Carpal Tunnel Pain Relief Now

What Muscles Cause Pain In Your Fingers And Wrists?

Sometimes Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is the real cause of pain in wrists, hands and fingers.

More often, muscles are to blame.  "Trigger points" are crabby places in your muscles that "refer" or "fire" pain elsewhere.  That means that when you have pain, lots of times it is referred pain.  A trigger point some distance away is causing your pain.

This is the case with pain in your fingers and wrists.

If you turn your arm palm-side up, you will be able to warm the muscles on the palm side of your lower arm.  You can warm them by applying a heating pad or pack, or you can massage them.  You can do this yourself, or ask a friend or loved one, or go to a professional massage therapist.

Start out rubbing gently, and as your muscles relax and begin to loosen up, massage more and more deeply.

As you press deeper, you will find tender places.  You may be surprised at how tender and how many places there are.  If you feel sensations or relief in your fingers or hand and wrist as you press, then you have found a trigger point.

Keep massaging on and around the tender areas.  Press and hold trigger points for 12 seconds.  You can go back to each one multiple times.  Apply enough pressure so there is definite discomfort but don't "kill" yourself.

Take as many breaks as you need.  You don't need to release everything all at once or even all in one day.

And, take time to "smell the roses."

"Because You Deserve To Feel Better!"

Slow Circulation or Numbness in Your Fingers?

If your fingers have a lot of numbness, here's something you can do to stimulate your circulation and nerves. Tap.

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.

Tap your finger pads on the surface of a table or desk.  At least 4 of your fingers should hit, and part of your thumb will also hit.  Pretend you don't have a wrist.  Let your hand flap up and down, but just a little.

The movement with your hand is small and your wrist shouldn't have much movement--it should be pretty straight.  Remember, you're pretending you don't have a wrist.

Tap with the pads of your fingers, not your tips.  The pads are on the palm side of your fingers.

Hold your arm in a comfortable position.  Your elbow should be at approximately a 90 degree, or right, angle.  Your elbow should be straight down from your shoulder.  Keep tapping until you feel sensation in your finger tips.  You can tap until it is quite uncomfortable.  If your arms tire, take a break.

Do this up to 5 minutes at a time.  Do it once or twice a day.  Start with less time and build up, so you can see how you will respond.

I am not aware of any contraindications or reasons why you should not tap.  The tapping is not hard enough to cause bruising, just sensation.

But, please remember, it is your body.  You are in control of it.  If this movement, or anything I suggest, or anyone else suggests, doesn't feel "right" or comfortable for you, in any way, then don't do it.

Otherwise, keep tapping, tapping, tapping. 

Pain In Your Thumb - Is It Arthritis or Carpal Tunnel Syndrome?

Do you have pain in the base of your thumb?  Because of the type of work I did for so many years, I was very familiar with pain at the base of the thumb--it was mine.

I used my thumbs to apply pressure to muscles that needed release (even though there are special little thumb-saver tools for that.)  And, so my thumbs took a beating of sorts.  And every now and then, they would complain.

So, I've had lots of "first hand" experience with pain at the base of the thumb.  But, you know what?  That's okay.  That's one of the things that helped me become knowledgeable about self-help for that particular pain.

Even if arthritis (changes in your bones) showed up on an x-ray of your thumb, there's still a really good chance that your pain comes from your muscles.  And, if you take the pressure off the joint from tight muscles, that will lessen your pain.

"Regular" arthritis is caused by muscles pulling on bones.  Your bones build a little extra bony pad where tight muscles pull on them.

We would all show arthritis somewhere on an x-ray, but we don't all have pain.  "Arthritis" is sometimes the diagnosis doctors tell us when they don't know why we hurt.  Most doctors don't know much about the root cause of most physical pain--muscles.  That's not taught in most medical schools.

In the web of your thumb, there are muscles.  Press your fingers from your opposite hand into those muscles in a pinching grip.  (So you are pinching the web from both sides.)

You're going to find tender places.  Hold them for 12 seconds.  Take a break if your treating fingers get tired; you don't have to do it all at once.  But, do it as frequently as you can.  Work in the middle of the web.  Work you way all around the base of your thumb and up your index finger.

You will may also find that the thumb-side of your lower arm, near your wrist, is tight and tender.  This is another area to treat.  You can "wring" it, massage it, heat it, ice it--press into that tissue, too, or get someone else to do it.

Pain in your thumb can also be referred by trigger points including muscles in your lower arm, behind your collar bone, and in your neck.

Massaging and holding (for a count of 12) tight areas in the web of your thumb and massaging and loosening the muscles in your lower arm are good places to start to release the pain in the base of your thumb.

It took a while for your muscles to get a little too tight, and it will take quite a bit of thoughtful treatment for your muscles to settle down again.

But, you can do it!  You have smart muscles.  They just need a little help from you.

Carpal Tunnel? Get Spice In Your Life With Natural Anti-inflammatories

Wanna spice up your life and possibly get rid of carpal tunnel symptoms at the same time?

Ginger and pineapple both have anti-inflammatory properties.  They both help reduce inflammation (swelling) in your tissues.

"Bev" asked me whether there is enough ginger in ginger ale to be helpful.  I truly believe, in my heart, that ginger ale and ginger cookies are tremendously therapeutic on many levels...but the reality is that ginger ale has either artificial sweeteners (which I don't believe are healthy) or HFCS (which is also not good for us.)  And ginger cookies, well, "calories" is their middle name.

Ginger tea is an option.  You can get tea bags with only ginger or with a blend of spices.  You can also make your own ginger tea.  Get a chunk of fresh ginger from the produce department at the supermarket.  Cut a slice and boil it for several minutes, then let it steep a bit.  Dilute it to your taste, and save the leftover tea and fresh ginger in your fridge.

Ginger comes in capsules at the health food store.  That's a convenient way to take it and you could start with one capsule a day and go from there.  Read the bottle for directions.

Pineapple enzyme is called bromelain.  You can use it fresh by eating it and you can rub it on and around your area of inflammed muscles.  If you have certain medical conditions, like asthma or angina, it has helped with those symptoms, as well as others. 

Some people may be allergic, since it is a plant.  It is not recommended for people with active gastric or duodenal ulcers.  If you take anticoagulant drugs, check with your doctor before taking bromelain.

Many doctors recommend up to 3,000 MCU (a measurement) 3 times a day for several days, and then decreasing the dose to 2,000 MCU 3 times a day.  You will find capsules at the health food store.

Most spices have health benefits.  If you can fit them into your diet, you will benefit from their healing properties.

So, spice up your life.

"Because You Deserve To Feel Better!"

Pain In Your Hand & Upper Arm - Is It Carpal Tunnel Syndrome?

Pain from trigger points runs in typical patterns.

If you have pain in your upper arm and hand that meets the following pattern, there is a fairly easy fix.

Sometimes the muscles that are causing symptoms are deep inside the body, hidden under bones or other muscles.  But, the cause of this pain pattern is on the outside of your shoulder blade, so that makes "treating" it easy.

When I give directions for locating pain on your arm or body, like "outside" or "front," that means you are standing or seated with your thumbs rotated outward or away from your body.  Your thumbs are pointed away from you, sideways.  Your palms are facing forward.  Then "outside" or "front" always means the same thing, because we are all in the same position.

Here's the pain pattern:

The most painful area is usually on the outside (side) of your upper arm and on the front side of your upper arm, through your bicep muscle.  (That's the muscle that pops up when a man flexes his arm.)  A lesser amount of pain runs down your arm as far as the fingers (but just the part of your fingers close to your palm.)  That pain is usually felt on both the back side and the palm side of the hand and arm. 

You might also have quite a bit of pain on the spine side of your shoulder blade.  You might also have head or neck pain at the base of your skull on the same side as the painful arm.  Pain in both of these areas is caused by trigger points in the muscle on your shoulder blade and it will go away when the trigger point is resolved (gone.)

I say "usually" or "generally" because every body is different, and we all feel things somewhat differently or in slightly different places.  We are not all built exactly the same, just similarly.

What's a trigger point?

A trigger point is a hyper-irritable (really crabby) place

Are You "Ergonomically Correct?"

If you were "ergonomically correct," would you have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome?  That's a good question, and the answer is "probably no."

We sure can get out of balance.

Young moms hold babies on one hip for long periods of time.  Kids play video games with rounded backs.  Grownups work on assembly lines or do other repetitive tasks in out-of-balance postures.

What can be done to get us back into muscular balance? 

What can we do to get out of pain?

Carpal Tunnel symptoms can begin with muscles that are strained and out of balance.  Sometimes it's not that we are doing repetitive work so much, it's that we develop poor and weak posture.  That is what causes most carpal tunnel symptoms--repetitive work done incorrectly.

If you're a desk worker, you can discover how to position yourself in ways that will help avoid pain at Pain Relief Ergonomics.   Sometimes we just get into habits without even realizing what we are doing.  We often figure it out when part of our body starts to complain...loudly!  Having someone explain what to do to prevent pain syndromes--to point out changes and show us how to do them--is a good thing.

If your back aches, that's a good clue that it is weak and your posture needs some improvement.  You can find out how to get a strong back, with very little effort, at Simple Strengthening.  Maybe I sound like your mom, telling you to "stand up straight" all the time, but there's a reason.

When your posture is good--as it was when you were a toddler--your muscles will be much happier.  You will have fewer aches and pains, your headaches will be fewer, and your carpal tunnel symptoms will be less because nerve and muscle entrapment won't be an issue.  And, your muscles won't "trigger" pain in your hands, wrists and arms.

And, that's a good thing.  Why?

"Because You Deserve to Feel Better!"