Research shows that patients suffering from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome can respond very well to Chiropractic care. Subluxations in the cervical region can impair nerve flow to the arms and hands. If carpal tunnel syndrome presents in one or especially both hands, then a full chiropractic evaluation is necessary.

Today just about everyone can be affected, but particularly people involved in occupations or leisure activities that require repetitive use of the hands and wrists (i.e., office, skilled labor jobs, tennis, golf or even knitting). Medical doctors commonly prescribe anti-inflammatory drugs, which prove ineffective in most patients and cause adverse side effects in others.

The double crush syndrome is a compression neuropathy characterized by affecting two areas along the same nerve, one usually distant from the other. A growing number of researchers have suggested a correlation between some peripheral neuropathies like carpal tunnel syndrome and cervical nerve root compression another. The nerve is "crushed" or irritated in the spine, "priming" the more distal areas of the nerve for dysfunction when that part is stressed by the second "crush").

Conservative chiropractic care of cervicobrachialgia Glick DM, Chiropr Res J, 1989; 1(3):49-52

Cervicobrachialgia, also known as "brachial neuritis" or "brachial neuralgia" involves neck and arm pain that can be described as "sharp," "stabbing," or "aching," with acute sudden onset. The pain is in the shoulder blade, the side of the neck and may continue through the upper arm.

This is the case of a 42 year-old woman diagnosed with the above condition who had suffered a fall skiing during the prior week when symptoms began. Upper cervical x-rays revealed the atlas to be displaced laterally to the right and rotated anterior on that side. The patient was adjusted upper cervically by hand.

Immediately following the first adjustment the patient reported noticeable relief in symptoms. 48 hours later she received a second adjustment. Three days later she was checked again and did not need an adjustment.

The double crush in nerve entrapment syndromes. Upton, ARM, McComas AJ. Lancet 2:329, 1973.

67% to 75% of patients who had carpal tunnel syndrome or ulnar neuropathy also had spine nerve root irritation.

Impaired axoplasmic transport and the double crush syndrome: food for chiropractic thought. Czaplak S, Clinical Chiropractic Jan. 1993 p.8-9.

The author writes: "Chiropractic has an extensive anecdotal history of patients being relieved of classic carpal tunnel symptoms with spinal adjustments and/or cervical tractioning only."