- So, if you are experiencing numbness, pins and needles,
a pain or tingling feeling in your thumb,
your index finger, your middle finger,
and half of your ring finger,
you might be struggling with carpal tunnel syndrome.
Hi, my name is Jasper,
and I'm from Milton and Fornham Chiropractic Clinics.
And today I'll be discussing symptoms,
common causes, some tests you can do,
I'll give you some exercises and some therapy,
and I'll give you some supplements,
which can all help dealing with
the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome.
Now, as I said, the symptoms are mainly in the hand,
a pain can also travel up the arm,
and even all the way to your neck as well.
The pain is often worse at night, especially in the hand.
It's aggravated by writing, by typing,
by DIY, by some housework,
and the hand might feel a bit weak as well.
You might struggle to do your buttons of your blouse up
or your shirt.
Common causes of carpal tunnel syndrome are arthritis,
especially amongst the senior citizens,
arthritis might decrease the space of the carpal tunnel
and the median nerve might get compressed there.
It can be hormonal.
We often see this with pregnant women
who retain a bit of fluid.
And again, that decreased space in the tunnel
can put pressure on the median nerve.
An underactive thyroid gland, same thing, retaining fluid.
Obesity can cause it,
and also work that places a high demand on your wrist.
Again like I said painting, decorating, or drilling,
or even sometimes computer mouse
can also cause the carpal tunnel
to just close off a little bit.
The three tests I want to show you to see
if actually you are struggling from carpal tunnel syndrome.
The first one is called the Phalen Test.
Super simple, place the back of your hands
against each other.
Make sure you have a 90 degree angle in the, in the wrist.
Push your, push your elbows down a little bit
and hold this for about 60 seconds.
And all we need to see now is,
see if this reproduces the symptoms in your,
in your hand or your forearm.
If it does, that's a positive test.
If it reproduces symptoms it shows
that you are struggling with carpal tunnel syndrome.
So that's the first test, 60 seconds.
The second test is called the Phalen test,
and what you need to do is make a fist
and middle of your hand, in the middle of your forearm,
you see this tendon come up.
So you go about a finger width to the side of it,
relax your hand again, finger width aside, and just tap it.
Tap it, and see if that reproduces a tingling feeling
in your hand, or the numbness.
'Cause you're tapping on that nerve again.
And if it is, again, a positive test for carpal tunnel.
And the last test, it's not as specific,
but it's called the hand elevation test.
What you do is you raise your hands above your head,
really push them back,
and you hold this for about two minutes,
and you see if this actually reproduces your symptoms.
So that's the hand elevation test.
Okay.
Therapy, so what we're trying to do
is called nerve flossing.
So we're trying to pull that nerve
through that carpal tunnel
and give it some freedom again and less compression.
So the first, the first one we're going to do is you start
like that in the, the prayer position, yeah?
Now you need to spread out your fingers,
push your elbows up,
make sure your fingers keep in contact with each other
but move your hand palms away from each other, yeah?
And this is a nerve flossing test.
So we're trying to pull that nerve
through that carpal tunnel,
fingers nicely spread out, and push your wrists down.
Fingers will maintain contact,
hand palms, hand palms are separated.
So we do like 15, 20 repetitions and do three sets.
That's your first one.
Second test we do, or the second exercise we do,
is an upside down spider.
So same thing, hands in prayer test.
Put your fingers down, spread out your fingers like this.
And you go again,
make sure you keep your fingers spread out.
And you're really trying to pull that nerve
through that tunnel, yeah?
Push your elbows down if you can.
So that's your second one.
And the third therapy is actually really super easy,
it's called the shake.
Now what you need to do is imagine
you've just washed your hands,
and you're trying to hand dry them.
And all you do is this, again,
very effective for carpal tunnel,
if you're dealing with the carpal tunnel syndrome.
So that's called the shake.
The fourth thing you can do is you could use a cold pack,
so place a cold pack on your, on your wrist.
Again, it reduces the inflammation,
and thereby decreasing the pressure on the nerve.
So you do that for about five to seven minutes per hour.
You can wear a wrist splint at night
very effective, reduce the mobility of the hand.
And it's effective in reducing the symptoms
of a carpal tunnel.
You can go to a GP or a specialist
and get an injection in the wrist.
Again, reducing inflammation,
reducing pressure on the nerve.
Or you could come to someone like us,
where we have some techniques where we mobilise that wrist,
and again, increase the space for that nerve
to travel through by just opening up the wrist
a little bit as well.
So that's something you can do as well.
Supplements you can take, very potent supplement,
is Omega three oil, very potent in reducing inflammation.
So I would definitely recommend you take that.
Take turmeric, the active ingredient in turmeric
is curcumin, again, recently shown very,
which is very effective in reducing inflammation.
Again, decreasing the pressure on the wrist,
and especially for the elderly patients,
zinc, the same thing, very effective,
even more effective in reducing inflammation
in the elderly patients.
So that's something I'd recommend you to use as well.
I hope you found value in this, in this video.
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Good luck, and bye for now, bye bye.