Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Guide
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) is the inflammatory disorder that is caused due to repetitive stress. Day in and day out from 8am up to 5pm, you are right in front of your computer, tapping your fingers on the keyboard as fast as you can just so to beat the deadline of work you have to complete.
You are working at your desk, trying to ignore the tingling or numbness you have had for months in your hand and wrist. All of a sudden, a sharp, piercing pain shoots through the wrist and up your arm. “This maybe just a passing cramp”, you thought to yourself as you are still feeling the ache of it. Think twice, lady because most likely you have carpal tunnel syndrome.
How Does Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Occur?
Carpal tunnel syndrome is a painful progressive condition caused by compression of a key nerve in the wrist. It occurs when the median nerve, which runs from the forearm into the hand, becomes pressed or squeezed at the wrist.
The median nerve is that nerve which controls sensations to the palm side of the thumb and fingers, as well as impulses to some small muscles in the hand that allow the fingers and thumb to move.
Sometimes, swelling from irritated tendons or other kinds of thickening narrows the carpal tunnel and causes the median nerve to get compressed. The effect may be weakness, soreness, or numbness in the hand and wrist that goes up the arm.
Even though painful sensations may indicate other disorders, carpal tunnel syndrome is the most common and widely known of the entrapment neuropathies in which the body's peripheral nerves are compressed or traumatized.
Causes Of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome:
The key risk factors in the workplace that causes the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome include:
- Repetition
- Awkward joint posture
- High force
- Vibration
- Direct pressure
- Prolonged constrained posture
Carpal tunnel Syndrome Symptoms:
- Interruption of Sleep with Hands Numbness and in Pain
- Neck or shoulder pain on same side as hand discomfort.
- Frequent Pain in Hand and Wrist
- Weakness in Hand and Wrist- Pain Radiating up the Forearm
- Poor Circulation of blood in Hands there by Hands falling asleep
- Cold Hands
- Loss of Feeling in Fingers and Thumb
- Dropping Objects especially small objects.
- Forearms warm and Loss of Grip Strength by Fore arms
The dominant hand is usually affected first and produces the most severe pain. Persons with diabetes or other metabolic disorders that directly affect the body's nerves and make them more susceptible to compression are also at high risk but it usually appears to the adults.
Women are more prone to develop carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms than men. This is not to scare the women out there but for awareness sake as proven by science. The reason behind this is that the carpal tunnel itself may be smaller in women than in men.
The danger of developing carpal tunnel syndrome is not limited to a certain demographic of people like those in a single industry such as manufacturing, sewing, finishing, cleaning and poultry packing.
During 1998, an estimated three of every 10,000 workers lost time from work because of carpal tunnel syndrome. Half of these workers missed more than 10 days of work. The average lifetime cost of carpal tunnel syndrome, including medical bills and lost time from work, is estimated to be about $30,000 for each injured worker.
Truth is that the carpal tunnel syndrome is three times more common among assemblers than among data-entry personnel. A 2001 study by the Mayo Clinic found heavy computer use did not increase a person's risk of developing carpal tunnel syndrome.
Carpal tunnel syndrome is somewhat similar to the mustard seed principle where it starts small that you hardly even notice it but can end up really big as to paralyzing those arms.
