Does this sound like you?
There you are, minding your own business, working on your computer as you enjoy a homebrewed cup of Tim Horton’s coffee. All of a sudden, you begin to notice an odd tingling sensation in your hand. This tingling sensation occurs specifically in your thumb, index, and middle finger. Initially, you think nothing of it because it eventually goes away and you can go on with your day. However, you notice that the tingling is getting more frequent, happening nearly every day. You feel the need to shake out your hand, work is becoming difficult, playing with your kids is more of a chore than before, and even holding your fork or knife is more challenging than it used to be.
You decide to go get your wrist examined, and a stern voice says, “you have carpal tunnel syndrome.” You are given some exercises to do that focus on stretching some of the muscles around your wrist and forearm, but that doesn’t work.
You get your wrist looked at again, explaining that the exercises aren’t working. This time you receive the bad news, “I think you need surgery for that.”
This Doesn’t Have to be You
The newfound difficulty at work and home is frustrating. The idea of surgery is scary, to say the least. You don’t want to take time off from work, and you don’t want to make life at home more difficult.
THIS DOESN’T HAVE TO BE YOU!
After you are finished reading this, you will fully understand what carpal tunnel syndrome is, why surgery is not necessary, how Chiropractic care can help relieve your carpal tunnel symptoms and prevent this from happening again.
What is Carpal Tunnel Syndrome?
Our nervous system runs throughout our entire body. It acts as a big electrical circuit that transmits all of the electrical nerve impulses between your brain and the rest of your body! Individual nerves emerge from your spine then travel to supply sensation and movement to specific areas of your shoulders, arms, and hands. This allows you to move and feel sensations like touch, heat, cold, and pain.
Similar to our muscles, our nerves need plenty of blood to work properly. If our nerves get compressed or irritated, this can cause a lack of blood supply causing the nerve to become ischemic. This lack of blood supply can result in a numbness or tingling sensation. Just think of when you are sitting on the toilet looking at memes for too long. That tingling sensation you get in your legs is your sciatic nerve losing its blood supply!
Your median nerve exits your neck, travels through your entire arm, and is responsible for sensation on the palm side of your first 3 ½ fingers. Compression or irritation of your median nerve as it travels through your wrist is called Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.
Why Carpal Tunnel Surgery Is Ineffective
Research shows that it is very unlikely that the median nerve is ONLY being compressed at your wrist. It is much more likely that your median nerve is also being compressed at another site in your spine, neck, shoulder, or forearm. This is called “double crush syndrome”.
Carpal Tunnel surgery focuses on the single site of your wrist. When the majority of people experiencing carpal tunnel-like symptoms have double crush syndrome, this surgery is ineffective!
How Chiropractic Care Can Help With Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
The tingling sensation associated with carpal tunnel syndrome is not reduced only by providing treatment focused on the wrist. To truly reduce the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome, a thorough examination must be completed to understand whether treatment needs to be focused on the spine, neck, shoulder, forearm, or wrist. E3 Chiropractic + Wellness has the only Chiropractors in Saskatoon trained in the study of Neurodynamics.
Neurodynamics is an extremely useful tool for assessing and treating carpal tunnel syndrome. Neurodynamics is the study of nerve movement throughout the body and has been heavily researched since the 1990s. Nerves are very sensitive to compression and tension forces(they don’t like to be compressed or stretched). A thorough neurodynamics assessment aids in determining which nerves are irritated, how and WHERE those nerves are being irritated.
Treatment is targeted to the irritated nerves, throughout their entire length. Treatment will ensure that these nerves can slide, and glide throughout your ENTIRE arm without experiencing compression or unnecessary stretch.
Now What?
Dr. Gryba has extensive training in neurodynamics! He can perform thorough neurodynamics assessments to determine where to focus treatment for your carpal tunnel syndrome, and provide you with the proper care and exercises to help you avoid unnecessary surgery!
E3 Chiropractic + Wellness is ready to help anyone in Saskatoon get back to living the life they love! Click Here to schedule an appointment today!
