Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: A Meadville Chiropactor Approach
Carpal Tunnel may not be in your wrist after all!
Carpal Tunnel syndrome is known by many as a wrist problem that pinches a nerve in your wrist cause pain and numbness. Well this is definitely partly true. To understand why this is true I'm going to tell you how nerves work. A garden hose is a great way to explain it. Let's say a garden hose is a nerve. If you turn on the faucet to your hose and see that the hose is spewing out water on the open end then the hose is working fine and there are no kinks in the hose. If you put a kink anywhere in that hose the water stops flowing through it and at the end of the hose the water stops coming out. Yeah roll your eyes at me and say no duh because that is obvious. What most people don't know is that nerves work similarly. You can pinch a nerve and not feel the pain, tingling or weakness where it is pinched. Like the garden hose pinch the symptom is at the end of the hose where the water does not come out. In the case of the nerves you will feel the symptoms toward the end of the nerves.
To further understand how this works with carpal tunnel lets talk about the nerves involved. The nerves start in your neck (that's where the faucet would be for the hose) then they go down to your shoulder, down the arm, down to the forearm, down through the wrist and they end in your fingertips. It is like one continuous hose but it gives off branches of nerves on the way to supply nerve functions on the way down.
So if the nerve gets pinch anywhere in the entire path the nerves takes from your neck to your finger tips you can feel it in your hand. So if you pinch it where it goes through the shoulder then you will feel it in your hand just like you feel it with carpal tunnel. Sometimes you will even feel the tingling and pain from where it is pinched and down from there. That's when it gets very severe. When it is not severe it will just imitate the carpal tunnel symptoms. Let me explain why this is true. If you have lots of muscle tension let say in the shoulder neck and forearm then the whole nerve will be stretched and irritated. This stretching effect will cause the nerve to run tightly through your carpal tunnel. Now you will easily develop carpal tunnel symptoms if you repetitively traumatize your wrist like you would do with typing, jack hammering or screw driving. The reason you will easily develop the carpal tunnel symptoms is because the nerve is pre-stretched by tight muscle in your neck shoulder and forearm.
So why do I get such good results with carpal tunnel? I work on the muscles to release the tension on the nerves with a specific pressure technique. Then I work on the carpal tunnel with a technique that gives the nerve more room to breath. Finally, I use chiropractic adjustments to allow even less nerve tension through the course of the nerve from the neck to the fingertips. This combination of treatments is vital for the success in treating carpal tunnel effectively with out surgery or medication.
Carpal Tunnel syndrome is known by many as a wrist problem that pinches a nerve in your wrist cause pain and numbness. Well this is definitely partly true. To understand why this is true I'm going to tell you how nerves work. A garden hose is a great way to explain it. Let's say a garden hose is a nerve. If you turn on the faucet to your hose and see that the hose is spewing out water on the open end then the hose is working fine and there are no kinks in the hose. If you put a kink anywhere in that hose the water stops flowing through it and at the end of the hose the water stops coming out. Yeah roll your eyes at me and say no duh because that is obvious. What most people don't know is that nerves work similarly. You can pinch a nerve and not feel the pain, tingling or weakness where it is pinched. Like the garden hose pinch the symptom is at the end of the hose where the water does not come out. In the case of the nerves you will feel the symptoms toward the end of the nerves.
To further understand how this works with carpal tunnel lets talk about the nerves involved. The nerves start in your neck (that's where the faucet would be for the hose) then they go down to your shoulder, down the arm, down to the forearm, down through the wrist and they end in your fingertips. It is like one continuous hose but it gives off branches of nerves on the way to supply nerve functions on the way down.
So if the nerve gets pinch anywhere in the entire path the nerves takes from your neck to your finger tips you can feel it in your hand. So if you pinch it where it goes through the shoulder then you will feel it in your hand just like you feel it with carpal tunnel. Sometimes you will even feel the tingling and pain from where it is pinched and down from there. That's when it gets very severe. When it is not severe it will just imitate the carpal tunnel symptoms. Let me explain why this is true. If you have lots of muscle tension let say in the shoulder neck and forearm then the whole nerve will be stretched and irritated. This stretching effect will cause the nerve to run tightly through your carpal tunnel. Now you will easily develop carpal tunnel symptoms if you repetitively traumatize your wrist like you would do with typing, jack hammering or screw driving. The reason you will easily develop the carpal tunnel symptoms is because the nerve is pre-stretched by tight muscle in your neck shoulder and forearm.
So why do I get such good results with carpal tunnel? I work on the muscles to release the tension on the nerves with a specific pressure technique. Then I work on the carpal tunnel with a technique that gives the nerve more room to breath. Finally, I use chiropractic adjustments to allow even less nerve tension through the course of the nerve from the neck to the fingertips. This combination of treatments is vital for the success in treating carpal tunnel effectively with out surgery or medication.
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