What is Carpal Tunnel?
Carpal Tunnel is the narrow passage within your wrist which houses tendons, blood vessels and nerves including the median nerve. This nerve controls sensation and movement in your hands. If the nerve gets irritated, inflamed or compressed then this causes carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), which can present itself as numbness, tingling, pain or throbbing in the fingers, hands, wrists or forearms or can cause you difficultly in gripping objects.
What can I do myself at home to prevent CTS or help reduce symptoms?
Modifying your daily activities to reduce bending of the wrist (and using a splint to assist with this where necessary) helps to reduce any symptoms you are already experiencing. We at DM Osteopathy are dedicated to helping you prevent symptoms as well as alleviating them and the following can do both:
- exercising and stretching the wrists and hands;
- taking frequent breaks from activities that put repetitive strain on your wrists such as writing, typing, using a mouse and household chores such as food preparation; and
- if you work at a desk all day, ensuring your workspace is set up ergonomically, including ensuring your mouse and keyboard position are correct.
See our resources below that support with the prevention management of CTS.
Pregnancy & CTS
Unfortunately, CTS is experienced by approximately 60% of pregnant women, usually as a result of increased fluid and relaxation of ligaments in the hands and wrists. For any of you who are expecting, firstly a big congratulations from us at DM Osteopathy and secondly we have further information (in addition to the applicable exercises above) to support management of CTS if you are pregnant.
We also have other pregnancy-specific resources for you, which you can find by clicking on the “Pregnancy” category in our blog home page.
Resources:
As ever, if you like the information we are providing in these blog posts then you can also follow us on Facebook at Dominic Malone Osteopathy and Instagram at @dm_osteopathy for additional titbits of advice and guidance.
- Carpal Tunnel Rehab
- Carpal Tunnel – Keyboard position
- Pregnancy & Carpal Tunnel