Many people ask me, “Can stress cause carpal tunnel syndrome?” It doesn’t seem likely, but it definitely can. Actually, it's obvious how it can happen if you understand the results of emotional stress and what causes carpal tunnel syndrome. 

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Carpal tunnel syndrome is a type of neuropathy. That means a major nerve of the hand (the median nerve) is acting abnormally.

The nerve normally carries information from the hand like feelings of touch, pain, and temperature. But neuropathy crosses those signals and they become abnormal. Sensations usually begins with numbness  and tingling (or "pins & needles") in your hand and fingers. Also, you may have a sharp, piercing pain that shoots through the wrist and up your forearm. Sometimes it feels like an electric shock.

The neuropathy causing carpal tunnel syndrome begins deep inside a narrow passageway in your wrist joint. This passageway is called the "carpal tunnel" (it's where the disorder gets its name). 

So how is this area affected by emotional stress and anxiety? It seems so far away from the mind --  but wait...

The wrist joint not only contains the median nerve but also the flexor tendons that surround it. Those tendons are responsible for curling your fingers.

Sometimes irritated flexor tendons thicken and swell. This narrows the space inside the carpal tunnel passageway. As a result, the tendons compress the adjacent median nerve, ultimately crushing it. That's where the pain, numbness and tingling symptoms come from.

Carpal tunnel symptoms usually begin gradually. As it progresses you can lose grip strength and dexterity in your hand and fingers. In fact, many people say loss of loss of grip strength is when they first realize they have the condition. 

Eventually, hand and finger pain gets worse. Actually, severe pain and numbness are the most common complaints as carpal tunnel syndrome progresses. Eventually, it gets to the severe stage, which is very difficult to treat.

First, there is no direct evidence that stress causes carpal tunnel syndrome. But there's lots of indirect evidence that points to stress as a major causal factor in getting this condition.

Science already understands that the stresses and forces inside the carpal tunnel are purely physical. They're related solely to tendon swelling and nerve compression. So it’s logical to ask how emotions can contribute to tendon swelling.

The answer lies in what emotions do to our whole body. We know that the human mind can produce biochemical and physical changes throughout the body. This mind-body connection has long been an established medical phenomenon.

But emotional and psychological stress also affects how we sit, stand, carry ourselves, and even speak. This is where the connection truly begins.

Work deadlines, pressure to produce, and other workplace tensions are the source of stress and anxiety. Indeed, most people ignore their posture at the workstation and focus only on getting the job done. 

If you're stressed and anxious, your attention is not on maintaining good posture. As a result:

1. you slouch
2. your shoulders hunch
3. there’s general upper body muscle tensing

The abnormal forces get transmitted to the arm and hand, and ultimately to the wrist joint. If you're prone to getting carpal tunnel syndrome, all it takes is this slight "extra" disturbance for tendons to swell and crush the median nerve. Carpal tunnel syndrome is thus born.

As you see, stress does not directly cause carpal tunnel syndrome. Instead, it produces an indirect effecton the carpal tunnel space and median nerve deep inside. 

Thus, emotional stress causes a domino effect leading to carpal tunnel syndrome. 

The key initiator is stress -- which leads to poor posture which ultimately leads to getting carpal tunnel syndrome.

Did your own anxiety and stress cause carpal tunnel? Maybe you don't have stress but still have symptoms and warning signs carpal tunnel syndrome. If so, attack the root cause of the problem right now. That problem is tendon inflammation. 

To permanently eliminate the inflammation, just removing pressure on the median nerve isn’t enough. For this reason, carpal tunnel release surgery has a relatively high failure rate of about 50%. As a result, many doctors today consider carpal tunnel surgery unnecessary due to its relative ineffectiveness, especially when good, nonsurgical remedies exist..

These non-surgical remedies can easily and permanently alleviate the tendon inflammation. They include:

1. night bracing
2. stretching exercises
3. myofascial release massage

The combination of these remedies drains fluid while also breaking the adhesions and restrictions that cause tendon inflammation. In fact, they're nearly 100% effective when properly applied.