The majority of medical doctors (not all) treat most conditions with medicines, injections or surgery. If you have a back pain, they give muscle relaxants. That’s what they were taught.
When you have numbness in your fingers, the majority of doctors will only think of the carpal tunnel area, which is in the wrist.
The common treatment is anti-inflammatory drugs. However knowledgeable doctors now know not only are they ineffective but that they actually block the body’s natural healing process.
Night splints are also prescribed. While most people find splints helpful to relieve the numbness or pain at night – and many may find them to be very effective – they do not actively help one to get better.
Another solution often prescribed is cortisone injections. Cortisone is very powerful but it is often only a temporary solution. Moreover it can break down muscle, tendons, and even bone.
Surgery should always be seen a last resort, such as if there is danger of permanent loss of function. If this is not the case then it is not emergency surgery.
Carpal tunnel surgery has a high failure rate though some clinics do have a higher success rate than others.
In about one in three cases there are mixed results. The pain may be gone but the hand is left weaker or cannot function as fully as once it could.
About one third of the time the hand is worse off than before, either because of an infection, or human error, or because it never was carpal tunnel syndrome in the first place. And the problem often recurs. Why? Scar tissue usually forms after surgery. This causes pressure in the carpal tunnel and many people have had multiple surgeries to clean that out. And if one has had surgery and continues to do what one has been doing and in the same way then the problem will recur. Moreover if surgery wasn’t undertaken then the problem will simply worsen.
Correct diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome is essential: it is so easily misdiagnosed. The problem may well due to something else.
Just what actually is the carpal tunnel?
It is like a ditch in the wrist that is made up of wrist bones and a hard strap called the carpal tunnel ligament. Within that tunnel are nine tendons and the median nerve. If the space in there is restricted then the median nerve can get pinched. And if the median nerve is pinched numbness or other sensations can be experienced in the thumb, in first two fingers and in half about of the ring fingers.
Whenever there is numbness or tingling, there is pinching anywhere along the nerve pathway. It could be coming from the base of the neck, the muscles in the front of the neck that can pinch on the nerves, a muscle in the chest, or from tight muscles in the forearms. Often nerve pinching is in more than one place.
Genuine carpal tunnel syndrome as a result of using one’s hands is associated with tight forearm muscles. But if tight muscles are pinching on the nerves then this is not a genuine case of the syndrome nor is it a symptom.
The role that tight muscles play in numerous disorders is not as widely understood as one might expect. Consider this: what if your little two fingers get numb, or if you have thumb pain, or have numbness in just one finger?
Yes, these are problems but they are not carpal tunnel syndrome – they are not even symptoms of it.
Carpal tunnel syndrome can be prevented, reversed or even eliminated with proper knowledge followed by appropriate and timely action. The solution is firmly in our hands.
Self-help techniques are readily available. And a by-product of taking action may very well be getting rid of tension headaches, neck pain and the pain between your shoulder blades.
There is so much we can do to help ourselves; proven exercise techniques are so simple and well within the capabilities of most people. They can be done at a time and at a place to suit the individual. All that is necessary is to learn the correct techniques for the treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome – and then put those techniques into action.
Article by Davidd Butler at: http://www.carpaltunneltreatment4u.com where you find information and guidance on reversing and eliminating your carpal tunnel syndrome quickly, easily, and without using any special or sophisticated equipment. For a simple self-help exercise program giving relief for carpal tunnel visit http://www.carpaltunneltreatment4u.com/
Author: Davidd Butler
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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