Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Can Be Helped With Yoga

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and Yoga?  I interviewed a Registered Nurse (RN) who is also a Registered Yoga Alliance Teacher.  She said, Yes!  Yoga can help get rid of the symptoms of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

According to a study by the National Institutes of Health, yoga helps (but they didn't know why.)  Well, the reason is because your whole body is attached to your carpal tunnel.  If you get your body more in "balance" lots of complaints and symptoms will go away.

My guest also quoted a medical research study which compared patients with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome who studied yoga to patients who wore a wrist brace.  Guess which had the most benefit?  :-)  The yoga group!

You see, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is a whole body issue and yoga is a whole body "treatment." That's why yoga helps.

Yoga has many benefits for your whole body and relieving your carpal tunnel symptoms is just one of them.  You can learn to do yoga in classes in your community or in the privacy of your home.  Online classes are available at http://YogaConfidence.com.

Comments

[Mary Lou]

Hmm.. interesting. Do you think chiropractice can help wit wrist pain and CTS because, because as you said, CTS is a whole body issue. Chiro tries to make the whole body in alignment with a focus on the spine. I'm not a chiropractor so I don't really know what I'm talking about. =)

[Kathryn Merrow - The Pain Relief Coach]

Hi Mary Lou, Here are my thoughts.

1. If a wrist or bones in the hand are dislocated (not broken) and a chiropractor could "adjust" them back into place, it seems that would help. Some do adjustments of other parts beside the spine and some do not.

2. When the spine is out of alignment or will not stay in alignment, the reason is generally because muscles are pulling the spine out of alignment. Muscles move bones.

3. By adjusting the spine, the philosophy, to my knowledge, is to keep the spine functioning correctly without pressure on nerves so they can do their job and theoretically that should allow all of the body to function well.

4. It's a very good question but I suspect it wouldn't help because it wouldn't address the soft tissue issues of strain or trigger points. I am not aware that chiropractic aids posture, either, which is a frequent factor in CTS.

5. I have to admit that I'm highly biased about the value of manual bodywork therapies like massage because that's my background. The opinion of a chiropractor would possibly be much different from mine.

I appreciate you asking. This is a thoughtful question.

Kathryn

[Connie Ragen Green]

I have just started doing yoga again after a two year absence. It feels wonderful! I am not surprised to hear that it is good for relieving pain from carpal tunnel. Thank you for sharing this information.

[Al Brown]

CTS is often an issue of referred pain so it makes sense to address the health of all of your muscles holistically and yoga is great for that.

Mobilization beats immobilization any day.

[Kathryn Merrow - The Pain Relief Coach]

Al, you said that very well.

Mobilization definitely beats immobilization. (Moving beats not moving.) We were born to move and we get into trouble when we stop using all of our muscles. Yoga is great for getting us to use our whole body again.

Thanks for your comment.

Kathryn

[Kathryn Merrow - The Pain Relief Coach]

Connie, I'm happy you have resumed your yoga practice. Yoga does "wake up" your muscles and nerves. It's a good thing!

Carpal tunnel symptoms can be relieved when people use ALL of their muscles and that's exactly what yoga helps us do.

Thank you for your comment.

Kathryn