Carpal Tunnel Syndrome & Muscles Around Your Neck That Cause CTS

What does it mean when your carpal tunnel symptoms won’t go away with therapy or with every self-help technique that you can think of?  That could mean the cause is something that you or your therapist haven’t thought of:  the muscles around your neck.

Wait a minute.  How do the muscles around your neck cause Carpal Tunnel Syndrome?

Well, you have muscles all over the place, even in your face and head.  And lots of muscles around your neck. The scalene muscles are big players when it comes to carpal tunnel pain.

Nerves come from your spine.  The nerves from your cervical (neck) spine go to your hands.

If the muscles

in your chest or neck are pressing on those nerves, they get unhappy.  Nerves hate to be pressed on so they cause symptoms for you.  (Symptoms are things like tingling, pain, numbness.  A bunch of symptoms is called a “syndrome.”)

Your nerves are telling you there is a problem:  “Get that pressure off me!”  That is what symptoms mean–they are a message.

When you take the pressure off the nerves they can become happy again.  That means your carpal tunnel symptoms can go away.

The muscles in the upper body and neck are commonly overlooked as symptom-causers–all the time.  But those muscles are often the culprits–the “bad guys”.  They also cause knots in your back, head pain and Thoracic Outlet Syndrome as well as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

You can sometimes find a therapist who understands the importance of these muscles and how to treat them.  Or you can do it yourself when you understand where, how and why to “press” to get rid of your carpal tunnel symptoms.

You have a smart body and it wants to be well.  You just have to listen to it and take natural steps to get rid of your carpal tunnel pain.