Understanding Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Learn how nerve compression causes carpal tunnel syndrome pain

Carpal tunnel syndrome is a condition caused by the inflammation of the nerves that feed the joint. It usually results from repetitive motion.

On the palm side of your wrist, there are eight small bones that make up one side of a "tunnel." The other side of this tunnel consists of a long flat ligament. Through this tunnel passes a nerve (the median nerve) and several blood vessels that control movement and feeling in the thumb and first three fingers. This nerve starts at your spinal cord in your neck and passes through the bones in your neck (vertebra), through your shoulder and elbow, and finally through the carpal tunnel (wrist) to your fingers. If this nerve gets compressed or pinched at the wrist, carpal tunnel syndrome results.

More Dr. Williams Advice on Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

• What causes carpal tunnel syndrome?
• What are the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome?
• Effective natural therapies for treating carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms
• Why the conventional treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome achieves only short-term results