Abundant Life Chiropractic, in Chanhassen MN, is known for their natural and drug free treatment for carpal tunnel relief.
What is it?
Carpal Tunnel is a condition that affects millions of people throughout the United States yearly. The carpal tunnel is a passage way between the carpal bones located in the wrist, muscles and fascia of the wrist . Nerves, veins and arteries all travel through this tunnel. The purpose of the tunnel is to protect these nerves, veins and arteries. The problem is that the standard American Lifestyle alters structural mechanics commonly damaging the elements of the tunnel.
Symptoms
Carpal Tunnel commonly presents itself with a variety of symptoms, ranging from numbness and tingling, burning pain, loss of motor function and even cramping “locking-up” in the hands and fingers. A lot of times the symptoms of carpal tunnel start slowly and gradually progress overtime. When carpal tunnel goes untreated for too long it may even result in a loss of motor function. You will know you need to take action if you notice yourself struggling to grip things or dropping stuff.
Causes
Carpal Tunnel generally is causes by one of two means.
The first is there is direct damage to the actual structure of the tunnel itself. This damage will present itself as either muscular damage, misalignment of the carpal bones of the wrist, or over contraction of the fascial muscular sheeth in the wrist, the flexor retinaculum. The first cause is commonly seen in laborers or typist, who continually use their wrist on a day to day basis. The flexor retinaculum gets tight, over contracts and starts to impinge the structures located within the carpal.
The second cause is from damage coming from the origin of the structures within the carpal. This is commonly seen in a person suffering from forward head posture, text neck, or old auto-injuries. When a person damages the structure of the cervical spine or neck, the bones will misalign causing damage on the nerves that run directly through the carpal itself. Typically after a car accident, head on injury, or years or sitting at a computer, a person will develop this type of damage in their neck. Symptoms generally present themselves as numbness, tingling, periodic burning pain, or muscular weakness.
Treatment
When it comes to treating the symptoms of carpal tunnel, there are a couple of routes one may take. The first route is a surgical approach. This route should be a last stop option, as it is non-reversible. Meaning that if the surgery does not correct the cause of the problem, the corrections from the surgery will be permanent.
Then there is the conservative option. This is the approach Dr. Knight and his team take at Abundant Life Chiropractic. The conservative approach involves searching for the cause of the carpal tunnel symptoms. Is the cause of your symptoms coming from the carpal tunnel in the wrist or the nerve roots in the neck? If it is coming from the wrist we correct the boney structural misalignments in the wrist with gentle and subtle chiropractic adjustments, as well any residual muscular problems in the wrist (this can be done with a passive at-home exercise protocol) .
In our office, we have found over 90% of our carpal tunnel cases resolve after specific adjustments to the neck. The nerves that run through the carpal tunnel actually originate in the neck and easily become damaged when misalignment occurs in the neck.
Professional Advice
My professional advice is to seek out a qualified opinion of what it is you can do to correct your carpal tunnel naturally with a drug free approach. You can request a free consultation with one of our doctors here at Abundant Life Chiropractic online or by calling the office at 952.300.8338. The most dangerous decision is the “wait and see” approach. This generally leads to making a health care decision based out of fear or anger, and we highly advise you against that.
