Can You Guess This Surprising Cause of Carpal Tunnel Symptoms?

T’is the season… for aches and pains. We love Christmas, but putting up Christmas trees, moving furniture, wrapping presents and the lifting, bending and twisting that can come with all the other holiday prep will take its toll on your body. For those of you who live in colder areas, you know what a heavy snowfall can do.

Little aches can signal big problems, which is why we don’t take them lightly. Consider this story, which happened in our office last winter.

One of our Wellness Way docs had been working with a patient for a few weeks for tingling and numbness in her hand. She was even beginning to lose strength and drop things. Work for her was becoming quite difficult since she didn’t trust herself to hold onto things anymore.

The doctor achieved minor relief with treatment fairly quickly, but the issue was persisting and giving her problems.

About a week before Christmas he began discussing matters a little more in depth, delving into other possible factors that could be causing trouble. He examined numerous muscles in her arm and all the way up into her neck.

Once he got to her neck our doctor discovered a tightness in the muscles in the front and side. This made him investigate the cause and he made an incredible discovery. She has asthma!

Many of you are thinking, “Okay, so what?”

When someone is struggling to breathe, neck muscles will engage to assist with expansion of the rib cage. Given her daily struggle to take a full, deep breath, the muscles had been working overtime her entire life and were now compressing on a nerve travelling down to her hand.

The doctor grabbed his tools and worked those muscles out.

The next week she came back and was thrilled. All week long her hand was doing wonderfully. She finished wrapping her Christmas presents with no pain or difficulty and had an entire week of relief.

At Pathway To Wellness we look to the entire body in our approach to care.

You may have depression and we look at your belly.

Come in for a thyroid issue and we may work with your adrenals.

Tingling and numbness in your hand? It could be caused by asthma.

Had she taken a more conventional approach, she would have already had carpal tunnel surgery and would be wondering why she’s still dropping things at work.

And she would still be unable to wrap the Christmas present she gave our doctor.