Pain In The Palm Of Your Hand - Is It Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

"I have pain in the palm of my hand.  Is it Carpal Tunnel Syndrome?" 

Here's the answer:

There is a muscle called the palmaris longus.  Maybe you have one (on either side) or maybe you don't.  Some people just don't.  The belly (muscular part) of this muscle is on the palm side of the upper part of your lower arm, toward the baby finger side.  The tendon part of the muscle (the tough attachment tissue) extends into your palm almost to your fingers.

If this is the muscle causing the discomfort in your palm you might also have difficulty handling tools.  You may have tender places (nodules) in your palm that making holding tools and working too uncomfortable.

What causes it?  Using garden tools, household tools, using a cane or playing tennis can all activate this pain in the palm of your hand.

If you have a painful

prickle on the skin of your palm (not an ache) this muscle could be the blame. 

Treatment:  The treatment is to press into the belly of the muscle.  You might be able to find a tender place on the palm side of your lower arm, just a couple of inches below the crook of your elbow, on the baby finger side. 

Turn your thumb away from you, palm forward, to find the belly of the muscle and press into it.

According to Doctors Travell & Simons (authors of Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction:  The Trigger Point Manuals) if the palmaris longus passes deep to (under) the carpal ligament, trigger points (go to the Category for Trigger Points on the right hand side here) in the muscle can cause a carpal tunnel syndrome. 

In fact, you may have a carpal tunnel syndrome diagnosis from your doctor (a "syndrome" is a bunch of symptoms--pain, numbness, tingling.)  In this case, treating the muscle (as described above) can relieve your carpal tunnel symptoms.

You see, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome can be caused by several different things.

Once it is gone, avoiding the activities that caused the pain and stretching the palm side of your arm and hand can help prevent symptoms from coming back.  Stretching in warm water can be helpful.

So, yes, pain in the palm of your hand might be called "Carpal Tunnel Syndrome."  But the cause of this CTS is not compression of the median nerve.  Instead it is a trigger point up near your elbow that can be released with pressure.

And that's how you can get rid of the pain in the palm of your hand naturally.

Comments

[melissa]

I get frequent pain in my hand, I keep going back and fourth on whether I think its carpal tnnel or not. I don't have the clasic numbness and weakness, but the location of my pain, my aggrevating factors, and reieving factors fit. Anyway I do not know what else it may be. It is aggravated when I do a lot of writing or when I spend a lot of time on my laptop using the touchpad mouse. It will be fine for weeks or months and then I have a "flare up" where it hurts all the time. When it is bothering me it is worst either in the morning or after extended use like carpal tunnel. Also, my mother has been diagnosed with mild carpal tunnel and sleeps with wrist braces. This has been going on, off and on for years, but only recently has gotten worse. I have no numbness or tingling. One time I woke up with severe thenar pain and weakness for the day, but other than that one day no weakness, and the pain is more in the center of my palm not the thenar area. It feels like a muscle ache usually. I do have. Occasional elbow pain which may or may not be related. I tend to think it is more of early osteoarthritis and stiffness and thus not directly related, but I recognize the nerves all travel there and several muscles originate in the area so it is likely at the very least contributing. Sorry for the long rambling explanation, I am a beginin med student so I know quite a bit about what I am talking about, but unfortunately not enough to make sense of what exactly is going on. So I will really appreciate any thoughts on what this may be, and what I can do to help. Less writing and computer use is out of the question because of school, but anything else I'm open to. Thanks

[Kathryn Merrow - The Pain Relief Coach]

Dear Melissa,

I think you will love this one! Pain in the palm of your hand can be referred by the palmaris longus. According to Travell & Simons Myofascial Pain and Dysfunction, "Two cases of what appeared to be carpal tunnel syndrome were found to have a variation of the palmaris longus in which the tendon passed beneath, rather than above, the volar carpal ligament. Three other cases proved to have anomalous distal bellies of the palmaris longus which compressed the median nerve against the underlying tendons."

The muscles that are causing your hand symptoms can come from your hand, arm, chest, upper back or neck. The cause of hand pain is rarely where the pain is. And muscles are responsible for most of our pain.

By taking care of your muscles with stretching and massage and by strengthening your back you will be able to avoid a lot of pain.

The Trigger Point book suggests that surgery is an answer to release the palmaris longus muscle but it is a medical book (medical people do things like that.)

However, muscles can be released or relaxed manually (by hand) with massage therapy. This is important for you, as a doctor, to know. You will be able to help many more people through your own experience.

Also, according to Travell & Simons, "Myofascial Trigger Points in the palmaris longus muscle may develop as satellites of key TrPs in the distal medial head of the triceps brachii muscle..."

And laptops are not known as the most ergonomic pieces of equipment. Perhaps you could get an additional keyboard to place in a more body-neutral position (I use mine on my lap.)

Hope this helps.

Kathryn

[Palm Pain]

I do have some pain in the wrist and top of the hands but my doctor told me it is due to my TMJ. It is weird because it involves the nerves in the jaw. However, he also suggested that I check out with a doctor for carpal tunnel, saying a surgery may be warranted.

[luke andersen]

someone please comment 2 help me..i am 16 years old..and i have a agonizing pain in the bottom of my palm..its not carpel tunnel..it happened yesterday when i fell twice in the same spot on really hard ground..then about a 1 later..i accidentally whacked the same spot again in a metal pole..the second that happened...i just was screaming in agony...my hand is not broken....im wondering if i pulled a muscle or tore it.or anything like that....please answer

[Kathryn]

Your doctor is thinking that carpal tunnel pain and TMJ pain are both caused by nerves. He figures that is the tie-in between the two syndromes.

I'm not thinking so.

Please read the self-help articles here in the Self-Help Category and Causes of Carpal Tunnel Category. The categories are on the right hand side.

It's premature to suggest surgery although sometimes that is the answer.

TMJ pain or dysfunction can have many causes. Most of them involve muscles one way or another.

That's good news because muscles can be treated.

Thanks for writing.
Kathryn
The Pain Relief Coach

[Kathryn]

Hi Luke,

If it's not broken, it sounds like your hand is really bruised.

When I have had serious muscle injuries like this, sodium naproxin (Aleve) helped tremendously and ice/cold therapy will help relieve the pain, too.

I hope this helps and that you will feel better really quickly.

Kathryn
The Pain Relief Coach

[Charlie]

I developed some pain in my palm, between my thumb and index finger. It doesn't hurt with normal activities but it hurts if I go to stand up from sitting position and use my hand as support. No numbness or wrist involvement nor are the other fingers and other 3 fingers involved.

[Kathryn]

Hello Charlie,

Thank you for writing. It sounds like you are pressing on that area when you use it as a support? That tissue could just be aggravated.

Instead of wrapping your thumb around the arm of the furniture try the following and see if they help. It's possible that resting it and using some ice massage and doing some massage will take care of it if you don't continue pressing on that area.

1. Hold your thumb next to your fingers when you stand.

2. Are you not able to stand without using your hand for support to push yourself up? If that is the case, strengthening your legs would be helpful. Then you could use your legs to stand up.

3. Is the seat too low for you to stand without assistance from your hands? If so, sit on a higher seat or build up your seat with pillows. I do that on a low couch.

4. Put something soft and thick on the arms of the chairs if you must use them to help stand up.
That will create less pressure on your hand.

I hope these ideas help you get rid of the pain in your palm.

Kathryn
The Pain Relief Coach

[Maria Nunez]

Reading this made me think I could also have it. But the thing is, I'm not sure. As I type this comment right now its hurting my left hand/palm. The pain doesn't go to my wrist nor to my actual palm. Its more like right under my little finger (the pinky). So basically in between my wrist and pinky. Any suggestions to releif the pain.?

[Kathryn]

Hi Maria,

Here is a possibility: Press into the muscles close to the outer edge of your palm, below your baby finger. You will either feel softness or hardness. Press into the softer areas with the thumb of your opposite hand. Look for tender areas. When you find something tender, just hold it for several seconds. You can even go back to it a few times if you feel like it still needs it.

The muscles in the palm of your hand may be the cause of the pain near your pinky.

If that's not it, let's try again. :)

Kathryn
The Pain Relief Coach