CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME, BLOCKAGES and MORE

This affliction has rapidly become too familiar a diagnosis for many.  To explain ‘blockages’ on paper is a far more difficult task than you would imagine and hopefully that at the end of this article, the definition is completely clear to you. 

The sufferers of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS), are usually people who do ‘repetitive wrist motion’ on a regular basis, such as; athletes, hairstylists, musicians, restaurant servers and in high numbers – people who work on computer keyboards.  Symptoms can range from mild numbness to excruciating pain –described as nerve spasms, burning, tingling or weakness.  CTS can affect one or both arms and is usually worse in the morning or at night, when the circulation is slowest. 

Too often, these victims are sent for surgery whereby the relief is most certainly short lived and the CTS almost always will return.

The Median Nerve is one that controls the thumb muscles and is responsible for sensations in the thumb muscles, the palm and the first three fingers of the hand.  This nerve can be vulnerable to compression due to; swelling or edema (water retention), bone spurs/fractures, arthritis, etc.  There is a very small tunnel that this nerve passes through, about ¼ of an inch below the surface of the wrist.  When CTS is in the beginning stage, the pain is usually localized to the wrist and fingers.  As it progresses, the forearm can be involved and in severe cases, the shoulder. 

Now, to give you a perfectly logical explanation as to ‘where’ the CTS originates, then how to treat the origin, so that you are eventually healed.   Yes.  It ‘is possible’ without the permanent side effects left by surgery. 

Your blood, life energy/chi – these circulate through your body on a never ending basis to sustain you.  Warmth in a body part shows that chi is present.  Coldness shows that chi is not present.  Chi moves the blood.  Chi and blood nourish the body.  When either are stuck or weak, we become ill.  As long as they are flowing unimpeded, you are in optimum health.  We will use ‘a river’ as symbolic of life flowing through your body.   As the water in a river flows freely, everything downstream that depends on that flow, flourishes.  If the water is dammed partially, the life it sustains downstream will suffer. Bit by bit, the plant life, etc. that depends on the river water, will start to dry up.  As long as there is a trickle, some of the plant life will still live – although in a state of distress.  This is exactly what happens if your circulation is obstructed ‘upstream’ (sometimes called a blockage).  Imagine that you were to take a wide elastic band and wrap it tightly around your shoulder and under the arm pit.  In a minute or so, your fingers would begin to tingle.  Then shortly thereafter, the tingle would change to pain and would intensify the longer the ‘flow’ was cut off.   The cause is a ‘blockage’ of energy at the shoulder but the pain manifests itself in the fingers, eventually encompassing the whole arm.  This ‘blockage’ can be from an old or new injury OR from doing something repetitious.  If your job consists of using a jackhammer, typing at a computer, playing a musical instrument, etc., there is a tension that develops in the shoulders.  This tension can hamper the circulation and then there can be some inflammation involved.  So if you have CTS, your pain may be in your wrists and hands but the key to treating it is not in those areas.  An acupuncturist/acupressurist/deep tissue masseur will find the blocked area ‘in your shoulder(s)’ and work on it.  They will attempt to open the blockage and allow the circulation of blood/chi to flow freely.   This may take several treatments, depending on how long the blockage has been manifesting itself.

When you go for a treatment, you’ll be at point ‘A’.  Your ‘acupuncturist’ will work on a specific spot or spots that are blocked, to open the flow of energy and relieve your pain.  Hypothetically, he/she will bring you to point ‘B’.  You’ll leave their office, having made another appointment.  Right after your treatment, most often, the blockage(s) will begin to ‘fill in’ again.  It’s like finding a little pond of water on the beach.  If you were to take a stick and drag it through the sand, from the pond of water, the water flow will follow the little rut that you’ve made but if you look back, you’ll see the sand is filling in the rut.  This can happen with your blockage.

So by the time you make it back for your next appointment, you may be halfway back to point ‘A’.  The shorter the duration between treatments, the less chance of this happening. 

There is also an added option.  Ancient Alternatives has a few formulas that increase circulation and move through your body like ‘PacMan’.  Most of you will remember that old video game where this little ‘head’ would travel through tunnels, chomping and eating.  Master Herbalist Victor Shim has blended herbal formulas that can move through your circulatory passages (like PacMan) and ‘eat through’ blockages.  If you were to take one or two of these formulas while undergoing treatment, such as acupuncture etc., when you leave the office at ‘point B’, the herbs can keep you there or even help you towards ‘point C’.  Eventually, between the ‘treatments’ and the herbs your circulation will flow freely.  The feeling will return to your hand, wrist and whole arm.  We’ve seen amazing ‘healings’ taken place after the circulation returns to a specific part of the body.  For instance; headaches disappearing after opening the circulation to the head by unblocking the energy in the shoulders and neck/ Feeling returning to the feet (actual warm feet!) once the energy was unblocked in the sciatic and down the legs/ Nausea gone when the stomach points (acupuncture charts show these) on the top of the shoulders are opened.... Your energy/chi must flow freely, so that it can feed the energies of the whole body.  Think about a beaver dam on a river.  You take a few sticks out and let some water flow through and the small trickle of water will eat its way through and continually make the opening larger.  Some of our herbal blends will help with this process in your body.

There will be NO ‘side effects’ as there are with surgery BUT there will be ‘healing indications’.  Some may be very mild and barely noticeable and some indications will be fairly strong.   One day you may be quite tired or have aches where you’ve never had aches before but these will move around and may only last for a couple of hours or up to 3 or 4 days depending on the blockage and how long you’ve had it.  You may have had an accident in your childhood (fell out of a tree house, body checked in hockey, vehicle accident, etc.) and it’s been manifesting itself for years.  If it’s a relatively new blockage/injury, you’re healing time will be shorter.  In some cases, if bone is involved (such as the spinal column), you may need a chiropractor to do some adjusting.  We actually have several chiropractors using our formulas with great success.  When the bone(s) is moved into place, the herbs can help keep it there by making the muscle stronger.

The Ancient Alternatives formulas that can increase circulation and treat blockages are;  

#4 – Easepayn                          

Made to increase circulation and help with muscle strain, arthritis, etc. Cannot be taken by women during their cycle

#6A – Cir-Q-Lation V.S.                      

This recipe is over 2 thousand years old and was originally made for the martial arts and impact injuries/blocked chi.  This blend can actually help to prevent blockages that can happen after accidents and sports injuries.

#6B – Cir-Q-Lation L.K.T                    

The same properties as the 6A but concentrates on the lower circulation.

Both 6A and 6B are very potent and should be started at one capsule a day for several days.    Add one more capsule at a time every 5 – 7 days until you are taking 2 capsules twice daily (adults). 

#18 – NT-Pain-Plus      

This blend can take the place of pharmaceutical pain killers (without the side effects) while increasing circulation

#33 – Omni-X              

This also increases circulation but has many other healing properties and is less severe in the healing indications.

When taking any of the above formulas, if the healing indications are too strong, cut back to an amount that you are comfortable with and then slowly increase again.  Our suggestion is to take the formula(s) until you have relief and all the migrating pains are gone.  Take 1 or 2 more bottles at full dosage and then 1 or 2 more bottles at ‘one capsule a day’. Taking one of these formulas (while playing hockey, doing heavy yard work, working out, after an accident, etc) can help to prevent blockages. 

For more detailed information, go to the ‘Herbal Stores Tab’ on this website to see if there is a consultant in your area.   Give one of them a call or email.  They are trained in the use of our formulas and will do their best to answer all your questions.  If there is no consultant in your area, contact any one of them from the website and/or maybe you should consider becoming one yourself.