Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is caused by nerve compression in your wrist. Here’s how it works:
Nerves pass through the inside of your wrist between bones and ligaments (tough tissue.) If there is not enough space for the nerves and blood vessels inside your wrist, they will be compressed or squeezed. That causes uncomfortable symptoms.
So what causes the space inside the wrist to be too tight or small?
- Weight gain is one culprit. Losing weight helps get rid of symptoms.
- Pregnancy is another. After baby comes it generally goes away.
- Diabetes is another cause and I hope your diabetes is being treated by a doctor. Eating truly healthy can do a lot of good for this disease.
- A broken wrist can cause symptoms if the bones press on nerves after injury.
- A deficiency of Vitamin B6.
Lots of folks think Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is caused by repetitive work or motion and sometimes maybe it is.
I believe it’s not so much the repetitive motion but
repetitive motion done incorrectly that causes carpal tunnel pain.
Sometimes we cannot avoid working in uncomfortable positions like under a desk looking up if you hook up computers. But often we get into bad habits or use equipment that could be more ergonomic if we only paid attention.
The important thing to remember is to keep your wrists straight and your elbows as close to your body as possible when typing. This might mean raising or lowering your seat or your monitor or your keyboard or all of them.
But what if your pain seems to start at your wrist and goes up to your arm or shoulder?
Well, you (and your doctor) might be looking at it backward. The problem probably starts in your neck, shoulder or arm muscles and is going down to your hand.
Muscles work like that. When an area is tight and crabby it can cause pain or symptoms elsewhere.
One of the reasons that carpal tunnel surgery doesn’t work in many cases is because the doctor doesn’t check out the muscles in your neck and arm first. They go right to the symptom and symptoms are usually caused by something somewhere else.
Why don’t they check out the muscles first? It’s not part of their training. Only a few doctors specialize in muscles. Most don’t. They don’t have enough time, either. Being a doctor is a pretty busy job.