What Is Carpal Tunnel Syndrome?

 

Today, I want to cover some data with you in regards to chiropractic care and carpal tunnel syndrome. There are basically two nerves that pass through your wrist and into your hand and fingers. One of the nerves is called the median nerve and it runs along the side of your hand where the thumb is located. Then you have the ulnar nerve which runs along the opposite side of the hand. 

The median nerve serves the thumb, the index finger, and about half of the middle finger. The ulnar nerve serves the rest of the wrist and the pinky, the fourth digit, and about half of the middle digit.

Pinched Nerves and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Carpal tunnel syndrome primarily involves the median nerve as it passes through the carpal tunnel in the wrist. The ulnar nerve gets pinched in the cubital tunnel area of the elbow. So you’ve the median nerve getting irritated in the wrist and the ulnar nerve getting irritated in the elbow.

Finding the Source of the Hand and Wrist Pain

Basically, when you’re looking at problems and pain from these two nerves, the primary area that is a problem is the neck. The hand and wrist can be so tender and painful and there can be so much numbness with tingling in the wrist, hand and fingers, that a person doesn’t even know that they have a neck problem. 

Symptoms that might be experienced include:

• Decreased grip strength
• Tenderness
• Numbness
• Tingling 
• Pain
• Waking up with the hand feeling like it’s on fire
• Having to move the hand around to loosen it up

Because of all the pain and problems in the hand, most people don’t even think about the neck.

Treating Carpal Tunnel Syndrome 

Here in my office, when we’re dealing with the median nerve or the ulnar nerve, we’re dealing with the neck. We want to look to the neck for the source of the problem as it relates to causing problems in the wrist and hand. 

We’ll want to look at that fifth cervical vertebra in the mid to lower neck. Depending on where the symptoms are, you can trace it back and find the source of the problem in the neck and start adjusting and treating the neck. 

Then you can also treat, of course, the shoulder, the elbow, the wrist and hand to address the problems of a median nerve entrapment or an ulnar nerve entrapment or cubital tunnel syndrome. Again, the cubital tunnel is in the area of the elbow and the carpal tunnel is in the wrist.

Do You Know Someone Who Needs Help? 

If you know anybody that has problems with these areas or if you have some problems with these areas, please give us a call. We’d like to help you out. I’d love to get on the phone with you and just go over ways we can improve that situation. Pressure Point Therapy and chiropractic adjustments are great for these problems. 

We look forward to seeing you in the office. I hope you pass this information along to other people. We want to help people recover their health without drugs and without surgery. We can help them the natural way so they feel great again.