Healing Hands: 7 Helpful Ways To Curb Carpal Tunnel Symptoms
Whether you're wrapping presents, changing a diaper, clicking away at the keyboard or simply trying to get a sound night's sleep, carpal tunnel symptoms can really cramp your style. Here are seven ways to heal your aching hands and get back to a relatively pain-free life.
1. Relax!
Ever notice how tightly some people grip a pen or pencil between their fingers? That type of death grip puts a lot of pressure on all the muscles and nerves of the hand, creating undue tension, which, over time, can lead to permanent pain and even disfigurement. Loosen your grip and try to lighten up with whatever you do with your hands, particularly repetitive tasks. Additionally, don't forget that ordinary stress leads to muscle tension that can linger in your fingers, among other places, contributing to painful joints and aching muscles. If you have no doctor-ordered restrictions on movement, consider hand yoga to seriously de-stress those digits. 2. …show more content…
Support Your Wrists Whenever Possible
Braces and supports may go a long way in helping you meet the demands of your job, without getting in the way of productivity. Support your wrists if you are always on a keyboard and try a brace that keeps your fingers and thumbs from pulling too much on internal nerves, which are likely to be compressed if you're experiencing frequent wrist pain. If you're permitted to make purchasing decisions at your company, see that people have the right equipment to hold up their wrists, right around elbow level; otherwise, they're likely to periodically need time off to recuperate, as are you.
3. Sit Up Straight The head bone is connected to the neck bone and the neck bone is connected to the back bone...all the way to the tips of your fingers and improper posture actually shortens muscles and compresses nerves, leaving digits in poor and vulnerable condition. Make sure your blood flow is uninterrupted and all your muscles and nerves can do their supportive jobs without compromise to your weary wrists. 4. Stretch Your Hands Especially if your spend the day with your fingers cramped on a keyboard, they need some relief. If you're prone to arthritis, too, tendons may become inflamed temporarily or thicken permanently, leaving you worse for the wear by the time five o'clock rolls around. Give your hands and wrists frequent breaks and stretch them thoroughly, by extending them completely, then drawing them back into a fist and repeating. Even if you're chasing a deadline or have an overbearing boss breathing down your neck, stretching regularly will keep fingers more nimble and less likely to give you pain. If you engage in repetitive work involving your hands, take extra care to stretch and massage weary fingers, as repetitive motion can be very distressing to your body. 5. Don't Bend Your Wrists To Extremes If you opt out of wearing a brace while you work, make a conscious effort to avoid bending your wrists either forward or backward, as this motion will put greater pressure on the vital nerves within the wrist. If you workout, be careful with maneuvers such as push-ups and pull-ups, where an enormous amount of stress is applied to the wrists. Also, never lift weights without wrist guards, if you're so inclined to
Whether you're wrapping presents, changing a diaper, clicking away at the keyboard or simply trying to get a sound night's sleep, carpal tunnel symptoms can really cramp your style. Here are seven ways to heal your aching hands and get back to a relatively pain-free life.
1. Relax!
Ever notice how tightly some people grip a pen or pencil between their fingers? That type of death grip puts a lot of pressure on all the muscles and nerves of the hand, creating undue tension, which, over time, can lead to permanent pain and even disfigurement. Loosen your grip and try to lighten up with whatever you do with your hands, particularly repetitive tasks. Additionally, don't forget that ordinary stress leads to muscle tension that can linger in your fingers, among other places, contributing to painful joints and aching muscles. If you have no doctor-ordered restrictions on movement, consider hand yoga to seriously de-stress those digits. 2. …show more content…
Support Your Wrists Whenever Possible
Braces and supports may go a long way in helping you meet the demands of your job, without getting in the way of productivity. Support your wrists if you are always on a keyboard and try a brace that keeps your fingers and thumbs from pulling too much on internal nerves, which are likely to be compressed if you're experiencing frequent wrist pain. If you're permitted to make purchasing decisions at your company, see that people have the right equipment to hold up their wrists, right around elbow level; otherwise, they're likely to periodically need time off to recuperate, as are you.
3. Sit Up Straight The head bone is connected to the neck bone and the neck bone is connected to the back bone...all the way to the tips of your fingers and improper posture actually shortens muscles and compresses nerves, leaving digits in poor and vulnerable condition. Make sure your blood flow is uninterrupted and all your muscles and nerves can do their supportive jobs without compromise to your weary wrists. 4. Stretch Your Hands Especially if your spend the day with your fingers cramped on a keyboard, they need some relief. If you're prone to arthritis, too, tendons may become inflamed temporarily or thicken permanently, leaving you worse for the wear by the time five o'clock rolls around. Give your hands and wrists frequent breaks and stretch them thoroughly, by extending them completely, then drawing them back into a fist and repeating. Even if you're chasing a deadline or have an overbearing boss breathing down your neck, stretching regularly will keep fingers more nimble and less likely to give you pain. If you engage in repetitive work involving your hands, take extra care to stretch and massage weary fingers, as repetitive motion can be very distressing to your body. 5. Don't Bend Your Wrists To Extremes If you opt out of wearing a brace while you work, make a conscious effort to avoid bending your wrists either forward or backward, as this motion will put greater pressure on the vital nerves within the wrist. If you workout, be careful with maneuvers such as push-ups and pull-ups, where an enormous amount of stress is applied to the wrists. Also, never lift weights without wrist guards, if you're so inclined to