What Your Carpal Tunnel Treatment Could Be Missing

Carpal tunnel syndrome is no picnic to experience. Numbness and tingling that travels down to the fingers is very uncomfortable.

Electric sensations felt in the forearm, hand and/or fingers when you want to grasp a pen, brush for your hair, bar of soap, or bat to play baseball can even leave someone disabled in a lot of ways.

Carpal Tunnel Treatment Starts with Identification of the Problem

Carpal tunnel treatment is often centered around what’s happening to the median nerve. The median nerve innervates the fingers and hand. When it is compressed and inflamed, that’s when all the symptoms start.

Anatomically, there’s a ‘tunnel’ of structures such as bones, nerves, arteries and veins in the wrist called the carpal tunnel where the median nerve passes through to bring nerve impulses to the hand and fingers. When any of the structures in the carpal tunnel are inflamed – not just the nerve – you’ll get similar symptoms because of the compression that results on the rest of the tissues.

Carpal Tunnel Treatment Has to Somehow Decrease the Compression

The treatment involves relieving the compression and the nerve irritation. This may be done with surgery although all carpal tunnel surgeries are not effective at relieving the condition. In one study at the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery in a London hospital, researchers found that 43% of 75 patients never needed the surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome after splinting their wrists for three months. They were better without it. This tells us a lot about what could be effective and what may or may not be needed.

In another study, this one performed at the University of Southampton in England, researchers followed the carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms of 656 hands for about 19 months. Symptoms were only resolved in 241 hands, which is a low 37%. This gives us more truth about a belief that surgery is always the answer.

In a Polish study, 386 patients with carpal tunnel syndrome who received carpal tunnel surgery had resolution of symptoms at a six-month follow-up but those who were older than 60 didn’t improve their grip strength as much. More evidence, this time showing improvement but not a complete healing…

Why Not Use Alternative Carpal Tunnel Treatment Methods?

What these studies are telling us is that surgery as a sole carpal tunnel treatment may not ever be enough. By combining medical treatment with natural treatment – or even starting natural treatment first and then following up with medical treatment later, you may get the best results.

Here’s the theory behind it. Medical treatment is not looking at the actual composition of the connective tissue. Connective tissue – which is muscles, ligaments, tendons, bones and joints – needs to have nutrients to stay healthy. They need vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin A, vitamin E, zinc, silica, pantothenic acid, vitamin B6, manganese, copper, iodine, calcium and magnesium. That’s a lot!

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