Sunday, March 6, 2011

Carpal Tunnel Treatments You Can Do At Home

By Tom Nicholson


Once you've been diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome, your doctor will most likely recommend a conservative treatment at home before suggesting more radical treatment like surgery. There are many things you can do at home to help your carpal tunnel syndrome get better.

The sooner you know you have carpal tunnel syndrome, the better. You can start treating it early, and have less permanent damage. Relieving the symptoms will be easier if you care for your hand and wrists from the start, and if you do it right, you could eliminate the pain altogether.

One of the very first things you need to do is to figure out what activity causes the most pain. Then you need to cut back the time you spend doing this. If you can temporarily stop the activity all together, you should. If eliminating the activity is not an option, even short-term, then be sure you take breaks often and rest your wrists. If you can, apply ice or a cold-pack to your wrists once or twice every hour for about 10 minutes at a time. The cold will help control the swelling and pain. Just be sure to use a towel or other cloth to keep the ice from sitting directly on your skin.

A wrist splint can be very helpful at keeping your wrist in a neutral position. Some people prefer to wear them only at night and this is enough to help them. Many people sleep with their wrists flexed, not knowing that this is stressing their median nerve. The brace helps prevent that. It can take a few nights to get used to. Other people find that it works better for them during the day, since it helps keep their wrists steady while they are doing their work.

Anti-inflammatory drugs are worth trying to see if they help you, but not everyone has success using them. In some individuals the pain and swelling is decreased. If they don't work, try something else.

To help relieve the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome, change your position frequently. If you periodically relax and stretch while you are working, this will help keep tension off the median nerve. When you don't change position or you keep your wrists flexed for long periods, it places a lot of pressure on the nerve, causing pain.

Sometimes, if the symptoms are bad enough, a doctor can give an injection of cortisone. This will reduce the compression and inflammation in your wrist. Lidocaine is sometimes added to extend the pain relief. The drawback to these injections is that they cannot be used frequently. Diabetics in particular have to be careful with these injections because cortisone can interfere with insulin levels.

A great thing to do to prevent pain in your wrists is to learn some stretches, and get some exercises to strengthen and relieve stress in them. Doctors and physical therapists should be able to teach you some stretches and exercises. If you follow them properly, there is a good chance that you can heal your wrists and eliminate your carpal tunnel syndrome without surgery.

Daily wrist exercises, and other small actions can take care of your wrists, and heal them. Being diligent with them over a period of time can relieve you of the pain and swelling completely, and keep it from coming back.




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