Treating Your Carpal Tunnel Syndrome With Chiropractic Care

Your wrist aches or you’re feeling numbness and tingling in your hand — these are the hallmarks of a nerve entrapment condition called carpal tunnel syndrome, which affects 3-6% of adults in the United States.

Early intervention for carpal tunnel syndrome is important, as the condition is often progressive, and a great place to start is through chiropractic care. At Valiant Life Medical, Dr. James Matthew Jernigan and our team routinely help patients who are struggling with carpal tunnel syndrome. One of our first lines of defense is chiropractic care, which goes straight to the source of the problem.

A trapped nerve

To understand carpal tunnel syndrome, it’s important to review the anatomy of the area in question. Your carpal tunnel is a small space on the underside of your wrist that provides passage for nine flexor tendons and your median nerve, which travels from your neck, down your arm, and into your hand.

Your carpal tunnel is not only a small space, but an inflexible one, so when there’s any swelling or narrowing, your median nerve can become compressed. This compression is what leads to the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome, including:

• Pain, which is often described as throbbing, burning, or shock-like sensations
• Numbness and tingling in all of your fingers except your pinky
• Weakness in your hand

The narrowing often stems from swelling in the tissues that surround your flexor tendons, which impinges the median nerve and reduces blood flow to the nerve.

How chiropractic care can help

As we mentioned, your median nerve begins in your neck, which is one of the first areas we address when you have carpal tunnel syndrome. By addressing any misalignments in your neck, we can improve the function of the overall nerve.

In addition to making adjustments in your neck, we also work on better aligning the joints that are directly involved in carpal tunnel syndrome, namely your elbow and wrist. While many people think of chiropractic care as only involving spinal adjustments, this approach also includes exercises that improve the health of your major joints.

Through targeted nerve gliding exercises, we can free up your median nerve and eliminate your symptoms.

As well, through chiropractic care, we work on ways you can relieve the pressure on your carpal tunnel, such as wrist position when you’re working on your computer, as well as posture suggestions for your neck. We might also suggest a brace that can help keep your wrist better aligned while we work on opening up the space in your carpal tunnel.

The goal of treating your carpal tunnel syndrome through chiropractic care is to address the underlying cause of the problem, rather than masking it with medications or undergoing painful surgery. This approach not only relieves your immediate discomfort, but sets you up for better carpal tunnel health down the road.

If you’d like to explore how chiropractic care can help with your carpal tunnel syndrome, please contact our office in Fort Worth, Texas, to set up an appointment with our chiropractic specialists.