropractic help to relieve pain and improve function from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome by addressing the underlying problem. Reducing compression of the median nerve through gentle manipulations and entrapment releases with soft tissue therapy (Active Release Technique or Graston) can relieve pressure on the nerve. Laser therapy assists in pain relief, reducing inflammation and promoting healing of the nerve. Electrical modalities can assist with reducing muscle stimulation, decreasing pain and promoting nerve stability and regeneration.
Neurolink Chiropractic Helps Relieve Pain
At Neurolink Chiropractic, we focus on creating a comprehensive treatment plan to manage your pain and treat the underlying condition that has caused it. Our approach is to not only relieve the pain and symptoms, but to identify the root cause of the carpal tunnel symptoms and to offer you an affordable solution to your problem. We use natural, non-invasive therapies that can help you feel better and get you back to enjoying your life. Give us a call today to schedule your consultation to get started!
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