Something in your hand, wrist or lower arm hurts, and you suspect carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). Maybe you even have a doctor’s diagnosis of CTS.

But, do you really have CTS? Or, do you have other pain which is in the vicinity of the carpal tunnel?

CTS is often misdiagnosed. There are many reasons why your carpal tunnel area may have symptoms.

So, what is the cause? What perpetuates your pain? What can you do to overcome CT pain and to prevent recurrence?

You have to be a detective. Follow the clues, solve the puzzle and win the prize: no more pain.

You must be your own physician. Pay attention to your symptoms (where you hurt) and learn to treat them yourself. Or, refer treatment out to the best professionals available. I’ll help you know how to self-treat and how to find the best practitioners, if you need one.

Remember, no two people are alike, and no two bodies are the same. There are natural laws which indicate where we should look to find the cause of the pain. The cause of your pain may not be the same as someone else’, but if you can describe your symptoms well enough, you will be able to find the source, or cause, of your CT pain. And knock it out.

A big surprise is that where it hurts is often only a symptom, and not the cause. For instance, if you have a headache, your head hurts. Head pain is a symptom. So what is the cause?

The cause of the head pain is almost always tight muscles or soft tissue (not boney tissue) somewhere else. These tight muscles have areas which trigger, or cause pain elsewhere. These areas are called trigger points.

The trigger points (TPs) which cause your head pain may be in your upper back, the front or back of your neck, under the bottom of your skull, or in your face and temple area.

By the way, if you have serious, sudden new pain, especially in your head, see a doctor as soon as possible. Or, sooner!

And, did you know, we are not supposed to experience the “common everyday headache”? We are supposed to be head-pain free.

Headaches or tight neck and shoulder muscles very often go hand in hand with CTS, so I’ll be discussing them, too, and give you some tips for them, also. But, those are topics for another day.

You will probably be very surprised when you find out the causes for your pain. This is not something we learn in school. Too bad. It would save us lots of discomfort and fear and surgeries.

Very few doctors know the true cause of pain, including pain in the hand, wrist and arm. They didn’t learn it in med school, either.

We will talk very soon about carpal tunnel pain and how to reduce and eliminate it.

In the meantime, love your arms, massage them and feel the circulation increase.