A lot of people use the term ‘Carpal Tunnel” generically to refer to pain in their wrist-area. But, what the heck is carpal tunnel and do you really have it?

The term actually refers to the space (tunnel) where your tendons and nerves pass through in your wrist, not a dysfunction or disorder. So if you don’t have a carpal tunnel, you’re really in trouble! Add the words Disorder or Dysfunction after Carpal Tunnel to describe the painful condition, Luckily, very few people actually really do have a carpal tunnel dysfunction, most of us have what is called Repetitive Stress Dysfunction or Repetitive Stress Injury (RSI).


What Causes Repetitive Stress Injury?

Problems occur when the carpal space is narrow and the nerves get pinched. Once they are pinched, they swell creating less space, which of course creates more pain and numbness and can possibly lead to weakness and permanent nerve damage. It is a serious condition! I hope you don’t have it.

An RSI is caused when you continuously repeat the exact same movement again and again to the point of it being more than your body can handle. It is an irritation in the muscle, tendon and bursa. Of course some people may tolerate a lot more strain on their body than others by the very nature of how their body is built.

Some common examples of repetitive stress disorders are:

•  Tendonitis
•  Bursitis
•  Tennis Elbow
•  Golf Elbow
•  Trigger Finger
•  Blackberry Thumb

If your continued movement is causing your body strain and stress, your muscles will begin to rebel and try to protect the area through spasming.  First, muscles tighten around the strained area (actually a tiny injury) causing constriction on the nerves, restricting blood to circulate effectively and cause irritation. Your movement patterns begin to be altered due to your pain, and other muscles start to kick in to compensate for your injured area. In addition, scar tissue begins to build up in an attempt to stabilize the in jury, but scar tissue is more rigid then healthy muscle and connective tissue, therefore there is even more restriction in your movement.

Once this irritation starts it just continues again and again, creating the “Pain-Spasm-Pain Cycle” which is extremely difficult to stop.

The two most common types of repetitive stress injury:

1. tendonitis - Tendonitis is inflammation of a tendon
2. bursitis.   - Bursitis is inflammation of a bursa.

How Common Is Repetitive Stress Injury? 
    * The exact number of people with repetitive stress injury is not known.
    * It can occur in both men and women.
    * It usually affects people over the age of 30. However, it can also affect younger people.
    * It is more common in people who have jobs or responsibilities that require repetitive actions or who play a lot of sports.

What Can You Do To Help A Repetitive Stress Injury?

There are three important things you can do to get rid of your RSI.

1. Rest
2. Rest
3. Rest

Seriously, that really is he most important step to take because if you don’t rest the area, it will never have a chance to heal.

4 Other Steps To Take To Repair RSI:

1. Ice – 20 minutes out of every hour to reduce inflammation
2. Oral Anti inflammatory medications such as Ibuprofen, if your stomach can tolerate it.
3. Change or modify your activity to not cause any more strain on your joints.
4.  Myofascial and massage therapy to reduce scar tissue and help realign the fibers of your muscles and connective tissue.

If your condition is very serious you should of course seek medical care.

We Can Help You 3 Ways:

1. In your initial healing phase, we can help you get rid of your pain and help speed the healing of your injury through massage and myofascial therapy, again to help get rid of scar tissue and create a better alignment of muscle and connective tissue fibers.
   
2. Once you are past the acute phase, I can give you some exercises to develop strength and flexibility where needed along with neuromuscular re-education to actually re-train your boy movements to be not only more bio-mechanically correct, but also so you can learn how to move more efficiently (so you won’t get so fatigued at the end of the day)
3. If needed, I can also help you by performing an ergonomic assessment of your work or sport to see how you can improve your environment.
   

Please respond to this blog and let us know if this information helped!