Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is very often caused by trigger points in your muscles.
What ARE trigger points? Trigger points are hyperirritable (crabby) areas of muscle. Trigger points can also be found in other soft tissues. Soft tissues are everything except bone.
What do trigger points do? They cause pain and symptoms in other parts of the body, sometimes at a far distance from the trigger point. This is called "referred" pain.
What CAUSES trigger points? There are some nutritional related causes, but the most common cause is muscle overload.
Who gets trigger points? We ALL have the potential to have them, because we all have soft tissues.
When a nagging pain or symptom won't go away with treatment, that most likely means that a trigger point is causing the pain and needs to be released.
When I was making my notes for a recent Carpal Tunnel Radio show, I noticed a relationship between Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and trigger points: All of the things that cause
trigger points also cause Carpal Tunnel Syndrome!
Here's a list of some more causes of trigger points:
- abnormal bone structure that you may have been born with (a leg or arm length difference.)
- posture that causes muscle stress (this is a very common cause)
- doing repetitive motions, especially doing them incorrectly
- vitamin & mineral deficiencies or incorrect levels of needed nutrients
- thyroid or certain blood disorders
- stress; allergies and chronic infections.
How are trigger points treated? A manual or massage therapist can release trigger points by locating them, pressing into them AND releasing the surrounding muscles that caused them in the first place.
There is a very good book on self-treating trigger points here at Carpal Tunnel Pain Relief. You can release many of your own trigger points when you understand where they are.
And, there are charts that show trigger points and the areas they distribute pain to. A good manual therapist or massage therapist will know by your symptoms where your trigger points are and will be able to release them. A good therapist will also help you get rid of the cause of the trigger points.
No more trigger points equals no more carpal tunnel pain!
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