Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is Not Caused by a Narrowing of the Carpal Tunnel
Common medical wisdom and most everything that you will find on the internet about Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) agrees that CTS is caused by a narrowing of the carpal tunnel, and/or a compression of the median nerve.
Unfortunately, this definition in not only unhelpful if you want to get rid of your CTS, it is also incorrect.
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is a progressive dynamic of increasing tightness and restriction that leads to increasing pain and numbness.
Somewhere in that dynamic, the relative diameter of the carpal tunnel passage -can- be reduced, and the median nerve can get compressed.
The reason I challenge the standard definition of CTS which is 'a narrowing of the carpal tunnel' is because -if- the carpal tunnel actually narrows, it is just a symptom, and not the cause.
The standard definition in no way identifies the cause.
If you don't know what the cause is, you can't cure it.
This is why release surgery fails so often and even when successful almost never gets a person back to 100%.
Surgery only targets a symptom, and not the cause.
Only a tiny percentage of CTS cases actually involve a genetic malformation of the carpal tunnel bones, a tumor growing in the wrist, or a compression/crushing injury to the wrist.
In my professional opinion these are the only situations that justify surgery.
The rest of those suffering from Carpal Tunnel is purely due to the body following a specific pattern of symptomology as the structures in your arm get tighter and tighter as we go through our usual daily routine of hand intensive work, play, and or hobby.
The body responds to the forces we place upon our body.
If you use your hands intensively and do no or not enough self care, CTS is the predictable outcome.
So what is Carpal Tunnel Syndrome caused by? We humans love simple cause and effect situations.
We like answers like 'Typing causes Carpal Tunnel'.
We also like simple solutions, and expect surgery to fix us.
Unfortunately, it's not as simple as that, and unfortunately, it doesn't.
Any activity that uses the hands, like typing, knitting, rock climbing, kayaking, playing guitar and countless other activities, can help play a role in the formation of Carpal Tunnel Symptoms.
The activity itself doesn't cause anything.
But it does have a certain effect on the body.
And then the body responds in a certain way, essentially it makes everything tighter.
Tighter is bad because:
Maybe not worse, but tighter and tighter.
I assert that Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is ultimately caused by Tightness.
If you don't use a method that effectively deals with that, you are doomed to more pain and numbness.
There are of course other variables that you must effectively deal with, but if you don't successfully deal with the Tightness, those efforts will only do so much good.
There is a difference between making the pain go away, and curing your Carpal Tunnel.
Unfortunately, this definition in not only unhelpful if you want to get rid of your CTS, it is also incorrect.
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is a progressive dynamic of increasing tightness and restriction that leads to increasing pain and numbness.
Somewhere in that dynamic, the relative diameter of the carpal tunnel passage -can- be reduced, and the median nerve can get compressed.
The reason I challenge the standard definition of CTS which is 'a narrowing of the carpal tunnel' is because -if- the carpal tunnel actually narrows, it is just a symptom, and not the cause.
The standard definition in no way identifies the cause.
If you don't know what the cause is, you can't cure it.
This is why release surgery fails so often and even when successful almost never gets a person back to 100%.
Surgery only targets a symptom, and not the cause.
Only a tiny percentage of CTS cases actually involve a genetic malformation of the carpal tunnel bones, a tumor growing in the wrist, or a compression/crushing injury to the wrist.
In my professional opinion these are the only situations that justify surgery.
The rest of those suffering from Carpal Tunnel is purely due to the body following a specific pattern of symptomology as the structures in your arm get tighter and tighter as we go through our usual daily routine of hand intensive work, play, and or hobby.
The body responds to the forces we place upon our body.
If you use your hands intensively and do no or not enough self care, CTS is the predictable outcome.
So what is Carpal Tunnel Syndrome caused by? We humans love simple cause and effect situations.
We like answers like 'Typing causes Carpal Tunnel'.
We also like simple solutions, and expect surgery to fix us.
Unfortunately, it's not as simple as that, and unfortunately, it doesn't.
Any activity that uses the hands, like typing, knitting, rock climbing, kayaking, playing guitar and countless other activities, can help play a role in the formation of Carpal Tunnel Symptoms.
The activity itself doesn't cause anything.
But it does have a certain effect on the body.
And then the body responds in a certain way, essentially it makes everything tighter.
Tighter is bad because:
- It diminishes circulation
- It traps fluid in the area
- It restricts range of motion and makes the body work harder just to move
- It tells the nervous system that tighter is the new normal, so it stays tight.
Maybe not worse, but tighter and tighter.
I assert that Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is ultimately caused by Tightness.
If you don't use a method that effectively deals with that, you are doomed to more pain and numbness.
There are of course other variables that you must effectively deal with, but if you don't successfully deal with the Tightness, those efforts will only do so much good.
There is a difference between making the pain go away, and curing your Carpal Tunnel.