So many people come in to see me complaining of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Some actually have it and some technically don’t. Either way we can help you treat it or find relief.
Carpal tunnel syndrome is caused when the Meidan nerve gets entrapped (or squished) at the wrist – at a place called the carpal tunnel. It is literally a little tunnel formed of bone (the 9 carpal bones that make up the wrist) an the tough layer of tissue that makes its roof. 9 tendons and a big nerve and a bunch of blood vessels run through this tunnel so if anything annoying, say a little bit of inflammation, causes anything to get a teeny weeny bit bigger in this area everything goes SQUISH!
Nerves hate squish. They HATE squish a lot.
When nerves get squished they do things like cause the nerve host (aka person) to feel a tingly sensation or maybe pain, pins and needles, burning, hot or cold. In general, don’t piss off a nerve. They don’t like it and they will make you regret it.
Ok so what do you do? The medical community sends you for testing and possibly to a hand surgeon for surgery. Sometimes the surgery is successful and sometimes it isn’t. In the surgery they release the tough roof of the carpal tunnel so that the stuff inside has more room – More room = less squish so why do some of the surgeries not work?
In my chiropractic opinion it is because some carpal tunnel syndrome isn’t carpal tunnel syndrome at all – or at least it isn’t ONLY carpal tunnel syndrome. Sometimes patients have symptoms and go for testing (nerve conduction) and the test says they are fine. So what gives? They aren’t likely making up the tingling sensation…. what would they gain from that? Some of these cases are a problem with what I and some of the chiropractic community like to call ‘triple crush’ syndrome. The nerve is getting squished a little bit at the carpal tunnel but not enough to mess up nerve conduction. BUT it is also getting a little bit squished at the elbow and in the upper back near the ribs or the shoulder. All of these little bits add up to enough hateful SQUISH to piss off the nerve.
What we can do about it – Generally I like to do muscle treatment, adjustments, exercise and anything else I can think of to take pressure off the nerve at all of these locations. The end result is often symptom relief and I have even had a few patients be able to avoid surgery indefinitely because of this. If you have any more questions, please do not hesitate to contact us and ask!