Jul 21, 2013

What Causes Repetitive Strain Injuries?

Repetitive strain injuries (RSI's) are a blanket term covering problems like carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis and "dorsal wrist syndrome." These problems affect millions of Americans today, but the cure, as always, depends on the cause. If you're experiencing symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome, it may help to understand what's actually going on beneath your skin. According to most recent studies, the damage caused by repetitive strain injuries...

Jul 14, 2013

The Best Ergonomic Keyboards and Accessories

How should you treat your carpal tunnel syndrom?  If you have carpal tunnel syndrome, repetitive stress injury or tendinitis, or if you're trying to avoid it before it starts, the best thing you can do is get yourself an ergonomic workstation. I've been struggling with tendinitis for several years now, and every doctor I've spoken to has said that the best treatment is ergonomics. They even recommended ergonomics over rest, saying...

Jul 7, 2013

Standing Desk May Alleviate Carpal Tunnel Symptoms

Bad posture is the number one cause of carpal tunnel syndrome, wrist pain, back pain and neck pain.  And if you think you can have good posture by simply sitting up strait, think again. According to recent studies, sitting in any chair for long periods of time is unnatural and unhealthy, no matter how good your chair OR your posture. So what should you do about it? Until we all have computers installed in our sunglasses, it looks like the standing...

Jul 5, 2013

The Many Causes of Wrist Pain: Subscapularis Muscle

If you're experiencing carpal tunnel symptoms, the problem might not just be in your wrists. After three years of struggling with chronic, non-carpal tunnel wrist pain and elbow pain, I went to see a massage therapist who specialized in deep tissue massage, also known as rolfing. (Just a warning: this massage technique is not for the faint of heart). The therapist worked first on my wrists and elbows, especially the spot above my elbow. This hurt...

Jul 30, 2009

The Dangers of Painkillers for Carpal Tunnel and RSI

If you have to take a pill to counteract another pill, why not just cut them out altogether? Are wondering how to treat carpal tunnel symptoms? If so, take my advice and don't use painkillers. When I first went to a doctor complaining of wrist pain, she immediately offered me Vicodin. I declined, opting instead to take her suggested daily dose of Ibuprofin. What she didn't tell me was that continuing to take this drug for over a month could give...

Jul 28, 2009

Swedish massage instructions for hand and wrist pain

The blog of herbs and health has a great post on how to give someone (or yourself!) a forearm massage. Releasing muscle tension is key to curing almost any kind of chronic wrist pain, so I recommend you learn how it's done. If you can't afford a private massage, search for massage schools in your local area. They usually offer discounted student massages which can be just as good as the professional variety. For further self-massage instruction,...

Jul 23, 2009

Heal Carpal Tunnel Syndrome with Ergonomics

Do you type on a laptop? Well, don't. Laptop keyboards are typically small and flat, which forces you to arch your hands and put undue strain on your wrists. Looking down at the screen also puts a strain on your neck, which can lead to compression of the carpal tunnel.If you have wrist pain or want to avoid getting it, make sure your work station corresponds to basic ergonomic guidelines. That means that your forearms are parallel to the floor when...

Jun 17, 2009

Wrist pain and TMS

If you'd like to hear more about the treatments described in the previous post, there are a number of good sites out there devoted to John Sarno's theories about Tension Myositis Syndrome. Here are just a few of my favorites:tms wikitmsrecovery.com tarpityogaRachel's RSI homage Dr. Sarno's websiteIn the meantime, keep in mind that a large part of the treatment he recommends lies in truly believing that you are fundamentally o.k. - and that there is nothing "structurally" or physically wrong with you. If you feel pain, try not to focus on it. Think...

Jun 15, 2009

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and Dr. John Sarno's Mindbody Medicine

Whether you have Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, tendonitis or repetitive strain injury, there are a million people out there who will give you advice about how to deal with your pain. But before you continue to treat your wrist pain, I highly recommend you check out Dr. John Sarno's book The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders. Dr. Sarno argues that many of the conditions often associated with fibromyalgia, carpal tunnel syndrome or back...

Jun 10, 2009

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and Neck Pain

One of my biggest problems with the standard medical treatments for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is that, like most western remedies, they treat the symptoms rather than the cause. Let's say you're having pain in your wrists. You go to the doctor and they suggest that your problem is compression of the Median Nerve, the primary "cause" of CTS. But your median nerve doesn't just appear in your wrist and disappear when it hits your elbow. No, it travels...

Jun 9, 2009

Alleviate wrist pain with Voice Recognition Software

There are a lot of voice recognition programs out there, but Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 is by far the best. The Mac version is MacSpeech Dictate, and is basically the same program. It's good too, in fact I'm using it right now! Don't bother with any older or cheeper programs - they don't work. If you want to type without using your hands, get one of these two programs and a decent microphone, and you'll be good to go.Read reviews of these programs...

Self-Test for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Before you begin to treat the pain in your wrists, you should know the answer to the following question: Do you have carpal tunnel syndrome, or a different repetitive strain injury? The following is an excerpt from "3 Minutes to a Pain-Free Life," By Dr Joseph Weisberg & Heidi Shink, which you can read online here. This is the test the doctor gave me, and it seems to be pretty well accepted. REMEMBER: IF YOU DON'T HAVE CARPAL TUNNEL...