Just inside your wrist is a narrow, bony passage called the carpal
tunnel. Anything but empty, this tunnel contains nine tendons as well
as a nerve called the median nerve, all of which are encased,
sausage-like, in a slippery sheath called the synovium. When the
synovium and tendons become inflamed and swollen, they squeeze the
median nerve, which runs to the fingers.
Ever watch a live
electrical wire rub metal? The pinched median nerve can send angry
sparks of pain, numbness and tingling from your fingertips to your
shoulder. More often the pain is in the thumb and the index and middle
fingers. Sometimes the ring finger is also involved. Many people who
suffer from CTS say it feels like their hands have fallen asleep;
others complain of weak grips and stiff fingers.
Women seem to
suffer from CTS more often than men. Changes in female hormones caused
by pregnancy, taking birth control pills and menopause somehow make the
synovium swell. And because women generally have small wrists, just a
little swelling is enough to cause carpal tunnel pain, experts say.
Surgeons agree that CTS should not be treated with surgery during pregnancy. Studies by Dr. Ellis found that vitamin B6
helped relieve CTS in 11 percent of the pregnant women with severe CTS
signs and symptoms during their pregnancies. These women were treated
with 50 to 300 milligrams of B6 daily for at least 60 to 90
days before giving birth. And there was no harm to either the mother or
the child. If you'd like to try this therapy, you should discuss it
with your doctor.
Obesity creates a similar situation. "There
is about a fivefold increase in CTS in people who are obese and couch
potatoes. So we encourage them to be in better shape and lose weight,"
says Morton Kasdan, M.D., clinical professor of plastic surgery at the
University of Louisville in Kentucky and clinical professor of
preventive medicine and environmental health
at the University of Kentucky in Lexington.
CTS has also become the unofficial health complaint of the modern age,
the result of an increase in cases among people in manufacturing jobs.
Officials at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics don't keep records of
the number of CTS cases reported each year. Between 1986 and 1992,
cases of "repetitive trauma disorders" (a category that includes CTS
and similar conditions) zoomed from 50,000 to 282,000.
Xanya Sofra Weiss
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