Wrist
Pain --- Why you have it ... How to get rid of itWrist pain is one of the most common pains in the world today… at least in the USA.
Jill (not her real name of course) came to my office with an ache in one wrist and burning pain in the other, and spreading up her forearm. She had had it for a few weeks, but a wrist brace at night, and Ibuprofen during the day kept her going. Using her vacation one day at a time to make long weekends once a month helped her, too.
Finally, the pain was keeping her from work altogether, or causing her to lose ½ day because it flared up to where she could not move her fingers. A friend gave her one of my special 1st-visit coupons – the ones I give patients to bless their friends and families.
Jill came in in obvious pain. After our initial exam, we found two problems – one in her wrists (more in a second), and another in a place that surprised Jill. She had her first treatment on the spot, and came back the next day. She was able to sleep the night through without pain awakening her for the first time in months.
By adjusting Jill’s wrist bones to relieve pressure on the median nerves in each side, she felt some relief in her wrists as she worked. But when we moved up to the other end of the median nerve in Jill’s neck, and got rid of pressure there, she felt total relief.
Jill was out of pain within two weeks and a mere ½-dozen visits, after years of pills and therapy elsewhere. She could have stopped care then, but chose to continue at weekly intervals for another month to clear out residuals. She now comes in for check-ups monthly because her job keeps giving her wrist and neck stress.
“Jill” is actually a composite of several patients and not a true testimonial. But “her” story reflects what happens almost daily in my office.
Why? Computers. We Americans, we “civilized” people work sitting down, with tiny repetitive motions in our wrists and hands to earn our livings.
We are designed to work with large and varied motions. Think farming… lots of different tasks, using your whole body, and swinging from one reach to the other end of your range. Sure, people got hurt, but their wrists were fine!
Even in the office, at first, people wrote everything by hand. Then came the typewriter. The keyboard looks the same (where do you think the computer keyboard arrangement came from?) but here is an important difference: On a typewriter, typists had to move the carriage by hand every line, roll paper in and out, and otherwise, perform varied tasks. This protected theior wrists from injury.
On a computer, you just keep merrily pecking away with no breaks. The electronics do much work for you, and you can type for hours without making a large movement. Only your fingers…
Now, a little anatomy: Your finger muscles are in your forearm, not your hand. They all have long tendons to the fingers, and 9 of them pass through an opening called the Carpal Tunnel.
The Carpal Tunnel is formed from 4 bones call Carpals in your wrist forming an arch, with a heavy ligament as the floor. The opening is the size of your little pinky finger. That tiny space for 9 tendons, blood vessels, and the Median Nerve. There is no wiggle room; everything has to work perfectly or you will feel pain.
Let those 4 Carpal bones shift a bit, or lock up the motion they are supposed to have and the tunnel inevitably shifts to the small side. The Median nerve suffers from the pressure and pain results.
As the tendons slide in and out through the Tunnel as you type or grasp or otherwise use your hands, and the Tunnel is too small, the constant or repetitive irritation wears on the nerve, causing more pain and tingling and numbness. Surprisingly, these tiny motions (and a lot of them; thousands for keyboarders) cause more harm than the larger but less frequent motions of a mechanic or other physical worker, although they are not immune.
Splints, stretches and exercise, time off from the job – or simply other duties for a time – can help. I recommend all, but we still need to consider one other point: The upper end of the Median nerve, where it emerges from the spinal cord and your neck.
All too often, the Median nerve suffers from impingement or a too-small opening as it emerges from your cervical spine, or neck-bones. This can come from long hours sitting at a computer, or in your car, or sleeping with your heads propped up, or myriad other postures or activities that stress your neck. When the vertebrae in your neck lock together, they likely do so in a way that will impinge the nerve. It may be out-of-place and hurt when you are still, or immobile, and hurt when you move, and it doesn’t. Either way, the nerve gets it, and you hurt.
Hold it – The “pinch” is in the neck, and I feel it in my wrist???
Yup. The nerve fibers from the wrist get irritated (the real problem) as they pass upward to your brain through the spine, and your brain interprets it as wrist pain. Just as you cannot tell from the sound in your telephone if the call comes from across the street or across the country, your brain cannot tell that irritation is in the neck if the wrist fibers are carrying the signal. So, you feel wrist pain from a neck problem.
How many people, including some doctors, look only in the wrist to solve wrist pain?
Now – What If You Have Both?
Very common. This is called “Double Crush Syndrome” and I see more of it than either component alone.
The answer is to address both the wrist and the neck at the same time. This is easily done, and gives the best results. People get relief and many go on to gain full correction so the problem will not return.
Answer to Wrist Pain: … Three simple steps…
1. Find where the irritated nerves are.
2. Determine exactly how and why they are affected
(discover the cause).
3. Correct the cause … No More PAIN!
Know, don’t guess, where your pain comes from!
Receive a Surface EMG – computerized
nerve scan at no charge. NASA-developed technology measures nerve
function and displays it in easy-to-read format. Learn how to read
it in seconds. See for yourself where, and how much, your nerves are
irritated and inflamed – the bottom-bucket CAUSE of PAIN.
