By: Dr. Emil Tompkins, a Northwest Tucson Chiropractor with a passion for relieving pain and improving quality of life.
Here are 11 great tips for office workers, typists and keyboardists to help prevent or eliminate pain in your carpal tunnel area:
1. Keep your elbows close to your body as comfortably as possible when you are working at a desk or table. Reach only when you have to, but not out of habit.
2. Use a chair and desk or tray that fits you. Your ankles, knees, hips and elbows should all be at about 90 degree angles when you are seated. Use a lumbar support or your own muscles to sit upright and hold your head over your spine.
3. Keep your wrists straight when you type. Pretend your wrists are extensions of your arms without joints. Let your wrists “float” above the keyboard.
4. Get strong muscles and a balanced body by taking classes in tai chi, core strengthening or yoga. A strong back makes a happy body. A happy body does not have carpal tunnel pain.
5. Open up! Stretch frequently in the opposite direction of the position you are usually in. Our muscles get shortened and stuck in the positions we use the most, unless we take care to do the opposite movements on a regular basis.
6. Feed your brain and body. Improve the quality of food you eat and/or take a really good vitamin and mineral supplement. A body that gets all the nutrients it needs feels better, functions better and can recover faster from injury. Also, there are some high quality nutritional supplements that can, by themselves, reduce carpal tunnel pain.
7. Use a speakerphone, headset or ear buds to avoid an aggravated neck which will cause pain in your carpal tunnel area as well as headaches and other complaints. Think of the position you place your neck into to talk without holding the phone, ouch. Or simply imagine the position of your wrist if you’re holding the phone all day. Double ouch.
8. Get rubbed the right way. Have a professional massage or do it your self. Massage gets blood flowing through tight tissues in your hands, wrists and arms, promotes muscle health and boosts your immune system.
9. Do things differently. We have several hundred muscles and most of us use only the same sixty+ most of the day. Hold your pen between your first and middle fingers. Mouse with your other hand. Sleep on the opposite side of the bed.
10. Improve your breathing. When you breathe full and long and deep, you exercise and release muscles around your neck, ribs and shoulders. Those muscles are attached to your arms. More beneficial oxygen reaches your cells and that includes the cells in your hands, wrists and arms.
11. See your family Chiropractor. A Chiropractor trained in the complex neuromusculoskeletal structure of carpal tunnel syndrome is a must. Your Chiropractor can find out exactly where every neural imbalance is that is leading to the pain you’re feeling. This pain can be coming from the median nerve in the hand, the wrist, the elbow, the shoulder, or the neck. Then your Chiropractor will correct any imbalances in those areas. When you put those pieces together, your pain will leave as quickly as it came.
When you take care of your body, muscles and arms with these eleven strategies you can get rid of your carpal tunnel pain naturally!
Dr. Emil Tompkins
http://www.tompkinschiropractic.com From back pain to sciatica, neck pain to headaches, ADHD to Autism, Dr. Tompkins creates an individualized health program to suit your specific needs. Come see why we were voted Best in the Northwest 2 years in a row.Whether you have back pain, headaches, sciatica or ADHD. Migraines, or just want to be healthier, Dr. Tompkins has a program that will work for you and your family. Call us at 520.572.2596 and we’ll be happy to help your family grow healthier and free of pain.
Continued here: 11 steps to natural carpal tunnel relief
