We have been seeing a lot of people with shoulder, arm, and hand complaints lately.
Some of the named conditions are….
- Shoulders: Rotator cuff injuries, bursitis, frozen shoulder
- Arm: Tennis elbow, Elbow tendonitis
- Hand and Wrist: Carpal tunnel syndrome, Finger numbness/tingling/pain, Grip strength weakness, Cold hands
- Neck: Muscle Tension, Neck Pain
You may have something that fits the exact description, or it may be a spin off issue that is somewhat different. We call these musculosketal conditions. The good news is that we are specialists with these kinds of problems and can help troubleshoot what is causing most of them, and what can be done for them.
Why do people have so many arm complaints?
The short answer is, many of us spend a great deal of time on the computer each day and our arms get exhausted and get injured from overuse. Others of us are doing manual labor with construction and concrete work. And some even from playing instruments.
That said, there are many triggering factors that cause the pain and numbness to start. They might be, “I was just reaching under the chair to grab something”, “I was boxing with a punching bag”, “i just turned to look at something and i felt a pull or a pop”. and if you are like most people, you think, that ‘thing’ that you just did, was the cause of the problem!!
The truth of the matter is, for most of these ‘pains or numbness’s’, the cause of the problem was weeks or months in the making. When we are evaluating in office what is going on with these problems, we commonly find that there are tight and stuck muscles and joints all around the problem area and many times well away from the area as well that have put extra stress on the complaint area causing it to fail and now creating symptoms.
In other words you have been developing some bad habits for a while and now your body is telling you its had enough! You may not have known the stresses were building up because the body tends to bury pain when it doesn’t know what to do about it, but the problem was still there, smoldering.
What can be done about them?
The first step is find out what is causing the problem. An example might be, you have some pain in one arm and some tingling happening in 1 or 2 fingers on the same side. We do a consultation and find out that you use the keyboard a lot for work, we examine your arm and find the muscles on the back of your arm that hold the hands up off the keyboard are overworked and you have developed a muscle problem in the arm and it is irritating a nerve that goes into the fingers.
For this, we would give some specific stretches to start opening the problem area and give the body a chance to heal. we might do some adjustment, or massage, or some acupuncture treatment to assist the healing process in the arm and all the way up to the neck. And then we watch as the problem gets better and you can get your life back!
If you have a question about a shoulder, arm, or hand condition or would like to schedule an appointment, feel free to email us your question at Lakeview Center Chiropractic, or call or text (425)889-4701.
Wishing you the best of health!
Your Lakeview Center Team