What’s the tie-in between Thoracic Outlet Syndrome and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome?
This cracks me up: I read about a man who had numbness and tingling in his arm.
He also had weakness in his hand and his grip was so weak he couldn’t even pick up a pencil.
He had Thoracic Outlet Syndrome. That is pressure on the nerves and blood vessels in the “thoracic outlet.” The thoracic outlet is an area near the front of your shoulder. It can be responsible for a lot of symptoms in the carpal tunnel area.
Here’s the part that cracks me up:
The kind of funny thing was, this man was an “expert” in a type of rehabilitative massage. He was teaching clients and students how to take care of themselves, and how to take care of their pain symptoms.
But, he had not been taking care of himself! Usually, the first sign of discomfort is a big clue to take action for someone who understands how pain is caused and how bodies work.
As an expert massage therapist/instructor, he should have been able to easily avoid this painful situation!
Over time, his symptoms kept getting worse and worse. He believed his symptoms were caused by poor posture and repetitive movements (he was right) without understanding that he, too, needed care and self-care.
I guess he didn’t understand the roles of muscles and posture in causing pain even though he was in the field of pain relief. 🙁
The sooner or earlier you start self-care, the sooner you can get well.
Eventually, he was able to keep from having surgery by having a month of therapies which included stretching the muscle groups that were causing his symptoms (including those in his neck, chest and wrist.)
This surgery causes a permanent disfiguration by removing muscle around your collar bone. Whew! I’m glad he finally figured it out! Other therapies he used were chiropractic, lymphatic drainage, and therapeutic massage therapies.
He used chiropractic to manipulate the bones that muscles had pulled out of place (muscles move bones).
The lymphatic drainage helped moved swelling from his hand and arm. The massage therapists helped normalize tissues that were too tight or too weak, or held “trigger points.”
Now, he is careful to take care of himself with self-care methods.
He takes personal responsibility for keeping his muscle groups in balance, so the muscles around his neck would not pull his bones back out of alignment.
So, what do you need to do?
In a nutshell, strengthen the muscles in your back and the back of your arms, and stretch the muscles in the front of your chest, neck and shoulders.
Strengthen the back. Lengthen the front.
At this time, our teacher is pain-free and 100% functional. His symptoms are gone. It takes him only 5 minutes to 30 minutes each day to stretch and strengthen.
Are you worth an intense month of therapy? Yes, you are.
Are you worth 5 to 30 minutes a day of maintenance? Yes, you are.
I’m going to tell you about some simple self-help programs that can help you get started before the pain in your chest, arm and hand gets any worse in a few minutes.
So, how do you find all of the information you need to get started?
Well, a lot of it is here, at Carpal Tunnel Pain Relief.com. Check the “categories” for “self-help,” “nutrition” and “massage.” Read the other articles here, too, and look into the “resources” that are here.
One of the self-help programs I created will help you “loosen up” the tight areas that are causing your TOS and CTS symptoms. Here’s the link for the Scalene Report. (BUT if you’re also suffering with muscles knots in your upper back, it’s included in the Knots In Your Back Gone! program.)
Start educating yourself and take action! The sooner the better!
If you think it’s important to see your doctor, see him. Maybe she can get you into a program to improve your posture and reduce your carpal tunnel or thoracic outlet symptoms. That would be great!
But, it’s still up to you to take care of yourself.
You are the boss of your body.
Start your back strengthening program and a program to stretch your shortened front muscles now. I created a program so simple to help you do that you can actually do in bed. You can learn all about it at Simple Strengthening.
If you want to get rid of Thoracic Outlet Syndrome or Carpal Tunnel Syndrome naturally, self care is mandatory! If symptoms are just starting, the sooner you take action, the better and easier for you. If you’ve been hurting for a while, action matters! It will just take a bit longer for great results.
“Because You Deserve to Feel Better!”