Carpal Tunnel

 

Carpal Tunnel is generally viewed as a repetitive use injury of the wrist. The thumb, index, middle, and half of the ring finger will have numbness, tingling, pain, or weakness, which often times is worse at night. This is due to entrapment and compression of the median nerve that travels through the “carpal tunnel”, a narrow passageway through the wrist.

​

Sometimes the space inside this tunnel is compromised due to degeneration of the 8 bones in your wrist.  The degeneration will cause the bones to rub against one another and promote arthritic growth which “chokes” the flow of the vessels.   This causes numbness, tingling, and pain in the wrist and hands.

 

However, sometimes carpal tunnel symptoms are caused by muscular tightness in the forearm.  A muscle called the pronator quadratus can strangle the vessels and mimic the same symptoms that the degeneration does.  This can sometimes result in unnecessary injections, surgeries, and pain pills.

 

Acupuncture is great for increasing blood flow, and halting degeneration.  It is also good for relaxing the muscles that could be impinging the blood vessels and nerves.  At Charleston acupuncture we are trained to do a proper orthopedic evaluation to diagnose the true diagnosis, and rule out other conditions.