Benefits of Yoga for Carpal Tunnel

Series Summary

Carpal tunnel syndrome is a painful, numbing, and or weakening condition of the hand and wrist that occurs when the median nerve is compacted. A number of contributing factors may cause carpal tunnel syndrome, including: a genetic predisposition, work stress, trauma, fluid retention during pregnancy, hypothyroidism, repetitive use of power hand tools, long term stress, cyst development in the hand or wrist, diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis. Perhaps the most common cause in the computer age is extended hours at the keyboard.

In order to find a cure for this predominantly modern affliction, we turn to the ancient healing system of yoga. Our expert yoga instructor offers several exercises to relieve your carpal tunnel aches and pains. Learn how to massage hands, forearm arm and shoulders to ease the tension in these areas. You will also learn finger, palm and shoulder stretches to limber up stress points and exercises such as the downward dog pose and wrist push-ups to build muscle mass.

Video Transcript

"Benefits of Yoga for Carpal Tunnel Hi. I'm Theresa Murphy on behalf of Expert Village. So today we're going to talk about Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. It's common injury or situation that lots of people find them in. Lots of keyboard work and lots of hand work can make the wrists and the forearms and the hand muscles really tight and constricted and can cause pain. The syndrome actually isn't necessarily always isolated to the wrist itself. It can start from the neck and shoulder area. If someone has a bad posture let's say, or they're constantly in this position- whether they're holding a baby, working over a counter top, or a keyboard, the shortening, and the collar bones in the chest, and over rounding the upper back can create impingement and pressure underneath the collar bones, then compressing the nerves and the line of muscles that go down to the hands. So while today we are going to work on opening up the hands and getting more mobility in the wrists, we'll also look at all the other relationships with the shoulders and the neck area and the upper back. There is a band of tendons that wraps around the wrist and is called the retinaculum and this band can get constricted and can cut off circulation and flow to the bones and muscles and tendons and veins of the hand and wrist. And it can actually cause some of the muscles in the hands to atrophy- particularly this guy- the thenar muscle. And then when this starts to happen, it actually can affect circulation in the heart and in the lungs. So there's a lot of correlation between the palm of the hand and the upper chest- thumb and index finger relating to lung health, pinky finger relating to heart health, if you look at Chinese medicine."