Carpal Tunnel

7 Tips to Prevent and Manage Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is a condition characterized by pain, tingling, and numbness in the hands. It’s often caused by using vibrating tools or repetitive movements such as typing or playing the piano. Some cases of carpal tunnel syndrome can also be related to arthritis of the wrist, thyroid disease, and pregnancy.

The Carpal tunnel is a narrow space or tunnel within the wrist through which tendons and nerves pass. If these tendons and nerves become irritated or inflamed, stress is created in the wrist. When the median nerve is squeezed due to this stress, the blood circulation to the hands is compromised. This results in tingling, numbness, and pain in the hand.

Carpal tunnel syndrome is more common in women than men because the carpal tunnel is biologically narrow in the former. The obese and patients with diabetes are at higher risk of developing the syndrome.

Symptoms of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Early stage symptoms of the carpal tunnel if diagnosed and treated on time, can significantly prevent the advancement of the syndrome. Symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome include:

• Tingling, burning or numbness in the thumb, index and middle finger
• Weakness in thumb or wrist
• Reduced grip strength
• Shooting pains in the wrists
• Pain in the arm and shoulder

In early stages, the symptoms are felt at the night but as the syndrome progresses, the symptoms are experienced in the daytime too. The pain tends to be worse at night and enough to disturb your sleep. Stretching or shaking your hand or hanging it out of bed often relieves the pain.

How to Prevent and Manage Carpal Tunnel

1. Wear Wrist Brace and Gloves

Wearing a wrist brace reduces wrist pain and helps ease the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome. Sleeping with the flexed wrist irritates the nerve and puts pressure on the carpal tunnel area. Carpal tunnel wrist braces place the wrist, hand, and fingers in a comfortable neutral position. You can wear carpal tunnel braces during the daytime for up to six hours. The splints reduce pain and numbness associated with carpal tunnel syndrome. Carpal Tunnel Gloves keeps pressure off the median nerve to alleviate symptoms of carpal tunnel and provides protection to hand from vibration and impact.

2. Buy Hand Exercisers

Hand exercisers help the tendons to extend to their maximum potential. This reduces the swelling around the median nerve. Hand exercise therapy aims to re-establish the lost hand strength and restore as much hand function as possible to carry out daily activities and improve independence with a quality of life. Hand exercisers include hand grips that consist of a lever that must be squeezed to increase hand strength. Hand grips also help in improving the dexterity. Hand therapy ball and therapy putty is commonly used by people with carpal tunnel syndrome to maintain proper blood circulation in the wrist and reduce symptoms like numbness and tingling in the hand. Some of the hand therapy exercisers include hand grips, hand exercise balls, bands, palm cones, pinch exercisers, arm skates, wrist exercises, therapy putty, foam blocks, thumb exercises.

3. Use Ergonomic Devices

For people who type a lot at work, ergonomic devices help prevent carpal tunnel syndrome. Ergonomic writing aids, keyboard, wrist rest, vertical mouse and mousepad allow the fingers, palms, and wrists to be in neutral posture.

4. Enjoy Benefits of Cold Therapy

Applying cold therapy to your wrist help ease the pain from carpal tunnel syndrome. It is the most effective and inexpensive method for pain management. Cold therapy systems and cold packs can be used to effectively treat carpal tunnel. It not only helps improve quality of life but also helps achieve long-lasting pain relief and fast healing. Aircast Hand and Wrist Cryo/Cuff with Gravity Cooler is anatomically designed to completely fit the hand and wrist providing maximum cold therapy. It combines cold and focal compression using a simple, gravity-fed system.

5. Go for Topical Analgesics

Healthcare professionals recommend topical analgesics since it is free of NSAID medication. It is safer than oral pain relievers and doesn’t cause complications like a drug overdose, addiction or other harmful side effects. People who are reluctant to use painkillers and want a natural pain relief remedy see topical analgesics as an easy and safe alternative. They help people suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome to reduce the wrist pain and resume their daily routine quickly.

6. Massage the Hands

Hand massage helps strengthen and stretch the muscles and ligaments in hands and forearms. Electric massager or hand held massager or even foam rollers can be used to relieve the stress and ease the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome.

7. Try Acupuncture

Acupuncture helps achieve long-term pain relief by use of very fine stainless-steel needles to apply pressure on body’s 14 major energy carrying channels also called “meridians”. The aim is to reroute and restore energy balances or ‘chi’. Scientifically speaking acupuncture gives pain relief by boosting the endorphins level in our body which reduce the perception of pain. Acupuncture enhances the blood flow in the arteries which in turn helps treat and ease the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome. If you plan to go for acupuncture treatments make sure to choose a licensed and certified acupuncture therapist.

Carpal tunnel syndrome is treatable with proper treatment, rest and healthy lifestyle choices. It's important to consult a doctor to rule out other medical issues and get the best treatment advice.

Where to buy Carpal Tunnel Relief products?

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