Archive for the 'CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME' Category

Pain or tingling effect in your fingers or feeling numbness in your hand or fingers is called carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS).

The carpal tunnel syndrome causes some kind of loss of sensation in your hands, fingers and wrist portion.

You cannot move your hand properly or use it for force, lift weight or write for long hours.

‘CTS’ is caused by repetitive finger and hand use in wrong positions for long hours.

Carpal tunnel syndrome is closely related to computer usage. Most people who spend long hours before computers and use keyboards and mouse extensively with their hands and fingers suffer from this problem.

The median nerve that passes through the carpal tunnel which is the narrow passage underside your wrist gets compressed. Besides rigorous use of hands in awkward position, CTS can also happen if a person is suffering from obesity, diabetes, arthritis, and hypothyroidism.

Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is a condition which causes pain, tingling effect or numbness in the fingers or complete hand particularly the thumb, middle finger, index finger and the ring finger.

There is some kind of loss of sensation in the finger. You feel some kind of weakness in your hands.

While most cases of CTS is attributed to work, several other cases too trigger carpal tunnel syndrome.

They are – pregnancy, obesity, diabetes and weight gain. It is important for working women who are pregnant and suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome to understand the implications of pregnancy on carpal tunnel syndrome.

What is the impact of carpal tunnel syndrome on a pregnant woman?

Carpal tunnel syndrome in pregnant women tends to attribute pain, numbness, weakness, tingling of fingers, swollen wrists and overall immobility of hand.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is a painful progressive condition caused by compression of a key nerve in the wrist.

If you have been suffering from tingling or numbness in your hand and wrist for several months, you are probably suffering from CTS.

To get effective pain relief from CTS, here are 20 tips:

1. Practice a whole body movement such as walking for 20-30 minutes 3 or 4 times a week to get some relief.
2. Avoid the activities that need extreme side-to-side and up-and-down movements of your wrist.
3. Avoid working with your arms keeping too close or too far from your body.
4. Avoid resting your wrist on hard surfaces for longer periods.
5. Switch your hands when multiple tasking.
6. Increase the intake of vitamin B6 to reduce numbing, tingling and painful sensations.
7. Get sufficient vitamin E to improve the blood circulation and to protect the blood vessels from any damage.

An enterprising chiropractor has found a way to make typing even easier on your wrists.

Smartfish Technologies is building the brainchild of Jack Atzmon who dreamed up this better mousetrap.

His keyboard includes motors that subtley shift the keyboard’s angle throughout the day effectively eliminating the risk of RSIs, carpal tunnel syndrome specifically, associated with keyboarding… They hope. Clinical trial results still aren’t in but it’s hard to dispute the theory.

Although separated keyboards like the FreeStyle Solo for example have yet to truly catch on hopes to break through that barrier with its claim of “Eliminating” CTS.

The Smartfish Pro:Motion keyboard notably has smarts built in to track your typing speed and self adjust while you are typing.

The keyboard rotates through its 7 stations of differing angle and separation evenly according to your habits. While probably erie at first users have been surprised how quickly they stop noticing the changes.

Is wrist brace always used when using a keyboard to control or prevent carpal tunnel syndrome? The simple answer is - a wrist brace should not be used continuously throughout the day and night.

While helpful for controlling pain from carpal tunnel syndrome or tendinitis, wrist braces worn all the time can cause weakness and will lead to more problems and injury. Here are some suggestions for the proper fitting and use of a wrist brace.

Purpose of the Brace
For every 15 degrees that the wrist is bent forward or back, extra pressure is placed on the median nerve as it passes through the carpal tunnel.

The wrist brace is prescribed for carpal tunnel because it holds the wrist in a neutral position (straight, not bent forward or back). This neutral position is the position in which the nerve has the most room in the tunnel so pressure is eased against the nerve.

Like many other diseases or syndromes you can take steps to prevent the onset of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and alleviate its symptoms.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is caused by repetitive motion such as typing on a keyboard all day.  Soreness and numbness in the hands and fingers are an indication of this illness.

The best way to prevent Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is to perform some simple warm up exercises prior to the repetitive behavior.

Warm-Up Exercises

1. Limber Up: Begin by gently massaging your hands.  Hold you fingers and bend your wrists back gently.  Stop before there is any soreness.  Hold your wrist back for about 4 seconds.  Release the position and relax.  Next pull your thumb back towards your wrist.  Once again do not cause yourself any discomfort.  Hold this position for 4-5 seconds.  Lastly, clench your fist and release fanning out your fingers as you do so.  Do this exercise 5 times.

A majority of children are now using desk computers, hand-held electronics such as smart phones and PDAs, and gaming controls on a daily basis.

Parents should take an active part in teaching their children techniques that will help them prevent future injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome and tendinitis.

The American Society of Hand Therapists (ASHT) stresses the importance of developing good habits early on in children to prevent hand and wrist injuries in adulthood.

Healthy techniques learned at a young age can carry over into other aspects of life where there is a similar injury risk such as sitting in front of a computer or playing musical instruments.

The ASHT Media News Bureau provided the following overall tips and health guidelines for kids and video gamers of all ages:

Prevent Future Injuries such as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and Tendonitis:

A therapeutic tool has been designed and crafted for giving relief to carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) sufferers. The tool named “ergonomic therapeutic glass massage tool” consists of a smooth glass bulb. It is connected to a flat, rounded glass handle that allows users to comfortably grip the tool while performing therapeutic massage.

A stream of colored glass is present inside the glass bulb, which expands for filling the bulb, giving an impression that a glass flower is present inside the center. As the tool is designed ergonomically, strain on your hands can be reduced. It gives longer sessions of massage than usual.

Chronic pain resulting from carpal tunnel syndrome is affecting 1 in 5 Americans and disabling more number of people than cancer and heart disease. Therefore, it is helping people to relieve from CTS. This device is also helping to treat fibromyalgia and multiple sclerosis apart from carpal tunnel syndrome.

Working on a computer all the day can result to carpal tunnel syndrome.

People with small wrist are more prone to this injury, because they have small carpal tunnel.

Due this reason, women are three times more likely to develop CTS than men.

Also this can be resulted by an injury, age, pregnancy fluid retention, diseases like diabetes or due to repetitive motions like using the keyboard or mouse.

Here are 6 ways to prevent CTS:

1. Use ergonomic keyboard so that your hands and wrists can move in a more neutral position.

2. Take frequent breaks from typing and using mouse. During the breaks, do some wrist stretches or shake out your wrists.

3. If your wrist injury is due to the regular usage of your mouse, then use a vertical mouse so that your thumb will point straight up. You may feel good on your wrist.

Are you a desk employee? Then it is common to experience carpal tunnel syndrome at any point in your life.

It is the most commonly recognized of all the repetitive strain injuries.

The muscles called as flexor muscles are located on the inside of the forearm and are implicated in almost all cases of carpal tunnel syndrome.

The condition simply means that there is a compression of the median nerve in the hand. This squeezing can occur because of the narrowed canals or because of tendons running through the same route increase in size.

Obesity and wrist shape connect with a higher prevalence of carpal tunnel syndrome. Weight loss in obese patients can not bring relief of the syndrome. [Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Victims]

According to the studies 10 percent of the general population is likely to suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome at some point in their lives and 25 percent of the people are suffering with the condition due to obesity.