Carpal Tunnel Syndrome - What Causes Carpal Tunnel Pain?

In my land of "the way things ought to be," we would all be in perfect physical (and mental!) balance.

We wouldn't have any pain, of course, because most pain--about 90% of all pain--is caused by out-of-balance muscles. That includes carpal tunnel pain.

You might have thought that you have pain or numbness in your hand, wrist, fingers or arm because you are doing a lot of repetitive movements.

The real reason is that you are doing a lot of repetitive movements incorrectly.

Hmmm. If you were using all of the rest of your muscles, you would be pretty well balanced. If you were pretty well balanced, you would hurt less.

But we don't.

We use only about the same 60 or so muscles over and over. Most of us haven't used ALL of our muscles since we were young kids.

And we have a LOT of muscles.

So, there are two parts to relieving your carpal tunnel pain when it is caused by repetitive movement (also called repetitive stress or motion.)

1. Doing repetitive movements in an incorrect way, for example, over-stretching your muscles. The cure for this would be to explore and find the least damaging ways to do repetitive movements.

For example, holding our elbow close to our body instead of reaching out with our arm. Holding our arm close to our waist causes less muscle strain, and so less pain in our arm and hand.

2. Being physically out-of-balance in general. When some of our muscles are being over-stretched and some are allowed to shorten--due to poor posture or habits--we get symptoms of pain, discomfort or numbness.
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When we strengthen our back and the back of our arms and neck, we take a lot of pressure off the structures that cause carpal tunnel pain.

You can find a lot of simple strengthening movements by clicking here.

And you can find a whole ton of articles about the causes and natural remedies for Carpal Tunnel Symptoms at http://CarpalTunnelPainReliefNow.com

Got Pain? Sick? Is What You Eat Causing Problems For You?

Ever wondered whether food could cause your headaches, diabetes, overweight, body pain or other problems?

Years ago, when I suffered seriously from migraines, I became aware of the cause and effect that food can have. After I eliminated trigger foods, my migraine headaches became much less severe and frequent.

My brother recently gave me some packets of honey from a well-known fast-chicken place. (That's like fast food, but it's chicken.)

I was going to put some honey in my tea, until...

I noticed that the label said "Honey" in large letters and "sauce" in little letters.

So I flipped it over to read the ingredients. Now, wouldn't you think that something that says "honey" would actually be honey?

But, nooo...

Ingredients: high fructose corn syrup, sugar, corn syrup, honey, caramel color.

Not honey.

Bad.

I don't know whether anyone has told you yet, but high fructose corn syrup is a killer. A slow killer.

Honey is a natural product. Sugar is a natural product. Sure, too much can cause problems, but a bit is fine.

High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is made by splitting corn syrup into parts. It is the sweetest part. It is extremely sweet. It is no longer a natural food.

Many, many manufacturers of "food products" use HFCS instead of honey, sugar or even whole corn syrup because it is cheaper to use.

It's one of the franken-foods.

Sounds scary, doesn't it? It is.

Because it is not real, and because it's so hyper-sweet, it messes with your pancreas and insulin level. HFCS is a primary cause of diabetes and obesity.

Don't think so?

How come we Americans are the ones with the most sugar diabetes and the fattest kids?

You know it's not "genetics" because we come from a huge gene pool from all over the world. Are the people where we came from fat and sick?

Only the ones who are starting to eat "Americanized" food are getting sick and fat.

Read the label on your bread, on your hotdogs, lunch meat, catsup...you're gonna find it all over the place.

You'll find it in places you'd never expect. Check out your ice cream, your kids' lunch foods, puddings, fruit roll ups, cereals, chocolate milk and syrup...

Some companies, like Meijers, have their own product lines and are putting good and real ingredients into many of their branded foods. Meijers has a Gold and an Organic line, both of which have pretty nice ingredients.

There are a few cereals with some sugar in them, and a few with no sweetners (hey, add your own if you need a little bit.)

Want to stop being a sucker for the food industry to make a profit from, at the expense of your health?

Read labels.

Buy food that is as close to real as you can. (Hint: Check out the fruit and vegetable aisles, beans, nuts, seeds and whole grains.)

Eventually, the food industry (it is a huge industry) will get the message.

"Because You Deserve To Feel Better!"

Pain In the Back of Your Arm? Here's A Possible Cause...

Last week I worked on a police officer.

I hate to say "worked on" because my feeling is that I work "with" people rather than "on" them. But, if I tell you I worked with him, you'd think I work with him, which I do not...

Anyway, back to my story - the officer was complaining of pain in the back of his upper arms.

As many people in law enforcement are, he was very involved with working out with weights. It is important to be physically strong in his field. Sometimes it is necessary to control a person, and an officer needs every advantage.

I noticed his shoulders were rounded very far forward.

When you lie on your back, your shoulders should be on or pretty close to the floor or bed.

But, this policeman's shoulders were not anywhere close to the treatment table he was on. I could slide practically my whole fist under his shoulders.

The gap behind his shoulders was huge!

I explained the necessity of getting his back stronger. I explained how his tight front muscles (pectoral muscles) were pulling his shoulders forward.

I explained how his forward shoulders were pulling on and overstretching the muscles in his back and the back of his arms.

His chest muscles were the cause of his pain!

And then I suggested that he lay off the pectoral muscle exercises while he gets back in balance.

He chuckled.

I knew what that meant.

Up to that point, he was with me - he heard what I was saying. But, when I said, "Lay off the pecs for a while," I lost him.

I saw it in his eyes.

He had no intention of stopping his chest exercises, even though they were causing physical pain symptoms for him.

In his mind, working his pectorals was important to his well-being and safety.

My suggestion was outside of his comfort zone.

But, sometimes, there comes a point when someone is so tired of their pain, they will do anything necessary to feel better.

They will stop blaming aches and pains on "I'm getting old," or "My aunt had the same pain."

Sometimes people get to the point where they realize that no one can fix them except themselves. And so they find out what to do.

And they do it.

And they feel better.

Because we can.

You can, too.

Bounce on over to SimpleStrengthening for lots of info on strengthening your back and getting back in balance.

"Because You Deserve To Feel Better!"

Do You Have Hip Pain?

Have you ever wondered why your hips hurt?

Do you think you need a hip replacement?

Have you paid attention to where the pain in your hip is located?

Is it in the meaty back part, at the outside, or on the bone/at the joint? Is it at the inside or outside of your thigh? Is is mid-thigh on the outside of your leg?

Are there times when your hip pain is worse or not noticeable?

Answering these questions will help you determine what's going on - why you have hip pain or discomfort - and how to get rid of it.

Having the answers to these questions will also help you explain your pain to your doctor in case you decide to talk to him or her about it.

Lately, people, including me, have been complaining about pain at the hip joint.

The hip joint is the bone that you can feel on the outside of your very upper leg. If you drop your hand down at your side, you will feel the bone somewhere around your lower arm or wrist, depending how long your arm is. What you are actually feeling is the head of your thigh bone.

Muscles and tough tissues cross over this joint.

Sometimes the bursa - a little pocket of lubrication for the joint - gets irritated. Your doctor may say you have bursitis. That can go away on its' own, especially if you stop doing whatever was irritating it.

Sometimes the muscles get aggravated. This can be from pressure, like laying on your favorite side in bed all the time. It can also be from an over-stretch, like crossing your leg.

The position that would most likely cause over-stretch is when you move your knee closer or past your midline. The midline is the imaginary line is the line that goes from your nose to belly button, straight down your body.

Lots of times people think they need a hip replacement. Often all they need is...

> Some really good therapeutic massage to release the muscles and tissues which have become tight around the joint. This includes the powerful gluteal, or butt, muscles. They attach to the hip joint and if they get tight, they will pull too much across the joint and cause discomfort.

> To stop aggravating the joint. This could mean learning to sleep on your back or other side. It might mean not letting your knee move toward or across your midline.

> Finding a new seat or car seat. Sometimes the outer edge of a seat will press against our hip bone, especially if we have wide bones. That can aggravate the muscles and cause hip pain.

> Getting their legs measured by a doctor, physical therapist or neuromuscular massage therapist who understands how to measure for leg length difference. One out of ten of us has a leg length difference. If we do, and if we get a correct lift for our short leg - get this - it takes the pressure off the hip of the short leg.

Sometimes there has been so much wear on a hip joint - usually from having a short leg - that the joint must be replaced.

Other times, just taking the pressure off the joint and getting some deep muscle massage will take the pain away!

Here are a couple of beneficial things we can do at home, easily, in the comfort of our bed.

> The first is to make the muscles around your hip joint move in multiple directions.

Most of the time, we only move in one or two directions. Moving in various directions will warm your muscles and make them more flexible.

> The second is to strengthen the muscles on the outside of the joint.

To do this, lift your leg to the side. Do this in a way that you can feel your hip muscle - your gluteal (butt) muscles - contract. You want to know that you are using those muscles. Those muscles should be involved in this movement.

If the cause of your discomfort was over-stretched muscles, strengthening in this way will help correct the problem. It will help get you back in balance.

Why do I say "back in balance?"

Because you used to be in balance, when you were a child.

And you can be again.

"Because You Deserve to Feel Better!"

Uncommon Migraine Pain Relief Tips

Your head may actually pound. Light hurts your eyes. Every sound is noise and the noise is all too loud. You might even throw up. You feel bad, and you look bad, too.

I really can't think of anything worse than a really bad migraine. A broken leg may keep you from moving, but a migraine headache keeps you from being!

Migraines come in variations. Some are worse than others and some are merely horrible. They affect every system in your body.

Some people believe that headaches and migraines are closely related. I'm one of those people. For years and years, I never had "just a headache." Each time I started with a headache, I ended up with a migraine.

The best way to avoid migraines is to have perfect posture. For those of us who are prone to headaches and migraines, any little strain on the muscles around our neck or head can, and will, cause pain.

Keeping a strong back, including the muscles in the back of your neck, helps hugely.

Learning how to have perfect posture will make a big difference in the frequency and severity of your head pain. It's really important that you have good posture when you sit, when you stand, and you even need your neck and head propped correctly when you sleep.

Avoiding the foods that cause migraine pain for you helps, too. I had a friend who would get instant migraine when she ate an orange. After a while, she started avoiding oranges. Other times, it is not an instant reaction.

A varied and healthy diet with lots of fruits and vegetables helps for many reasons. One of the reasons is that constipation can create conditions for a migraine. It may be the pressure from the packed intestines on the blood vessels in the abdomen that causes a migraine, because migraines are vascular headaches. That means they are related to what is happening with blood vessels.

"Keeping things moving" through your intestines with a good diet helps prevent migraine. You might consider taking additional fiber from a bottle to avoid constipation. Also, many headache and other medicines cause constipation.

Avoiding a migraine in the first place is a much better strategy than trying to get rid of it after you are already hurting.

But, when a migraine sneaks up, or flat out attacks, despite your best efforts, here are a few tips to help ward off or lessen your pain.

* Ice. Ice the base of your skull. Use a cold pack and put yourself in the most comfortable position you can. Use a thin towel between your skin and the cold pack. You can ice and use the next tip at the same time.

* Cold. Place a cold, almost dripping wet, cloth on your forehead and eyes. You can flip it over as it warms up from your heat. You can keep a pan of ice water next to the bed to re-wet and re-chill the cloth. You can use put a plastic bag under a towel behind your head. That will keep your bed dry.

* Compress. Wrap your head in a long towel so that it is like a turban. Cover your eyes and ears with the turban, too. The idea is to compress your head, to squeeze it. This is comforting, blocking out noise and light, and helps reduce the pain.

* Alka Seltzer. Aspirin does not touch a migraine, but...two tablets of Alka Seltzer, if taken at the beginning of a migraine attack, often knocks out the migraine. I suspect that this happens because it is a large dose of aspirin all at once, rather than gradual.

Check out my web site for help to fix your posture. Good posture will help reduce your headaches.

"Because you deserve to feel better!"

Does Stress Cause Pain?

Could it be that stress causes pain?

Yes it does. Here is how it works. We each have a central nervous system (CNS.) Our CNS governs everything in our body.

Think of it this way: Your nervous system is a highway. The impulses, or messages, that travel on your CNS are the cars.

Everything is going fine, your cars are all travelling smoothly along the highway.

Ow! Banged my big toe into the table leg. That's okay, all the cars are still moving right along.

Dang! Another notice from the bill collector! All the cars are still moving right along.

What do you mean, you want a divorce?

I have such a cold! Cars are still moving pretty good.

Fender-bender. That's going to cost me plenty. Traffic is getting heavy.

What a headache! Uh-oh. One of the cars just slid into the median.

The dog died. A bunch of other cars are slamming on their brakes to try to avoid a pile up.

Just slammed my hand in the door. I think I broke my finger. Big pile up on your highway. Cars are screeching to a halt, some are smashing into others. Traffic is stopped.

The highway is overloaded, and nothing is moving smoothly now.

We function great when we have no problems. We do pretty well when we have only a few problems. But when a lot of things are going wrong and we feel stressed...

Our CNS - our nervous system highway - begins to show symptoms of overload. We begin to have pain.

If we cannot relieve a lot of the stress, it is possible for our pain to become chronic - we have it all the time.

However, if we can remove any of the stressors in our lives, our pain can diminish and become less. Each stress that we get rid of will lower our pain level.

The more stresses we can get rid of, the more smoothly the cars on our CNS highway will start to travel again.

So, the car gets fixed, we get a new dog, our cold goes away, our toe heals. Our stress level goes down.

To help our CNS highway work better we do some things to straighten out the cars and get them all moving again.

We get a nice massage, take a soak in the tub, get lost in our favorite music to relax by, talk to our favorite friend, sniff some lavender oil or a relaxing blend of aromatherapy oil.

We do some stretching or deep breathing while relaxing. We take a walk. Hum or sing or read or laugh. Watch a kid or a puppy or a cat. Garden or dance.

Anything we can do to eliminate or negate any stresses we have will help us to feel better.

The less stress we have, the less pain.

And, there are basically two types of stress.

1. The jet fighter pilot. You have stress but it is good stress. You are in control.

2. The prisoner of war who has no control.

Good stress can feel energizing and powerful.

Repeat after me: I am the jet fighter pilot!

Yes, you are.

Do Your Feet and Legs Ache?

When our feet and legs ache it is often because we aren't using all of our muscles. I'm going to give you two quick, easy ways to correct that and to feel better fast.

Our ancestors used to run around barefoot. They ran through streams, through cold water and over rough grassy lands. They ran over rocks and pebbles. They probably had to run so they wouldn't get eaten!

But, today we usually don't have to worry about large animals chasing us. We wear nice shoes that protect the soles of our feet from stones and sticks and dewy grass. We don't have to use the muscles of our feet and legs to stabilize us. Our shoes do that for us. Many of us wear shoes all the time, even in our homes.

Here's Simple Pain Relief Tip #1 - The 10-Minute Tip

* Get a tennis ball, preferably, or a golf ball. Naturally, the tennis ball is softer and easier to press against, but the golf ball can get to smaller muscles.

* Stand up and balance yourself by holding the back of a chair or a wall, something sturdy.

*Support all of your weight on one foot.

* Place your other foot on the ball and apply pressure to the ball. Use a fair amount of pressure, enough so that you are aware of the ball.

* Apply pressure in long strokes from your heel to the ball of your foot several times. Keep moving the ball along the length of your foot. Press lengthwise along the outside of your foot, the middle, and the inside of your foot.

* Then move the ball from side to side. Press firmly but gently into the ball of your foot and the bottom of your heel.

* Keep rolling on the tennis ball for five minutes.

When you are done, put your "rolled" foot on the floor. See how much different it feels from the "unrolled" foot.

Now roll the other foot!

Here's Simple Pain Relief Tip #2 - The 2-Minute Tip

I attended a presentation by a podiatrist. He likes people to be barefoot. He even did his presentation barefoot!

He had this quick and easy way to get circulation and movement back into all the muscles of your legs and feet.

Stand up and balance on one foot. To do this, lift one leg and tuck that foot behind your other ankle.

If you need to lightly touch the back of a chair or a wall to keep your balance, until you get used to it, that's okay.

Balance on that one foot for one minute. While you are balancing, you will feel that you are using all of the muscles in your foot. You will feel your toes gripping and the sides of your foot trying to stabilize you.

After one minute, put that foot down. How does your foot and leg feel now?

Then balance on your other foot.

If you have really flat feet, without much of an arch, this will be a little harder than for the average person. Still keep practicing, anyway. It'll be good for you.

Another benefit of this balancing act is that is will help you have stronger legs and be more able to keep your balance as you age.

And, the foot doctor pointed out, if you do this at a party, the conversation will seem much more interesting!