Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Each year, hundreds of thousands of people are diagnosed with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.   Carpal tunnel syndrome is a nightmare for everyone and even limits your ability to live day by day.   However, this condition is often a misdiagnosis as to the patient’s real problems with their bodies.   Too often people go through life changing events and/or surgeries to alleviate the pain in their bodies when massage therapy and other treatments can get at the root of the problem.   Real carpal tunnel syndrome causes severely debilitating effects and has very specific causes.
      To understand what carpal tunnel is and how it works, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome has to be defined.   At the base of the palm, where the wrist and hand meet, is tight canal or “tunnel” where nerves and tendons pass to go into the hand.   This canal is known as the carpal tunnel, and a syndrome is “A group of symptoms that together are characteristic of a specific disorder, disease, or the like.” (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/syndromes)   Numerous nerves pass through the carpal tunnel but the culprit is a nerve known as the “Median Nerve” (http://www.medicinenet.com/carpal_tunnel_syndrome/article.htm#1whatis).   When under pressure, how this nerve causes the pain commonly mistaken as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is simple.   The tendons that pass through the carpal tunnel are surrounded by lubricating tissues called the synovium.   “The synovium lubricates the tendons and makes it easier to move the fingers.   This swelling of the synovium narrows the confined space of the carpal tunnel, and over time, crowds the nerve.” (http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00005)   This puts pressure on the nerve and the nerve becomes inflamed, sore, increasingly sensitive, and becomes damaged.   This results in pain, tingling, numbness, loss of wrist and hand strength, loss of flexibility and range of motion.
      Many possible conditions and circumstances can lead to carpal tunnel syndrome.   The most common being...