WHY ARE MY HANDS NUMB? (carpal tunnel syndrome)

My hand is so numb that I cannot write,  

And I'm not delighted or pleased 

That my nerves are stuck in that dark and tight 

Carpal tunnel inside my wrist. 

Case histories  

A young IT specialist had to quit graduate school because he his hands started hurting after just 10 to 15 minutes working on the computer keyboard. This persistent pain kept growing, like toothache, and ceased only 20 to 30 minutes after he stopped typing.  

A middle-aged cleaning lady kept waking up at night, as her hands felt frighteningly numb. This used to happen once or twice a week but then began to occur several times a night. She felt miserable and depressed.  

Finally, a young mother of a lovely 6-month old baby girl could not use her right hand because it hurt every time she tried to lift anything, even something light. Piercing pain made her hand instinctively lose grip. The young woman was sick and tired of having to pick up shards of broken cups and plates.   

What do these three stories have in common? It is the inflammation of the tendons and nerves in the hands.  

Carpal tunnel syndrome occurs when the inflamed ligaments compress the nerves passing to the hand through a narrow "gap" between wrist bones.  

Tunnel / Tendons / The median nerve 

Health professionals call it the carpal tunnel syndrome. In fact, the flexor tendons and the accompanying nerves pass from the forearm to the hand through a narrow gap between wrist bones, and a ligament above closes this gap, turning it into a tunnel. Injury and inflammation of the tendons pinch the nerves passing to the fingers through the tunnel, causing pain or numbness.  

 

Traditional treatment 

Doctors determine the precise location of the pinched nerves (in the wrist, elbow or maybe even the neck) using electromyography (EMG). This test checks the status of the nerves and muscles and can also help assess the severity of the injury. If EMG confirms nerve compression in the wrist, the usual treatment is a steroid injection to alleviate inflammation, reduce swelling and release the trapped nerve. If this does not work, an orthopedic surgeon can open the tunnel by dissecting its ligament “roof”. This minor surgery seems like a radical solution: if there is no channel anymore, there is no place for the nerves to get pinched. With some patients, however, the numbness fails to disappear and the pain grows even stronger.  

Hands and chest 

Carpal tunnel syndrome mostly afflicts those people whose hands and fingers do a lot of repetitive bending and unbending.  

These exceptions mean that the numbness and the pain are not necessarily due to the carpal tunnel syndrome, as is the case with many of my patients. Curiously, the medical literature has never described any connection between hand pain and problems in the upper chest. Doctors usually focus on the wrists and the neck section of the spine. Physicians prescribe anti-inflammatory drugs and special bandages or bracelets to restrict hand movement; chiropractors perform manipulations on the neck section of the spine to relieve the nerves that extend to the hands. When these cures are unsuccessful, surgery is suggested as the last resort. Unfortunately, we already know that it may be just as useless.

What is to be done then?  

It turns out there is an area between the shoulder blades that can be affected by lifting heavy loads, long stints at the computer, carrying a baby either inside our body or in our arms. This area also often gets hurt in car accidents. Injured or spasmed vertebrae, ribs and muscles may cause a reflex spasm and impair the nutrition of the nerves responsible for the blood supply to the hands. This is why the three patients I described above ended up in the same situation.  

Spasms in muscles and blood vessels  

To remedy problems with the blood supply to your hands, you will have to learn to bend backward so that your shoulder blades get as close to each other as possible and to maintain this position until you feel a slight cramp or pain. 

How do we deal with such cases? First of all, you need to free up the overstrained muscles in the area I just described. Learn to bend backwards so that your shoulder blades get as close to each other as possible and maintain this position until you feel a slight cramp or pain. You can do it sitting on a chair and leaning against its back. You can also lie down on the floor, bending your back over a big ball or a thick pillow. If the muscles between your shoulder blades start working again, the spasm in the hands will markedly decrease, and the numbness will go away. 

If these exercises do not help, it is likely that your periarticular soft tissues (ligaments and muscles) suffer a bad inflammation. Then you need to take medication, such as Ibuprofen or Naproxen, and apply stimulating creams or medicated patches to the area. Ice packs work great if used for a reasonably short time: 2-3 minutes on one side, 2-3 minutes on the other, for a total of 10 to 15 minutes.  

If you still get no relief, see a specialist. This condition can be treated with a combination of manual therapy, acupuncture, medication, and painkiller injections. The doctor would examine you and identify precisely the spasmed and inflamed muscles. Physiotherapists would perform targeted neuromuscular massage to relax your muscles and restore circulation. The reflexologist would use his experience in acupuncture to reduce inflammation and soothe the irritated nerve endings. Acupuncture, when administered by a genuine specialist, can truly work wonders. Then the manual therapist would use his gentle techniques to relieve the blocked joints, liberating the nerves and the blood vessels and restoring normal blood supply around the nerve roots. 

To consolidate the result, a specialist in physical therapy would help stretch your overly tight muscles and select a proper exercise regimen.  The treatment usually lasts 3-4 weeks with 1-2 visits to the doctor a week. In most cases, this is sufficient for a sustained improvement. 

You can do away with the numbness and pain in your hands for good – just use the right mixture of your own efforts and professional help.