Carpal tunnel can be improved by care from the Vancouver chiropractor, Dr. Troy Dreiling of Zenaptic Chiropractic. Get more info below or take advantage of Dr. Troy’s free consultation by calling the clinic.
What Is Carpal Tunnel?
Transcription
There are 8 bones here in the wrist known as the carpal bones. They stack on top of each other, kind of like dominos or legos. They move up and down and it helps you, you have a lot of mobility in your wrists.
People who have had injuries or falls, repetitive stress, typing, driving, mouse work, construction, repetitive work, they can actually damage the joints and the ligaments can get irritated and inflamed. Then, especially if there is a misalignment in these joints, the tunnel or the nerve that goes into your finger known as the median nerve can actually get compressed and irritated, therefore, you can get carpal tunnel symptoms. Pain and numbness, tingling, usually through the middle three fingers. A lot of times if it is outer, there is usually something else going on outside of that carpal area. The classic patterns are going to be these three fingers.
So, the carpal bones can collapse and it puts pressure on the tunnel right through here.
Chiropractic Care For Carpal Tunnel
Transcription
Hi, it’s Dr. Troy, the carpal tunnel chiropractor.
I’ve seen successful cases resolved with specific chiropractic care for people who have carpal tunnel.
Many people think they have carpal tunnel when their whole hand is numb, but if you look there are actually three nerves that go into the arm. There’s the median nerve which is what gets entrapped in the carpal tunnel, the ulnar nerve, and the radial nerve. So, there are three different nerves that could be interfered with and what a lot of doctors will miss will be upstream.
You could have carpal tunnel symptoms which would mean your middle fingers, the inside of these two fingers go numb but if your whole hand is numb it’s beyond the carpal tunnel. That could be coming from the neck, an impingement shoulder or elbow. These are things we check to see where it is actually coming from.
There is some specific adjusting we can do to the upper neck to free up the nerve flow and oxygen flow to the cord, spinal cord, and nerve roots that come off. I also have a wrist track device. It’s a traction device that you can put on the wrist that will help relieve the pressure in the tunnel if in fact that is where it is coming from.
A lot of people have trauma that can bring this on, but you see a lot of this with repetitive movements. Postal workers, they are always opening and closing their hands all the time, people who type and sit at a desk all the time. They have that forward head shift which puts tension and stress on the nerves which could be causing carpal tunnel.
If you’re suffering or you know somebody who is suffering, free consultation to see if chiropractic is right for you. Just call the office, 260-6903 and we will schedule you a time to see if we can help..
This is Dr. Troy, the carpal tunnel chiropractor.
More Information On Carpal Tunnel and Chiropractic Care
Carpal tunnel syndrome is one of the most common causes of numbness and tingling, and the condition usually starts with these symptoms in the thumb, middle, and index fingers that will come and go periodically.
This disorder is the most common of the nerve compression disorders that can affect the upper extremities. You may experience discomfort in your hand and wrist, and other symptoms include weakness and the tendency to drop objects.
Tingling, Numbness, Carpal Tunnel Causes
Carpal tunnel syndrome is caused by compression upon the median nerve. The median nerve runs from the forearm through a passage in the wrist known as the carpal tunnel into the hand. It provides sensation to the palm side of the fingers and thumb along with nerve signals to the muscles at the base of the thumb. When something compresses, irritates, or crowds the median nerve found in the carpal tunnel space, carpal tunnel syndrome can result.
If your numbness and tingling is not a result of carpal tunnel syndrome, a variety of other factors may be at play:
- Pressure on the nerves in the spine, such as a herniated disc
- Injuring a nerve, as a neck injury can cause numbness in the hand an arm while a lower back injury could cause tingling or numbness down the back of the leg
- Pressure on the peripheral nerves from infection, scar tissue, or enlarged blood vessels
- Pressure or nerve irritation that causes misalignment of the upper cervical bone
- Lower neck joint dysfunction
- Lack of blood supply to a certain area, which could be due to vasculitis, frostbite, or atherosclerosis
- Another medical condition, such as diabetes, multiple sclerosis, migraines, or stroke
Tingling and numbness of the hand and arm specifically are caused by pressure and stress on the spinal cord, nerve root, or the peripheral nerves. Most people don’t understand this common complaint, as they assume the pain is coming from the wrist or carpal bones (there are 8 carpal bones in the wrist and 13 bones in the hand proper). In other cases, the shoulder, elbow, and carpal bones could be contributing factors that need to be addressed and corrected.
Carpal Tunnel Analysis and Treatment
If you are experiencing numbness and tingling, we can help to analyze and diagnose your condition. A proper Zenaptic Chiropractic evaluation can determine the exact cause of the problem, and we will start by reviewing the history of your symptoms and conducting a physical examination. An x-ray analysis can also help to determine if the upper and lower spinal joints are involved.
Chiropractic care can be extremely beneficial to the treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome along with tingling and numbness:
- Specific upper cervical correction, which may consist of upper cervical adjustments using light hand contact or use of an instrument, and be performed to release the impinged nerves.
- Repetitive neck traction, specific neck strengthening exercises, and spinal modeling
- Adjustments of the shoulder, elbow, and wrist
- A wrist traction device may provide relief of pressure on the 8 carpal bones
- Massage of effective soft tissues in the neck, shoulder, and arm can be effective in conjunction to reducing the nerve pressures with specific spinal joint chiropractic adjustments. Many times surgery is recommended and fails to address the underlying cause of the pain if nonsurgical therapies are unsuccessful, and the National Center for Health Statistics states that there are approximately 260,000 carpal tunnel surgeries performed each year. The goal of these procedures is to relieve pressure on the media never by cutting the ligament that is pressing onto the nerve. Two different techniques may be used:
- Endoscopic surgery, in which a surgeon uses a device similar to a telescope with a tiny camera to see into the carpal tunnel and to cut the ligament.
- Open surgery, in which a longer incision is made into the palm so that the ligament can be cut to free the nerve.
Fortunately, most patients have success with chiropractic care and nonsurgical interventions at treating their carpal tunnel.
Carpal Tunnel Exercises
Transcription
Hello, it’s Dr. Troy here. The Vancouver chiropractor.
I want to show you some carpal tunnel exercises.
It’s very common in today’s society for people to experience carpal tunnel pain. Numbness in their hands, tingling, a swollen type feeling.
A couple of exercises you can do especially if you’re typing a lot, using a mouse a lot, I see this with a lot of patients. Some of the exercises we will give our patients is we do a stretch where we take all the fingers and we pull them back so we’re stretching the carpal tunnel and the carpal bones. So a nice gentle stretch, hold it for about five to ten seconds you can do both sides this way. Also, you can take it and go this way with it. Some people feel more relief going this way. These are a couple of exercises you can do for carpal tunnel.
We’ve also found if you get in here on these muscles that extend your hand you can get nerve entrapment through here which can produce carpal tunnel symptoms. So just getting in there self-massaging even an ice massage can help. These are a couple of things that you can do to help with carpal tunnel.
You can also massage the tunnel where the ligament is right here, you can massage that, you can use ice and ice massage tends to relieve the swelling. But, if you’re doing a lot of typing and a lot of driving those are issues that can create carpal tunnel symptoms.
The other thing that we’ll have patients do is massage in through here in between the thumb and the forefinger. This can help relieve a lot of pressure and a lot of pain associated with carpal tunnel.
One thing you can try at night is you can take your hand and create a V like this and you take black electrical tape so it’s got a little stretch to it and you wrap it around loosely but you want to create more of a tunnel here because a lot of times the tunnel will flatten out and you’re going to get the nerve impingement. You take black electrical tape, tape your hands at night before bed. It can be kind of irritating. When I did it I’d probably go 3-4 hours and I would take the tape off but I have experienced carpal tunnel one time and that really seemed to help reduce the pressure on the carpal bones which was irritating the nerves.
Those are some home remedies you can do if that doesn’t work in our office we do a thing called the wrist track and it’s a traction device. We actually put the hand in through here, we’ve velcroed it so we can focus right on the carpal bones because the carpal bones can get jammed up especially if you’ve had an injury or a fall.
These are some exercises we do in the office with patients and they tend to respond really well even if people have had carpal tunnel surgery this can respond really well. Basically, my foot’s on this strap, it’s held down to the floor and there’s a light on it, it goes from one to five on how much pull there is. So you just lean back and it actually tractions the wrist. It’s a really cool device that can help loosen up the carpal bones.
The other thing too is chiropractic adjustments can help the carpal bones and a lot of times we’re going to find an irritated nerve or a pinched nerve in the neck which could irritate that nerve and you might have been misdiagnosed with carpal tunnel when it’s coming from the neck or shoulder impingement.
So those are some exercises you can do. If you can’t resolve it on your own we’d be happy to do a consultation with you, no charge just call the office and schedule with one of our doctors. (360) 260-6903, this is Dr. Troy the Vancouver chiropractor.
Carpal Tunnel FAQ
How can carpal tunnel syndrome be prevented?
Not only do we offer carpal tunnel, numbness, and tingling treatment, but we can also provide you with helpful tips on how to prevent it. Carpal tunnel is often caused by repetitive strain, which typically occurs on the job. For this reason, you should be sure to take frequent rest breaks and perform light exercises and stretching on the job. If you have difficult keep your wrists straight, consider wearing splints, and use fingerless gloves to ensure your hands are flexible and warm.
Is ultrasound therapy useful for treating carpal tunnel?
Ultrasound therapy can be useful in the treatment of carpal tunnel and symptoms of numbness and tingling. This treatment option uses either very low-energy or high-energy sound that is outside the normal range of hearing. The device will emit sound waves that focus to penetrate deep into the tissue. Sound waves can reduce pain, relax the muscles, and minimize inflammation.
Summary
We offer a variety of options to help correct the underlying cause of your numbness, tingling, and carpal tunnel symptoms. Specific upper cervical correction, repetitive neck traction, neck strengthening exercises, and other adjustments to the upper extremities can all be useful in overcoming carpal tunnel pain.
If you are suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome or numbness and tingling in the upper extremities, please schedule your free consultation. We are dedicated to improving the lives of our patients in the Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington areas.
Our office is conveniently located near the corner of Andresen and Fourth Plain Blvd. Call our chiropractic clinic at (360) 260-6903 to schedule your appointment today!
