Preventing Carpal Tunnel Syndrome While Working From Home
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Busy schedules and changing lifestyles have made us prone to many diseases and disorders like Diabetes, Blood Pressure, Fatigue, Stress, Heart Disease, Stroke, Obesity, and Hypertension. Working for a long number of hours and not maintaining proper posture at work can also cause disorders related to the muscles and the different parts of our body. Certain disorders when diagnosed early are curable and some others are not. They may even worsen with time and cause extensive damage to our bodies.
One of the common syndromes which we come across in the present times is called Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. One of the main reasons for the occurrence of the syndrome is working from home owing to the pandemic-driven lockdowns. In the human body on the front side of the wrist, there is a passageway that connects the forearm to the hand which is in the form of a tunnel or a canal through which various tendons and median nerves, and a group of muscles pass. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome occurs when the median nerve in the wrist is pressed on a continual basis. People suffering from the syndrome feel numbness and tingling in the parts corresponding to the affected wrist nerve, which is also a major nerve of the body.
We even have tendons in our arm they help us to bend our fingers and thumb which when swollen cause the wrist canal to narrow down and the median nerve running through it gets compressed which then leads to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.
Causes of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Whenever our hand or wrist is pressed too hard or squeezed we feel pain, in the same way when the median nerve is squeezed or compressed we feel pain, numbness, tingling in the hand and arm. Some of the other factors that contribute to the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome are -
- Smoking
- Sedentary Lifestyle
- Heredity
- High intake of Salt
- Pregnancy
- Hand and Wrist deformity
- Gout
- Old age
- Repetitive hand motions
- Performing activities that require force
Symptoms of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Symptoms of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome can be identified easily, in most cases it feels like having an electric shock-like feeling in the hand and body which starts from the thumb, index, and ring finger and travels to our shoulder from the forearm. Due to the pain and discomfort, it becomes difficult for some patients to perform various day-to-day activities that may seem simple to others. Even during the night, these symptoms are very common as many people tend to sleep with their wrists folded.
People with this syndrome find difficulty in using their hands for small tasks,
like – Holding a book to read or even holding small objects that don’t weigh too much.
Prevention of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome while working from home
Due to the ongoing pandemic situation that we are all going through, most of us have had to opt for the work from home system. This is an important change since we all need to be careful and take precautionary measures to fight the pandemic. However, we do not realise how much damage our body is going through. Every other day we find ourselves struggling with one or another health challenge and we set out to look for a cure.
Among the other health issues, the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome has also become highly common among the work from home crowd. When we are working for long hours with our hands constantly on our laptops we experience numbness or a tingling feeling but we tend to ignore it. The problem then tends to worsen after which we find out it could be the dreaded Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Although the syndrome is difficult to prevent certain changes in our daily lifestyle and workplace, which is our home at present can help us to avoid the painful syndrome
- Taking regular breaks during work
- Making ergonomic changes to our work station
- Avoid keeping the wrist or hand in the same position for a long period of time
- Performing physical exercises on a regular basis
- Sleeping with our wrists kept straight using a splint to support.
- Giving the body enough rest at the right time
- At least indulging in stretching exercises
- Sitting in the right posture with the back straight and the hand at a comfortable level
- Taking a break from or avoiding activities that require force or pressure.
Since childhood, we have been learning “prevention is better than cure”, which is why if we adapt to a good lifestyle, the right posture at work, and generally lead a healthy lifestyle, we can make sure that we are able to keep unwanted health problems at bay in an effective manner.
