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Can Chiropractic play a role in Carpal Tunnel relief?

Did you know many people have found relief from Carpal Tunnel at the Chiropractor?  True carpal tunnel is when the wrist ligaments get too tight a choke the nerves coming and going.  This is often corrected with surgery.  With the surgery they often will loosen the ligament to allow the compression to be relieved.  There are several symptoms of carpal tunnel, first numbness.  Secondly patients often report lost of hand strength.  Finally they complain of overall hand and wrist pain.  However, other things can mimic carpal tunnel and create the same symptoms. First you could have subluxation in your lower neck.  Secondly you could have bad posture and create these symptoms.

Lower Neck

Your lower cervical (neck) vertebra have nerves that exit them.  These nerves create a network of nerves called the brachial plexus.  The Brachial plexus is kind of like the sciatic nerve from the leg.  The Brachial plexus innervates the entire arm and some of the shoulder.  If the base of your neck is misaligned, or subluxated, this will add stress to those nerves.  There are a few symptoms of this stress, first is loss of hand strength.  Secondly you can have numbness in your hands, forearms, and/or arms.  Lastly you can have pain anywhere from you  shoulder to your finger tips.  These symptoms match those of carpal tunnel.

Neck Posture

If your neck posture is poor this can also create issues.  You have muscle in you neck called the medial scalene. If your posture is bad, this muscle can be inflamed. Once this muscle becomes inflamed it becomes sticky.  After becoming sticky it can grab the brachial plexus.  If it grabs the brachial plexus it will create stress on those nerves.  This will mimic carpal tunnel as described above.

Chiropractor

SO if you suffer let your chiropractor know.  The chiropractor will take x-ray to view your lower neck for subluxations.  The chiropractor will also look to your posture as a possible reason.