Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is probably the reason why some people wear a wrist splint. This painful hand condition is often attributed to uncomfortable body positioning for long hours or months or even years of bad computer ergonomics.

Symptoms of CTS include pain coming from the wrist radiating to the palm side of your forearm, tingling and/or numbness of your fingers and thumb, and hand weakness.

Carpal tunnels syndrome occurs when the carpal tunnel, a tube in the wrist on the palm side of your hand, surrounded by ligaments and bones and where one part of the median nerve runs, gets swollen and inflamed which puts pressure on the median nerve causing pain and limited mobility on the affected hand and fingers.

CTS amounts to damage to the tendons, or a pinched blood vessel or nerve in the carpal tunnel regardless if it’s due to an internal neurological damage or inflammation or by injury or physical forces that compress the carpal tunnel.

There may be similar symptoms one can experience that may develop caused by different kinds of work which require the hands and arms to be poorly positioned; if those symptoms quickly disappear, then it’s likely not CTS and is not a problem you should worry about.

If you do feel these symptoms, you just need to take a break, shake your hands and arms, and readjust your overall posture to a healthier one. This should help prevent the need for medical intervention.

However, if your symptoms do not go away after work or after long hours of typing, then you need to see a doctor.

Western Modes of Treatment for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Adjustable splints that can be taken off and on are the usual treatments used by Western physicians to treat CTS. A majority of CTS patients put one these splints during work and most of them will also wear them during sleep to help ease the pain.

Another conventional form of treatment is NSAIDS or non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs. These can be over-the-counter or prescribed drugs that help relieve pain but have serious side effects when taken for an extended period of time. Another drug used to treat CTS is cortisone injection. It can help ease the pressure caused by the swelling on the median nerve.

Surgery is selected if all of the above mentioned treatments fail. Endoscopic surgery is one such treatment and involves inserting a narrow tube called an endoscope, into small incisions. This procedure is also used sometimes to treat injured knees. The most invasive CTS surgery is open surgery, which requires more anesthesia than an endoscopic surgery.

Acupuncture, A Non-Surgical Alternative Treatment for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Acupuncture has been used for tens of centuries for both reversing chronic or acute ill health and for optimizing good health. This treatment works on the distribution of chi or life energy along the mapped out meridians of the body.

Acupuncture has been lately used with huge success for the treatment of sports injuries. One dramatic example of this was in the 1998 Super Bowl when the quarterback of the Chicago Bears, Jim McMahon suffered a seriously bruised back. He wasn’t responding to Western treatments. So instead, he opted for acupuncture. After his treatment, McMahon said he felt 200% better. His newly found vigor allowed him and the Bears to rout the Patriots and win the Super Bowl. This sensational news led to a spike in acupuncture treatments all across the United States and silenced the acupuncture critics.

In January 2012, Journal of Research in Medical Sciences published a study entitled “Bellingham Acupuncture in the treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome: A randomized controlled trial study.” It reviewed an Iranian university’s neurological department’s study about carpal tunnel syndrome.

This study involved 64 patients all suffering from a mild case of CTS. The patients were equally divided into two groups. One group was administered with a couple of acupuncture treatments two times a week for four weeks and wore wrist splints at night. The other group was the control group who were treated with fake acupuncture and vitamins B1 and B6.

At the end of the study, the acupuncture group scored lower on their GSS or global symptom scores than the control group. This means that the acupuncture group experienced less numbness, tingling, weakness, and pain than the control group.

The researchers concluded that in their findings acupuncture is definitely better in relieving the overall subjective symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome and could be used in the comprehensive care programs of CTS sufferers.