The Wrist Pain Of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome May Not Be Caused By Your Wrist

By Michael Pritsker


Carpal tunnel syndrome may be one of the most misunderstood and mistreated conditions in modern medicine. It's a shame because numerous carpal tunnel victims could end their pain and suffering almost overnight if they only knew what local San Diego chiropractors and carpal tunnel syndrome experts revealed to the public. If you've been diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome, what you're about to discover can literally give you your life back. If you know anyone suffering with carpal tunnel syndrome, have them read this article to help them. You may be accountable for changing their life for the better.

Here are the dramatic statistics. The U.S. Department of Labor has completed that carpal tunnel syndrome is the "head occupational hazard of the 90's - disabling workers in epidemic proportions." Carpal Tunnel Syndrome affects over eight million Americans. Up to 36% of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome patients necessitate unlimited medical treatment. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is the number one reported medical problem, accounting for about fifty percent of all work related injuries. Only twenty five percent of all Carpal Tunnel Syndrome patients were able to come back to their previous professions following surgery. Surgery for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is the second most common type of surgery, with well over 200,000 procedures performed yearly.

I don't know about you, but reading those statistics tells me something is radically wrong with the "accepted" methods of treating Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. It doesn't take a genius to figure out surgery is not the way to go when 230,000 are being performed each year and only 25% are able to return to their previous jobs. And returning to work does not mean pain-free. I wonder how many of that 25% were actually pain-free.

Take into consideration also the inherent risks of surgery and your option of getting cut starts looking like a distant last resort. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome has traditionally been defined as an entrapment of the median nerve inside the carpal tunnel in your wrist. The base of the carpal tunnel is made of eight carpal bones also known as wrist bones. They are odd shaped and fit together like the pieces of a puzzle. The ligaments are like fishing line. They help hold the bones together.

The roof of the tunnel is a ligament. It is known as the transverse carpal ligament. It stretches from one side of the tunnel to the other. The space that is formed between the carpal bones and the transverse carpal ligament is about the size of your pinky. A bunch of "things" pass through that small space. These include nine flexor tendons (tendons attach muscle to bone), blood vessels and one nerve. This is the median nerve, which is the primary nerve to your hand. The traditional definition of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is compression of the median nerve as it passes through the tunnel.

Nerves are like small wires that broadcast electrical impulses from your brain and spinal cord to the remainder of your body. Each time you desire to move your hand, your brain sends electrical impulses down the median nerve to the muscles in your hand, causing them to contract. Nerves are very responsive and can easily get compressed. If the median nerve gets strained or compressed as it passes through the carpal tunnel, it causes Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. It is usually thought that an injury or repetitive stress to the wrist can cause such an injury.

Here's the difficulty with all that. There is another situation that causes the precise same symptoms as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome that has slight or not anything to do with the wrist! This situation is called Double Crush Syndrome and here's how it works. There are a lot of sites that can squeeze a nerve as it goes from your brain and spinal cord to your wrist. Simply put, Double Crush Syndrome occurs when you have many compression sites. More importantly, a compression site nearer to the spinal cord and brain makes it much easier for a nerve to be compressed somewhere else. Other areas consist of the wrist. You most likely would not have Carpal Tunnel Symptoms if you only had compression only in your wrist. It is usually the grouping of the compression sites that cause the problem.

So in most cases, if you remove the entrapment or compression that is closer to the spine, many, if not all, of your symptoms will go away without ever touching the wrist! The most common sites of compression or entrapment are a muscle in your forearm called the pronator teres, the thoracic outlet by your shoulder, and your neck. The most frequent place seems to be as the nerve exits your spine in your neck.

That's why specific chiropractic care can work wonders for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome when all else has failed. By gently restoring function of your neck via chiropractic care, compression on the nerve can be relieved. This will eliminate the Double Crush Syndrome and fix the true cause of your Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

The important thing to remember is you must be evaluated by a doctor that understands Double Crush Syndrome and evaluate you for all the possible compression sites and fix them properly. A hand specialist may completely overlook the real cause of your problem which may be the Double Crush Syndrome. A thorough chiropractic evaluation can also detect if your carpal tunnel symptoms are coming from one of the other compression/entrapment sites like your forearm, shoulder or wrist and work on those areas as well.

To find out more on how to eliminate Carpal Tunnel Syndrome forever, pain victims can search for Dr. Michael Pritsker, D.C. in San Diego. He has treated thousands of carpal tunnel pain victims with advanced spinal decompression, chiropractic care, and wristrac therapy.




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