Here is an actual story. At the Palmer College of Chiropractic I had a patient who was very nearly blind. She couldn't see to read but she could feel Braille, the bumps on paper that blind people use to read with. Problem was, her sense of touch was leaving. She had previously diagnosed and treated surgically for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) but after five years the pain, numbness and burning were returning. Soon the only way to read Braille would be with her lips.

CTS causes pain, numbness, tingling or burning feelings in the hands. It can be accompanied by weakness or loss of grip strength and possibly loss of sleep due to discomfort. The pain of CTS can be severe.

What causes CTS? Pressure on the median nerve which supplies feeling to 7\10 of the hand. The other 3\10 is supplied by the Ulnar nerve which is located very close to the Median nerve and can become involved also.

Who is at risk of getting CTS? The best statistics come from the USA where the leading cause of CTS is computer use but anyone doing office work, sports or ant other activity that requires repetitive motions is at risk of CTS. Even housework can cause CTS. So what can you do? Prevention is the best cure. If you are working with a computer make sure the keyboard is at elbow height, it's positioned flat on the desk and it you are not using the mouse, get your hand off of it. What if you think you already have CTS? First off, be careful about self-diagnosing your problem. There ware many nerve entrapment syndromes that can mimic CTS. There is no sense in treating your wrist if the problem is up in your neck. Get a competent professional diagnosis from a physician knowledgeable in nerves and human anatomy. Be careful though. A five minute office visit and a shot of cortisone is not a competent, professional diagnosis. How is CTS treated? There are several steps in the successful treatment of CTS: 1. Education 2. Adjustment (manipulation) of the affected joints 3. Splinting 4. Stretching 5. Strengthening 6. Ergonomic adjustments to your lifestyle. Let's talk about the first two steps.

Education is the first and most important step. You have to understand what is wrong with you so you can understand why we are doing what we are doing with your treatment to get you better. The mind is the greatest organ of healing.

Adjustment (manipulation) of the joints involved is the next step and this is best done by Chiropractors. Take a look at the diagram again of the wrist.

See how the Median nerve goes through a tunnel where the roof of the tunnel is made up of the Transverse Carpal Ligament (a big, flat ligament) and the floor is made up of the Carpal bones of the wrist. CTS happens when the tunnel narrows and the Median nerve gets flattened. The surgical solution is to cut the Transverse Carpal Ligament, raising and opening the roof. The problem with this method is that in many cases the incision heals back with scar tissue and lowers the roof even further. In Chiropractic what we do is instead of raising the roof we lower the floor back to its normal position. I think that makes much more sense.

Chiropractors aren't well known in this part of the world yet so I'd better explain what we are. A Chiropractor is a primary healthcare provider. This means we went to school for six to eight years, studied many of the same basic subjects as medical doctors, are able to use x-rays, MRI's , blood and other tests to come to a proper diagnosis and then treat a patient or refer them out to the proper healthcare provider.

So what's different about a Chiropractor?

We don't use drugs and we don't do surgery. We are specialists in the mechanical functioning of the body. In pioneering work done by Dr. M.R. Mally, D.C. in Davenport, Iowa USA , he has shown conclusively using radiographic and MRI studies that the Carpal bones of the wrist misalign and rotate up into the Carpal Tunnel there by decreasing the tunnel diameter and flattening the median nerve. Using specific Chiropractic techniques we realign these bones taking the pressure off the median nerve giving the body a chance to heal and saving the patient from surgery.

There are, of course, times when surgery is called for but they are few and far between. What will further improve a persons chance of avoiding surgery? Early detection. If you think you have CTS get it treated in its early stages. Don't wait until it becomes a numb, painful, torturous hell on Earth. Get it properly diagnosed and treated early.