Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: Common Serious Symptoms

With the constant use of computers among the majority of people these days, carpal tunnel syndrome is often feared. Of course, you can also get this condition simply through doing repetitive tasks, not just computer use. The good news is that it is treatable, especially if you catch it early. In order to get the best results from treatment, you should know the signs to look for.

The first symptom most people appear to feel is a general aching in their forearms or hands. It could affect one arm or both. It may also become a general tingling or numbness, and can even affect the fingers.

Note that every finger except your pinky will likely have symptoms, as your smallest finger is controlled by a different nerve than the others. Thus, if your pinky fingers also hurt, it could be caused by a different issue altogether, and should be mentioned to your doctor.

The tingling might not sound like a big deal, but it will eventually turn into pain, which can even radiate from the tips of your fingers up to your forearms. Clearly, this could start to affect your daily habits. In fact, you might start losing sleep because it hurts so much, either after doing a repetitive motion or even when trying to sleep.

Aside from the pain, you may experience other annoyances. For example, the numbness in your hands and fingers could cause you to start dropping things. You may also start feeling like your hands are very cold, even though the rest of your body is fine, and your hands could fall asleep often. These issues could be due to losing circulation in the area.

Obviously, these symptoms could harm your productivity at work, whether you need to type or merely pick objects up. If you cannot even do daily necessities, including buttoning your shirt or tying your shoelaces, carpal tunnel syndrome is clearly impacting your life. Loss of sleep and inability to carry anything without the risk of suddenly dropping it are also major issues that will start to negatively affect your life.

If you want to eliminate the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome as soon as possible, you need to get to a doctor. Treatment will not only reduce many symptoms with some time, but it can also completely eliminate them if you catch the condition in time. The main issue is excess pressure on the median nerve, so if your doctor can figure out a way to get rid of this problem, the condition should eventually clear up.