Over the last 5 years I have been battling Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS). While I currently have very little complications with CTS, I still do experience a few symptoms and need to continue to maintain my wrists health. I was inspired to write this post, by Dean Hunts guest post at JohnCow, Carpal Tunnel Website Advice. Although his post is not about solving his CTS, it is equally entertaining. Here are the 7 steps that I used to relieve my Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, allowing me to continue to work online using my keyboard and mouse.

I learned about what causes carpal tunnel syndrome

Basically CTS is when your median nerve that passes through your carpal tunnel in your wrist is compressed to an extent that it starts to cause pain or numbness. CTS is usually caused by repetitive task with your hands and wrists. It can cause pain or numbness in your hand, wrist, and even up your arm to your shoulder. CTS affects mostly women, because our wrists are typically smaller and there is less room for our median nerve. There is a greater increase of CTS in men over the last few years because of the larger use of computers today. For more information on CTS, please see The Health Pages or WikiPedia.

I researched what causes carpal tunnel in computer workers

I have researched this over the past 5 years and only in the last 2 years have I discovered what the reason why our wrists cannot handle the work we do on our computers. The fact is, your wrists are not designed for such repetitive tasks and to be facing palm down as they are on a regular basis when typing and using a mouse. When your arms are in their natural state, your wrists are usually vertical, in a handshake position. When you are standing your palms face inward towards your body.

Take a second to put your hands on your keyboard, that is if your keyboard requires you to face your palms downward. Now take your hands to your sides, but do not adjust them, just put them to your sides. They are now actually facing toward your back, not in the natural position toward your body as they should be. Essentially the current standard format for keyboards and mice require you to twist your wrists putting a lot of extra strain on your median nerve.

I bought an ergonomic keyboard and mouse

By ergonomic, I don’t mean LogicTechs newest model or Microsofts split keyboard. I bought those types of ergonomic equipment before, but was still having serious problems with my CTS. I discovered a whole line of products that actually support the theory of facing your palms sideways when typing and using your mouse. A lot of the new keyboards and mice that I found go a step further and determined that we are all built differently. The keys/key sets on these new ergonomic keyboards can be spaced out differently depending on your own natural distance between both hands. As for an ergonomic mouse, it should be different sizes based on your hands. Obviously for the average users this might not be a concern for them, but if you do pull in 10+ hours a day on your computer it is something to consider.

In the end, I decided to go with Comfort Keyboards and AirO2bic Quill Mouse. Both allowed me to keep my wrist in the handshake position and relived a lot of stress on my median nerve. The creators of the Airo2bic mouse also had a clickless software, basically it will click for you. If you are having really bad CTS but cannot stop working on your computer, this may be a great alternative. It cut down my clicks by at least half. I currently no longer use the clickless software as the next steps I’ve used have helped to keep my wrists in working condition.

I bought other ergonomic devices

There are also a series of other products such as foot clickers, mice used with your feet, arm supports, ergonomic desks, and other items that can help prevent and relieve your CTS. I bought a ergonomic desk that was adjustable at my eye level to position my monitor screen and a separate adjustable setting for just my keyboard and mouse. I also invested in a separate keyboard hot keys in order to access information I need quickly without any extra clicking.

I started to take appropriate breaks

There is software out there that will remind you to take a break and keep track of how long you have been online. It can even lock your computer for a certain amount of time if you choose to. I did not personally have much success with them, first I disabled the auto locking me out of my computer, I just won’t stand for that! The break software would come on and I would tell it to go away. What helped me to take breaks was to set a specific task that I needed to accomplish and once I was done with that task I would take a break. Usually this would end up to be about every 2-3 hours I would take a break. Breaks are usually about 5 minutes long, like getting a snack or your snail mail. You can even do my last step below and stretch your hands, arms and wrists.

I learned how to use both hands with my mouse

What usually starts CTS is not the keyboard clicking but the mouse clicking. I learned how to use my mouse with both of my hands. If one of my hands/arms/wrist gets sore, I switch which side the mouse is on. This works well to ward off any short term soreness that I have been experiencing. I was pretty slow with my left hand for about 1-2 weeks. It is really different feeling, but this little step has helped a lot when I do not do my stretches or take my breaks.

I learned stretches for my hands, arms, and wrist

Being a webmaster requires us to type and click, if we don’t have healthy hands and wrists we can’t do anything on our computer. Take the time to learn a few stretches for your arms and wrists. Start a routine to do them routinely. I typically do stretches in the morning and stretches at night. Sort of like brushing your teeth, stretching will help maintain your wrists health.

Carpal tunnel syndrome for some result in surgery in order to keep using their hands, wrist, and arms. Thankfully I have not needed the surgery, but I have also taken many days off work and general online time in order to keep my CTS under control. These tips can alleviate any pain you are currently having and help you get on track to reducing your CTS symptoms. Even if you don’t have any CTS symptoms yet, consider taking a few steps into your routine to prevent CTS in your future.

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