MCVitamins News

The word "carpal" refers to the joint between the forearm and the hand. We call this the wrist. There are two rows of four carpal bones between the forearm and hand bones.  Sub-joints connect these eight bones to the two forearm bones and five hand bones.

The two rows of carpal bones form a slight arch in the wrist, the high part of the arch toward the back of the wrist and the passage on the palm side. You can feel this arch by pushing where the lifeline intersects at the very base of the hand and ends at the skin line that separates the arm from the hand. Here there is a visible indentation that when pushed into the hand will be soft directly at the lifeline.

Reaching across the palm side of the wrist is a fibrous band called the retinaculum flexorum manus (RFM). The arch of carpal bones with the RFM across the base of the arch forms the carpal tunnel. Nerves, blood vessels and muscle tendons pass through this tunnel.

Cutting the retinaculum and other tissues is the medical solution to carpal tunnel syndrome. It rarely works due to its gross simplification of a complex situation. After all, the classification "syndrome" denotes a set of symptoms pointing to a multi-factorial set of problems. Fancier surgeries are being done these days, but all surgeries fail to recognize the more specific alterations in bone and muscle function and the resultant inflammation.  

Inflammation includes as its primary parts: pain or discomfort, swelling, heat and redness. While all of these four parts may not be perceptible, they exist to one degree or another. The symptoms of carpal tunnel appear when inflammation exceeds a minimum level. The symptoms become less and less tolerable as inflammation increases.

Adjustment of the carpal bones, forearm bones, often the elbow bones connections and neck along with relaxing tight muscles and bringing the inflammation down with herbs almost always fixes carpal tunnel. This may take a series of visits or in the beginning stages one visit may be adequate. The only time surgery would be needed is if there is a crushing injury to the wrist area or if there is a growth occupying the space in the carpal tunnel area. This is quite rare.

One of my patients was complaining of wrist and thumb pain. He considered an operation but after talking to ten people who had the surgery, only one saw improvement. Relaxing a couple of muscles, adjusting a couple wrist carpal bones, the elbow area and the neck handled the patient's compliant. One visit to fix his early stage complaint was adequate.  

When I was first in practice one patient had carpal tunnel surgery in each wrist twice for a total of four surgeries. She was not improved from these surgeries. It is difficult to return the body to ideal state once a surgery has been performed. Such was the case here. Surgery should be the last choice unless a crushing injury or growth exists crowding the tunnel.  

Another patient of mine had been diagnosed by medical doctors with specialized tests, particularly the nerve conduction velocity test (NCV), of having carpal tunnel in both wrists. Because two of her coworkers had not improved with surgery, she sought chiropractic help. It took a series of visits and anti-inflammatory herbs to fix her. When she got the NCV test following my treatment, she no longer had the condition and was pain free!

The moral of the story is to get competent chiropractic care rather than radical surgery and really recover.