Carpal tunnel syndrome is a painful condition affecting millions of people each year. It occurs because the median nerve, which runs from the arm to the hand through the wrist, gets squeezed inside the wrist between bones collectively called the carpal tunnel. Among other things, the median nerve controls sensations from the palm side of the thumb and fingers, but not the little finger. Pain and other symptoms occur because the median nerve simply doesn't react well to being squeezed. Some people have surgery in an effort to relieve the squeezing. The rationale for surgery is to open the carpal tunnel to relieve pressure. But as all too many people know, surgery is far from the answer. It's rare for symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome to begin quickly. Instead, symptoms like pain generally start gradually, over months or even years, and it may take months to even notice it. The person first feels sensations like tingling, pins and needles, burning, itching and numbness in the palm of the hand and the fingers. It is especially pronounced in the thumb, index and middle fingers. Often, the fingers feel swollen, even though they are not. These sensations can occur in one or both hands simultaneously. As pain progress, the person might also feel a decrease in grip strength and find it difficult to make a fist or grasp small objects. In severe and chronic cases that remain untreated, there is wasting of the muscles at the base of the thumb and people lose sensation of hot and cold. Carpal tunnel syndrome pain also broadly describes different kinds of pain sensations, such as sharp stinging pain, dull grinding pain or burning pain. The pain is manifested differently in different people, and may be accompanied by weakness, tingling or numbness in the hand and wrist. Sometimes wrist pain radiates up the arm. As with other dysfunctions associated with the nervous system, early diagnosis and treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome are important to prevent permanent damage to the median nerve. A doctor performs a physical exam of the wrist for tenderness, swelling, warmth, and discoloration. Each finger is tested for sensation and the muscles at the base of the hand are examined for strength and signs of wasting. Doctors who suspect carpal tunnel syndrome can use some tests to mimic the symptoms. A diagnosis using electro-diagnostic tests is sometimes used to confirm carpal tunnel syndrome. In a nerve conduction study, very thin electrode needles are placed into the hand and wrist. Tiny electric shocks are applied and the speed with which nerves transmit impulses (travelling through the carpal tunnel) is measured. This is an uncomfortable procedure, expensive, and will not diagnose early carpal tunnel syndrome. It is also fraught with false results. EMG is similar except that a fine needle is inserted into a muscle to determine conduction time and the severity of median nerve damage. Effective treatment begins with rest and splinting the hand at night. This prevents unconscious over-bending while you sleep. Real carpal tunnel syndrome treatment requires serious therapy that effectively targets the root cause of the problem: micro-adhesions that cause the tendons to become inflamed. To permanently alleviate such inflammation, merely removing pressure on the median nerve (like surgery attempts is not nearly enough. And it's the main reason carpal tunnel surgery fails so often. Only deep tissue carpal tunnel massage can alleviate the inflammation permanently because it drains fluid while also breaking the adhesions that cause the inflammation. And it does so without surgery! This carpal tunnel treatment is nearly 100% effective, but you need such massage expertly performed by a trained therapist daily and for 2-4 weeks. Or you can use the Carpal Rx which is calibrated to perform this identical treatment, called Carpal Rx Therapy, on your wrist and forearm automatically, at home and every day for 2-4 weeks. So why visit a therapist repeatedly for this treatment if you don't have to? Visit www.CarpalRx.com for more information.

• published: 17 Dec 2013
• views: 2353