What causes the pain of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome?
There is a nerve that passes through your wrist. It’s called the median nerve. Nerves hate it when anything presses on them. They hate it!
There is a narrow passage in your wrist (the “carpal tunnel”) and the median nerve passes through this tunnel. If space becomes narrowed for one reason or another, the median nerve is pressed. The nerve causes symptoms because it doesn’t like the pressure. (It hates it.)
The tendons for your fingers also pass through the carpal tunnel. (The tendons are the long ends of the muscles; they attach finger muscles to arm bones.) That means there is only so much space in your tunnel and it is pretty well filled up normally.
If you overuse the tendons they might get inflamed and swell. That can cause pressure on the median nerve.
If you gain weight, that can cause less space in the tunnel, too.
If you have swelling in the tissues called edema, that can also cause pressure on the median nerve.
So the cause of your symptoms is simple: the median nerve is being pressed on. It’s complaining. What’s the cure?
By getting
rid of the reasons for your symptoms, you can get rid of the symptoms. You see, just about everything in your body is caused by something. There is a reason for most of your complaints.
Something is causing the pressure on your median nerve–if you have true Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.
As it turns out, there are other syndromes and symptoms that are often confused with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. There can be nutritional causes, postural causes, trigger points and other things happening in other parts of your body that cause your pain. (Your carpal tunnel IS attached to the rest of your body!)
And, as it also turns out, by giving your body what it needs you have a really good chance to get rid of your symptoms. This is true whether you have true Carpal Tunnel Syndrome or just plain old unhappy muscles causing grief.