There are wonderful carpal tunnel remedies you can use without having hand surgery. They're especially effective when symptoms are in the mild or moderate stage. And when used properly these remedies usually result in complete relief of carpal tunnel symptoms.

Each of these remedies are natural. That's why they're great for even pregnant women. You can do them at home and with almost no cost. They're also simple and uncomplicated. More than anything, these carpal tunnel syndrome treatments are highly effective against this painful and numbing disorder that affects millions.

• FIND OUT: do you have carpal tunnel? No strings attached self-test.

The old expression, "There's no time like the present" directly applies to using the proper carpal tunnel remedies NOW. In other words, you should never wait until symptoms get to be "bad enough to do something".

All too often patients tell me, “I should have paid attention to it a year ago.” A laid-back attitude toward their early symptoms is why I get a lot of patients now, at the severe stage, with crushing pain or punishing numbness.

Regarding when to seek treatment, carpal tunnel syndrome has 2 amazing facts you should know about:

1. When you first feel symptoms, you can almost always eliminate them with simple remedies.
2. If you ignore those early symptoms, they will progress & worsen about 55% of the time.
   

Ask anybody who ignored their symptoms; when carpal tunnel worsens, it gets VERY bad. I have many patients who ignored symptoms for a long time - some for several years. 

Eventually they reached the stage of severe carpal tunnel syndrome. And one of the things they frequently say is, 

“The pain is so bad, I feel like cutting my hand off.”

Curiously, some people never have pain as their major symptom, even in the severe stage. Instead, intense numbness overtakes their fingers and hand. The numbness can be so powerful that it’s almost impossible to concentrate or sleep.

But when there is pain during the severe stage, patients say it feels like your hand is in a vice. The gnawing, crushing pain keeps increasing more and more as though there’s no escape from the punishment.

If the extreme pain doesn’t drive you mad, and you do nothing about it, eventually the pain will subside. But that's not good!  The lack of pain means your median nerve is essentially dead. Your hand will be almost totally numb and useless. 

At that point, you’ll barely be able to wiggle your fingers. Usually, the hand curls up permanently. Doctors and patients call this deformity carpal tunnel "claw hand".

This is the end-stage or atrophy stage of carpal tunnel syndrome. In this stage, your thumb muscle has degenerated. This is evidenced by thumb muscle atrophy. In other words, the normally plump area or “bump” on your palm, below your thumb, flattens out. It means you can’t use your thumb to grasp anymore.

In fact, with end-stage carpal tunnel syndrome your hand can be so lifeless that you won’t even feel boiling water. As a result, some patients suffer serious kitchen injuries while cooking. They either cut themselves deeply or burn their skin simply because they can't feel anything on the palm side of their fingers or hand.

Hopefully you won’t allow symptoms get even close to severe or end-stage carpal tunnel syndrome. That’s because the best carpal tunnel remedies are relatively simple to apply – at least in its early stages. But to treat carpal tunnel syndrome effectively, first you need to verify that you indeed have it.

After arthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome is the most common condition of the hand. But symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome can feel just like those of other conditions. Most notably, these are:

• Wrist Flexor Tendonitis
• De Quervain’s Tendinitis
• Cubital Tunnel Syndrome
• Dupuytren’s Contracture
• Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (Complex Regional Pain Syndrome)
• Rheumatoid arthritis

These conditions can appear like carpal tunnel, and vice versa. And it's the main reason carpal  tunnel syndrome is misdiagnosed by doctors over half of the time. Most commonly, a diagnosis of wrist flexor tendonitis is given instead ov carpal tunnel syndrome.

But what’s most important is these other conditions are also very treatable. However, you don’t treat them the same way you treat carpal tunnel syndrome.

Therefore, have your symptoms diagnosed properly. A diagnostic evaluation can tell the difference between carpal tunnel syndrome and another condition.  For help, see this self-testing tool: How to tell the difference between carpal tunnel and tendonitis.

Knowing which hand condition you have is the key to treatment. That’s because if you rule out carpal tunnel syndrome, you have a good chance of getting relief from the other conditions with relatively little bother.

But if you recognize the symptoms and actually DO have carpal tunnel, there are good treatments options. And remember: you should always apply your carpal tunnel remedies immediately, before the disorder worsens.

I cannot over-emphasize how important early treatment is. It’s relatively easy to eliminate carpal tunnel when symptoms first appear. But it’s extremely difficult (if not impossible) to effectively treat it in the severe or end-stage. Trust me on this because I see carpal tunnel claw hands every single day.

In most instances, patients can eliminate carpal tunnel symptoms without hand surgery. This is also the advice of the National Institutes of Health and the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (who regulate hand surgery). They say that hand surgery should be your absolute last option, after all non-surgical carpal tunnel remedies failed.

Both institutions recommend that patients use a combination of non-surgical carpal tunnel syndrome treatments. Why? Because most times a two- or three-pronged approach to treatment is maximally effective.

Of course, the success of such remedies depends on the severity of your condition. In general, even in the stage of severe carpal tunnel syndrome you can expect to manage or even eliminate symptoms when these remedies are properly used.

Treating ANY STAGE of carpal tunnel syndrome without surgery involves 3 primary Steps. 

They're not hard to follow: 

The very first step you should take is recognizing the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome. These can be one or more of the following:

1. Pain, numbness, tingling, burning, itching, soreness, puffy feeling in your fingers and/or hand
2. Usually your thumb and index fingers are worse; your little finger is never involved
3. Weakness in your grip or loss of hand strength (e.g., it’s hard turning a door knob or opening a jar)
4. Loss of finger dexterity (e.g., it's hard to pick up coins, button a shirt, tie a shoelace, or hold a cup)
5. Feeling shooting electric shocks through your hand
6. Cannot sleep at night because hand/finger pain or numbness wakes you up
7. Pain or numbness holding a steering wheel, book, phone, or a child
   

Your third step in treating the condition is using the remedies below. When and how use use them will depend on how severe your symptoms are. Your regimen will depend on your symptoms being in the mild versus moderate or severe stage. Note that the carpal tunnel remedies will be similar for each stage, but the intensity of each regimen increases.

If your symptoms are mild, there are 3 main carpal tunnel remedies you can use to successfully treat carpal tunnel syndrome. These are night 1) bracing, 2) rest, and 3) exercises. While not necessary, it's most effective to do all 3 simultaneously.

1) Night bracing

Always wear a wrist brace when you sleep. Be sure your brace does not have a metal spine on the palm side of the brace. If it does, then bending your wrist backward while you sleep pushes the spine against your carpal tunnel. This is bad. It increases internal wrist pressure and makes matters worse. (In fact, you'll probably wake up with worse symptoms.) So just remove that spine from the brace or purchase one without it. A certified carpal tunnel wrist brace does not have such a spine, and is specially designed to treat this disorder.

Also, NEVER wear a brace while using your hands during the day. You’ll just unconsciously fight the brace. That results in more stress on your already damaged tendons. Allowing your wrist to bend is the primary way your body pumps out excess fluid from inside the carpal tunnel area. So it’s best to NOT restrict hand movement.

2) Rest

This is hugely important. Take frequent rest breaks while working your hands during the day. Every 30 minutes, drop your hands and shake them out. After a few seconds they’ll feel warm. Great! This means much-needed blood is circulating throughout your wrist and hand. Also during these rest periods, do carpal tunnel  stretching exercises (see next remedy).

3) Stretching exercises

During your rest breaks, do finger and hand stretching exercises. I've created very quick-and-effective exercises anybody can do while working.  Click here to see them.  One of the best things about these exercises is that you only need to do them for 30 seconds every 30 minutes you’re at work. I call it the “30-30 remedy". It’s a great way to attack carpal tunnel symptoms dead in their tracks.

If your symptoms are moderate or severe, then your carpal tunnel remedies will be more extensive. Basically, you need to take the above remedies to a higher level of commitment.  That means you must do all of them, and also include two more remedies (massage and heating pad).

1) Night bracing

Continue bracing as instructed above. Remember to not wear a brace with a metal spine on the palmar side. And never wear a wrist brace during the day.

2) Rest

Also as above, continue incorporating frequent rest periods into your daily schedule. Also do the stretching exercises within your rest periods as described.

3) Stretching exercises

During your rest periods, continue doing the "30-30" stretching exercises above. But now, expand these exercises to 1-2 minutes per affected hand. You should still do them every 30 minutes that you work.

4) Massage

Incorporate daily myofascial release massage for the affected hand. Of all the carpal tunnel remedies, this one is astonishing in how quickly it can relieve symptoms – even in severe stages. The type of massage required is called “myofascial release” because it breaks up adhesions and restrictions which cause carpal tunnel in the first place. 

The massage must be performed at least once a day for 30 days to see good results. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to perform it on yourself because it requires 2 hands. You can pay a chiropractor or therapist to do this every day, but that gets expensive. Therefore, it’s best to find a partner who can learn how to do it on your arm.

Click here to see instructions for myofascial release massage.

5) Heating pad

After your myofascial release massage, and as a final therapy before you sleep, use a heating pad. It should moderately warm your wrist area for 10-15 minutes. Doing so will increase blood flow which is necessary for the healing process inside the carpal tunnel area of the wrist. The heat will also encourage fluid drainage from the wrist joint. These are important to decompress your median nerve.