How to Treat Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (Science-Backed Solutions)

Are you looking for ways to treat carpal tunnel syndrome? The condition often causes pain, tingling, or numbness in your hand and wrist, making it tough to handle everyday tasks like holding a pencil, tying your shoes, or lifting a cup.

In this article, I will give you all the information you need on how to overcome carpal tunnel syndrome.

I will list all the treatment options out there. We’ll be talking about ergonomics, splints, exercises, surgery and more.

I will tell also you when which option works best and how to start your treatment right now.

The basis of all this information is scientific research. So no guess-work here!

The Big Problem about Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

You need your hands for most daily activities. That’s the main reason why Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is so limiting:

From brushing your teeth, to driving in the car, to using a mouse or pencil at work.

Hell even holding a cup of coffee can be problematic.

There is so much uncertainty out there, on which treatment option is best. This leads to you kind of trying everything and not making any real progress.

I get how frustrating this is. We’re about to change this now!

There are three main things we need to cover. The symptoms, cause and treatment options of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

Symptoms of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome:

Often other types of wrist pain are incorrectly labeled as carpal tunnel syndrome.

I touched on some of the symptoms before. You will feel the following sensations in your wrist and/or hand:

• pain
• numbness
• burning sensation
• tingling (pins & needles)

For many people, the symptoms get worse at night. In more serious cases, it can make it hard to control the hand muscles like usual. This can lead to muscle atrophy – a decrease in muscle mass.

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Cause of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome:

The median nerve can get irritated by various things. For instance, doing a repetitive hand movement often, like typing or using a mouse.

Another trigger can be spending a lot of time with your wrist in end range flexion or extension.

End range flexion is common when sleeping with a bent wrist.

End range extension happens a lot when supporting your bodyweight on the floor. Think push-ups or handstands.

Pregnant women are also often affected by carpal tunnel syndrome (Ablove & Ablove 2009). This seems to relate to fluid retention and swelling.

Now that we know what carpal tunnel syndrome is and how it develops, what can we do about it?

Many people believe that non-surgical treatments are ineffective and that surgery is best.

Yet, conservative treatments are the way to go! These would be: wrist splints, exercises, and activity modification! Let’s take a closer look at the treatment options now.

How to Treat Carpal Tunnel Syndrome:

Let’s start with the conservative method – and for a good reason.

For most people, conservative treatment is enough to get out of pain. Middleton and Anakwe showed this in their research (2014).

Breaks & Ergonomics

We spoke about how typing and mouse usage can lead to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

Let’s say you have trouble with your wrist and hands due to repetitive work at your desk. The simplest activity modification would be to take regular breaks. Say every 45-60 minutes.

You can also try tweaking the ergonomics of your workspace. Examples are:

• Adjust the height of your chair or desk
• Use a different mouse or keyboard
• Change their positions.

I have to mention that the research on ergonomics is pretty thin. Studies like those by O’Connor et al. (2012) and Schmid et al. (2015) show that we can’t say for sure if it helps.

But since it’s easy to change and doesn’t cost much, I’d definitely give it a shot!

Otherwise, as I said, take regular breaks and do some exercises (we’ll get to that in a moment).

Splints for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Are you experiencing severe issues at night?

In such cases, using a splint might actually be helpful.

The splint keeps your wrist in a neutral position, preventing irritation of the nerve.

Yes, you could try to work with pillows here to keep the wrist in the neutral position.

The problem is, that you can only influence the position you fall asleep in.

Your body will move A LOT. Check out this article if you want more info on this.

If your pain is quite strong, you can also wear the splint during the day.

The effectiveness of splints for carpal tunnel syndrome is quite debated. Karjalainen et al. (2023) have done extensive research on this.

But again: since a splint doesn’t cost much, it might be worth trying out to see if it helps you.

Exercises for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

If I could only give you 3 exercises, it would be the ones that I’ll show you now.

Exercise 1: Median Nerve Mobilization

1. Stand upright.
2. Extend your wrist.
3. Rotate your arm, so your fingers point backward.
4. Slightly move your arm away from your body.
5. Lift your shoulder up and then push it back down.

For more intensity, tilt your head away from your arm to increase the stretch.

Make sure to choose a suitable intensity, aiming for a stretch tension of about 2-3/10.

The goal is to mobilize the nerve, not irritate it with too much stretching.

If this feels uncomfortable, make it easier by:

1. Flexing your wrist more.
2. Bending your elbow.
3. Reducing the shoulder movement.

Exercise 2: Finger Waves

1. Extend your wrist.
2. Curl your fingers from top to bottom, sliding them along your palm.
3. Let your wrist move along with the fingers.
4. Once at the bottom, extend your fingers and wrist to return to the starting position.

If this is too challenging, reduce the range of motion.

The median nerve originates in the cervical and thoracic spine. It then runs along the shoulder and arm.

That’s why it can be useful to mobilize those areas as well. This exercise takes care of it all.

Exercise 3: 90/90 Stretch with Arm Sweep

1. Lie on your back.
2. Cross your legs.
3. Roll onto one side.
4. Place both arms at shoulder height.
5. Move the top arm in a large circle over your head and past your body until it reaches the lower back.
6. Keep your legs on the ground.
7. Let your head follow the arm movement.

If this is too intense, make a smaller circle.

Now you might wonder: How often should I do these exercises? We’ll cover that in the rehab plan now.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Rehab Plan

You can do all three exercises several times a day. Perform each exercise for 30-60 seconds and use them as breaks from repetitive tasks.

If you work at a desk a lot, try doing these exercises every two hours as a short 1-3 minute break. You don’t need more time than that.

Very important side note here: people often freak out when they hear “several times a day”.

This is optional.

Start with a frequency that works well for you. If the exercises help you, you will naturally do them more frequently.

Some exercise is definitely better than none.

We have one more conservative treatment method to cover.

Injections

I’m not a huge fan, but they seem to help quite well with mild to moderate carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms. A recent review by Ashworth et al. (2023) supports this.

Injections would be my last conservative resort, though. I’d go for all the other options first.

By the way, if you ever need help with your pain, you can contact me and my team. For more information about the pain coaching, simply click on this link. We offer remote Pain Coaching and work with people from all over the world.

While I love conservative approaches, they don’t work for everyone.

You might see great progress. You might notice no change at all. Or you might even experience a worsening of symptoms.

That’s why I want to touch on surgery as well.

Surgery

It’s strongly recommended to try conservative methods first. But if the pain persists for more than six months, surgery seems to yield better results.

Shi and MacDermid came to this conclusion in their research paper (2011).

Conclusion & Next Steps

First, try the conservative approach. If needed, consider a cortisone injection, and if none of that works, think about surgery.

We talked about how Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is often triggered by working at the desk, right? You might attribute your rounded back to that as well. Check out this article here, for the unknown truth about rounded backs.

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