What Is Carpal Tunnel Syndrome?
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) Pain is a condition that can cause pain in your hand, wrist and arm. It’s is a surprisingly common condition, and is increasing nowadays because of the popularity of gaming, and also people who are addicted to their mobile phones.
It’s all about the “Median Nerve”. This can become squeezed as it runs through your wrist and into your hand. This is what causes the majority of the pain, which can get worse over time.
If the condition isn’t properly diagnosed and treated, it can even cause more permanent nerve damage. In the most serious examples, patients have had to resort to surgery. This is why it’s important to get a diagnosis, and get a handle on treating it as soon as possible!
Symptoms Of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
- Pain from the thumb, and across some other fingers
- The pain is sometimes acute, but often it’s like a prolonged ache
- Check if you have lost some sensitivity to touch in your hand
- Weaker Thumb Strength
- Swelling and Redness
- Tingling in the Thumb, Index and Middle Fingers and even into the Ring Finger (sign of nerve issues!)
With CTS, you will most likely feel pain after using the affected hand. Repetitive actions will make it feel worse, so this particularly affects people who work in physical jobs like Electricians, Plumbers or Nurses (or even Chiropractors!!!)
Desk/Office Workers who use a keyboard/mouse all day and Gamers are particularly affected.
For some reason, people often report worse pain at night while trying to sleep. In the most severe cases of CTS, the pain can lead from your hand all the way up into your forearm and elbow.
Hand & Wrist Pain Causes
- Family history, genetic link.
- Certain health conditions, e.g. Diabetes, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Gout, Hypothyroidism, Obesity .
- Pregnancy, Fluid retention (oedema)
- Certain injuries, like hand trauma from a fall causing ligament damage or fracture affecting the median nerve into the hand.
- Repetitive activities eg. Using a computer mouse, playing a musical instrument, assembly packaging.
It’s important to remember that Carpal Tunnel Syndrome can be extremely difficult to treat if you are using your hands and thumb a lot each day. If you have hobbies like gaming that are causing this pain, you should ease off that hobby, and give it a rest for a while.
It’s a lot more difficult if your job involves using your hands and thum a lot – you can’t just give up working! This is why it’s important to adopt a sensible approach to treatment, and we advocate a full program of Cooling, Massage, Movement, Stretching, Strengthening and finally Cooling the affected area. Get started as soon as possible!
