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Are You Suffering With Carpal Tunnel?

Even if you are taking it easy during your pregnancy, you can still fall victim to many uncomfortable and unwanted symptoms. Unfortunately, one of the more painful symptoms you may experience during your pregnancy is carpal tunnel.

What Causes Carpal Tunnel During Pregnancy?

Does it seem strange to you that the risk of Carpal Tunnel is increased during pregnancy? Most likely, you've been taking it easy and not overexerting your wrists. But in fact, Carpal Tunnel is actually caused by water retention, and during your pregnancy your body will retain 10 to 15% more water than usual. This pressure exerts upon the nerve that passes along the wrist to the hand and causes pain.

How Can You Tell If You Have Carpal Tunnel?

Here are some of the most common symptoms of Carpal Tunnel:

- pins and needles in your hands
- swelling in your wrists
- strained wrists or hands
- burning in the thumb, index, or middle finger
- difficulty making a fist
- difficulty gripping things
- severe pain in your hands
- inability to differentiate between hot and cold

What Can You Do to Ease the Pain of Carpal Tunnel?

If you've been doing repetitive and exhaustive activities during your pregnancy, you'll want to stop them. This is always the first instruction given for people suffering with carpal tunnel during their pregnancy. This is essential because it will take pressure off of your nerve and give your hand and wrist time to rest and recuperate.

Important Note: Even though the main cause of carpal tunnel during pregnancy is water retention, don't stop drinking fluids! Depriving your body and your baby from fluids during pregnancy is definitely not a good idea because it could harm yourself and your baby through dehydration.

Things You Should Avoid if You're Suffering From Carpal Tunnel

- Avoid activities requiring excessive up-and-down and side-to-side movements of the wrist as much as possible.
- Avoid working for long periods at a computer, or at least force yourself to take a five minute break every hour to get up and walk around.
- Avoid wearing tight watches or jewelry
- Avoid activities requiring forceful repetitive grasping, such as using garden cutters

Helpful Stretching Exercises

You can perform stretching exercises to help treat carpal tunnel syndrome during your pregnancy. Simple grip balls can be purchased for under five dollars from most chiropractic stores, or you can actually take a trip to your local pet store as most pet chew toys will produce the same effect. Just be sure that the ball fits in your hand comfortably and will exert a minimal amount of resistance when it is squeezed. Typically, you will want to perform ten repetitions with the squeeze ball, wait one or two minutes, and then perform another ten repetitions. Don't overexert yourself by squeezing the ball too quickly or with excessive force.

Carpal Tunnel Medication

Medicines like corticosteroid and prescription based NSAID's can help in relieving the syndrome. If the condition gets worse, there is the option of surgery. You should consult your doctor immediately if you feel you may be suffering with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Do not take any medicine for carpal tunnel syndrome without first consulting with your doctor.

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