Part 3 – Trapped nerve in the neck

If you have pins and needles, numbness and pain in your hand in any distribution it is likely due to a nerve compression in your neck.  Often in this case the sensation is worsened/relieved by movement of the head in different positions.
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This condition should be checked ASAP as if left, this condition often gets worse and may need surgery, but if caught early it can usually be effectively treated with conservative management.

Part 2 - Thorasic outlet Syndrome

If you have pins and needles in the outside of your hand, your little and ring fingers, then there is a good chance it is coming from your shoulders and your neck.  One common cause of this is Thoracic Outlet Syndrome which is compression of the nerve and blood vessels in the space above your ribcage, between your neck and your shoulder. This condition is very effectively treated with gentle Chiropractic and massage. Head posture and lifestyle habits contribute significantly to this condition so you will probably need to do some exercises and make some work station adjustments to help it along.

This is a common question I get asked.  First you need to determine where the pins and needles/tingling is.  Is it in your thumb, first finger and middle finger, or is it in the little finger and ring finger?  Or is it the entire hand, or just one finger?
 
Part one – Carpel Tunnel Syndrome
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Carpal tunnel syndrome gives tingling in the thumb, first finger, middle finger and the palm of the effected hand.  Never in the little finger.  So if you have tingling in these three fingers with minimal pain then there is a good chance it is carpal tunnel.  Carpal tunnel syndrome is compression of the nerve that runs through your wrist.  This compression can be from the wrist bones, the fascia, swelling such as fluid retention (common in pregnancy) or a thickening of the tendons.  Often it can be relieved by non-invasive stretching and mobilization such as performed by Chiropractors and Physio, so try this before surgery.

My next blog will be about tingling on the outside of the hand.

This is a common presentation and if there are no pins and needles accompanying the pain, it is usually coming from the hip.

Possibilities:
1 – Pain from the hip bursa.  The bursa is a fluid filled sack on the outside of hip.  Its purpose is to provide friction free movement of the TFL tendon over the bone beneath.  It can become inflamed due to muscle tension in the area and other simple causes.  If this is the problem, it will be tender to touch/poke the outside of the hip.  It will also be painful to sleep on but it should be checked as inflammation in the bursa can be due to other hip joint pathology.
2 – Hip joint pain due to arthritis.  This pain will be accompanied by restricted range of movement of the hip joint, a tendency to lean forward when walking and sometimes a limp.  It is also difficult to cross the painful leg over the other leg.
3 – Hip joint irritation due to a problem with the joint labrum, ligaments, or the bone. This is often the case after injury.
4 – Pain referral from the spine.  This can also cause pins and needles or numbness in the region but not always.
5 – A more sinister cause such as cancer – but this is much rarer.
As you can see there are several possibilities most of which are easily treatable with non-invasive treatments such as Chiropractic and massage, and with the right testing it is easy to determine the cause, so if you have pain of this nature, be sure to check it out with your local Chiropractor.
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Please note that this is a guide to explain the most common causes of pain in this region and if in doubt you should always have your pain assessed.

One of the most common form of headaches suffered are tension headaches.  These feel like a pressure band around the head, or pain under the base of the skull, or pain in either temple or both, or a combination of these symptoms.  Some people experience these headaches daily or several times a week. I personally can’t imagine anything worse!

These headaches are routinely passed off as tension caused by stress.  What is actually happening is stress is acting on your posture to cause the headache.  Get rid of the abnormal posture and you will get rid of the headaches.

Heads are heavy.  When it your head is shifted out of position relative to your shoulders for a long period of time, muscle and joint tension builds up and this causes tension headaches.  The most common posture to cause this is forward head carriage or when you head is forward of your shoulders but any displacement will cause this.  I have copied some of the most common postures below.  And the more dramatic the posture, usually the more frequent or intense the tension headaches.
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These postures occur mostly because of lifestyle and work.  Many of the activities of our lives promote or require these postures but they can often be easily corrected with chiropractic and simple exercises so if you suffer from tension headaches, do yourself a favour and call us!

​Computer posture.  As a result of jobs, emails, skype and all the many benefits computers provide we are necessarily spending more and more time on them so here are some ergonomic pointers for all you desktop computer workers.
1 – Sit with both feet on the ground.  If you cross your legs you create all of the many patterns discussed in that post, and if you sit on one leg it is just as bad.
2 - Have whatever you are working on be that your screen and keyboard, or notes you are writing, or your mouse if you are just reading and researching, directly in front of you and not to the side.  As a rule we struggle sustaining constant head rotation – it causes headaches and neck pain.
3 – When typing, your elbows need to be level with your wrists and hands or slightly higher than your wrists and hands.  If your elbows are bent more sharply or your wrists are on an angle it increases your chances of repetitive strain injuries and carpal tunnel.
4 – Ideally, your seat should be tilted forward about 20 to 30 degrees.  In this position, your back will be better supported with less muscular effort and it promotes better neck posture and consequently better blood flow and concentration.
5 – The screen should be at eye level.
6 – Don’t sit for more than 45 minutes without getting up and moving around.  It is simply too hard to sustain good posture for longer than this and movement is a great way to relieve muscle and joint aches and stimulate blood flow.
7 – Ergonomically it has not been comprehensively studied what the effect of having two computer screens is – and this appears to be an increasing requirement in most busy offices.  At this stage it is my advice that you have one primary screen that you have directly in front of you and a second screen to one side, (or preferably a smaller screen below the primary screen so everything is in the same line).  Whatever you are working on for any period of time should be on the primary screen. NB I would not advise having two screens both at angles that you constantly have to shift your attention between.