Carpal Tunnel Syndrome can cause great pain and interfere with your life and productivity. Its effects can range from mildly irritating wrist, hand, and finger tingling that needs to be constantly shaken out to severe pain and partial debilitation of the hand. CTS can virtually always be treated, but that doesn’t mean that the treatment is necessarily easy or desirable.

How does one treat carpal tunnel syndrome? It depends on how severe your condition is and what may work best for you. In most cases, a wrist brace is first recommended to immobilize the wrist so that the median nerve is not further irritated. Most often, though, the brace is usually worn during sleep and not during the day. This can mean that hands and wrists are allowed to go through the normal ranges of motion during the day, which can exacerbate symptoms further. Therefore, it’s recommended that one curtail the use of affected hands and wrists as much is possible during the period of healing. This may mean not using your dominant hand (assuming that that’s the one that has carpal tunnel syndrome) to brush your teeth, open and close the door, write, type, and so on. And of course, this can be very inconvenient and disabling in and of itself.

Oftentimes, a treatment recommended is that one wear the brace(s) for a period of two weeks, along with the possible use of anti-inflammatories available over the counter like acetaminophen, ibuprofen, or aspirin. One particular company has also developed a patented device that is somewhat similar to the traditional brace, but is purported to be better fitting and more flexible. Its purpose is not to necessarily immobilize the wrist so much, but to gently pull on the inflamed and swollen joint areas so that the pressure on the median nerve is reduced.

If you use keyboards a lot at work it’s recommended that you get an ergonomic keyboard. Also get a wrist pad. Your hands, wrists, and elbows should always be aligned and parallel to the floor when you’re typing. You should take 10-minute breaks about every hour and during that time for a walk and massage your hands. Massage your hands a few times while at home, too.

If you follow these methods of treatment (including use of over-the-counter anti-inflammatories as applicable) and you still have carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms, your doctor may be able to prescribe stronger medications that are corticosteroids. You cannot buy these over the counter and they also do have side effects. If you’ve come to this point, you may want to look into other treatments that are available for carpal tunnel syndrome as well. Chiropractic medicine may be able to help, with treatments such as joint and spinal manipulation and ultrasound. Acupuncture, too, is often effective with carpal tunnel syndrome, although acupuncture also usually includes dietary changes and herbal treatments. With acupuncture, traditional needles or laser application may be used.

If all else fails, you may have to go in for surgery. The surgery could be endoscopic or just full-open. Either way,the transverse carpal nerve gets cut to relieve the symptoms. This does not seem to harm the hand’s motion abilities or strength, but there can be scarring from the procedure. You will also experience pain and swelling in the hand immediately after the surgery. And although uncommon, there can be some very bad complications from the surgery including nerve damage.

But what might be the best way for every individual to prevent CTS is to do special exercises designed to treat it and prevent it. These involve no drugs, they are always non-invasive, and they are inexpensive and convenient. They should probably be into before anything else.

Trying these easy carpal tunnel exercises, as provided by Thom Nicholson (noted CTS Guru), can help you avoid surgery and ease the pain caused by Carpal Tunnel Syndrome without invasive surgery. Help your body heal itself!