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These movements can help with pain, numbness and tingling in your hands and fingers
If you’ve been experiencing numbness, tingling and pain in your thumb, index finger, middle finger and forearm, you may have carpal tunnel syndrome. The common condition occurs when there’s an increase in pressure on your median nerve, which provides feeling to your thumb, index, middle and ring fingers.
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Repetitive movements that use your fingers like computer use, factory work or hobbies can lead to carpal tunnel syndrome. Anyone can develop it, with your chance of getting carpal tunnel increasing as you age.
Carpal tunnel exercises can reduce your symptoms. For maximum relief, chiropractor Andrew Bang, DC, recommends these carpal tunnel stretches, which you can do throughout the day.
“This is a good stretch because the thumb gets so much overuse from cell phones,” says Dr. Bang. “This overuse leads to inflammation of the tendons.”
“Stretching these wrist flexors is imperative to treating or avoiding carpal tunnel. The wrist flexors are typically the most used muscle group in the forearm, so they tend to be over-developed,” explains Dr. Bang. “When they’re over-developed, they will cause collapse of the carpal arch, which can press on the median nerve — the nerve responsible for carpal tunnel.”
If you try these stretches for carpal tunnel and your pain worsens, you may need to see a doctor who can perform tests to confirm you have carpal tunnel syndrome. (Other conditions that could be causing you pain include arthritis and cubital tunnel syndrome.)
A doctor can also recommend a treatment to help alleviate your pain and discomfort. Treatment options include:
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In addition to the carpal tunnel syndrome stretching above, you can make lifestyle changes like:
“There’s a lot you can do to prevent or treat carpal tunnel. If you’re still having symptoms despite daily stretching and making lifestyle changes, you need to reach out to your doctor to find the true source of your carpal tunnel-like symptoms,” Dr. Bang advises. “Other conditions, like fluid retention, pregnancy, menopause, thyroid disorders and inflammatory diseases, like rheumatoid arthritis, will mimic carpal tunnel syndrome.”
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