Carpal Tunnel Syndrome – Is Surgery the Answer?

The short answer to that question is no, surgery is not the answer to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) pain.  To explain this a little better let’s first learn a little bit about the human body and how it was designed to function.

Our bodies have a design or blueprint.  The 8 load-bearing joints (shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles) should line up horizontally from one another and stack vertically on top of one another (see images below).  When our body deviates from this design abnormal wear and tear occurs in the joints and soon PAIN.

Today we are facing what many are calling an epidemic of repetitive stress injuries, ie: Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

Repetitive stress???

Does that mean our body’s joints have a certain amount of movement before it starts to breakdown? Sounds ridiculous doesn’t it.  Our body was made to move, and you are much more likely to suffer from simple muscle fatigue a lot faster than your joint will degenerate from repetitive motion.  What’s really causing these repetitive stress injuries, like Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, is the body losing its natural design or posture.  When this happens our body’s joints lose their kinetic connections causing them to be unstable and prone to abnormal wear and tear.

Take a look at the two images below.  One shows a functional sitting-position, the other shows the position of someone suffering from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.  In the first photo the person’s weight is distributed evenly, and the load-bearing joints are vertically and horizontally aligned.  This position does not happen naturally anymore and most people need to work at it.  When looking at the second photo you might think that most people don’t look like that, yet go walk around any office sometime.  Chances are you will see a lot of people in that slouched position.  Plus I bet there is an even better chance that they are having some wrist, and/or elbow pain and stiffness.

When it comes to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome the site of the pain may be the wrist, but the source of the pain is the disengagement of the shoulders and spine.  To understand this a little better try this experiment.  Scoot up close to your desk or table, bend your arms at the elbows to ninety degrees, and place the palms and the wrist flat on the surface: let your back and shoulders slump forward.  Raise the hands off the surface keeping the wrists flat, and flex them up and down 5 or 6 times.  Where do you feel the muscle work?  More than likely it’s under the wrists, where there is little room for the muscle tendons to move.  Essentially you are rubbing the tendons raw; the result is Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and a lot of pain.  Now sit up tall, place and arch in your lower back and pull the shoulders square.  Again flex the hand up and down 5 or 6 times.  Where do you feel the muscle work now?  You should be feeling the work up near the elbow where it belongs.  By merely changing the position of the spine and shoulders, the elbow and wrist now have more room to operate.

This is why surgeries and ergonomic redesigns of the workplace do nothing to cure you of the true cause of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. To truly cure CTS you need to treat your body as a unit and give it the motional nourishment it needs to keep it functional and in proper alignment.  Just like we need to eat, and sleep, our body needs a certain amount of specific movement to maintain basic musculoskeletal functions.

If you are suffering with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome the remedy and cure is to get your body into its design position.  Remember that bones do what muscles tell them to do.  If you work on stabilizing your joints the pain will subside.  The body is a unit and that is how it should be treated.

Click on the link below for an easy to do e-cise routine to help with Carpal Tunnel pain.  If you have more questions about Egoscue and how it can help you cure Carpal Tunnel Syndrome or other hand, and wrist pain contact the clinic directly at:

sdsouth@egoscue.com or call 619-294-3259

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