In this episode, you will learn natural sleep remedies for your sleep troubles. Resources mentioned in this episode:

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Natural Sleep Remedies

Today we are talking about sleep and natural sleep remedies. It's vital to living a full and healthy life, but it is elusive to over 50 million people in the US alone. What can we do to stop it? Natural sleep remedies, sleep hygiene, and sleep fundamentals to get you back on the fast track to catching your zzz's.

High-quality sleep is vital to every human’s well being and healing. For that matter - every non-human animal as well. And yet for so many people, it is elusive. 

Think of how many times you hear someone say - I’m tired. I’m exhausted. I didn’t sleep. Now one end of that for SURE is the over glorification of busy BUT there is an other side entirely in the time and quality of heads on the pillow.

Sleep may not seem very important, I may have thought it wasn’t back in my late teens and throughout my 20s and its quite likely you didn’t either, maybe you don't feel sleep is important for you now.  While the body appears from the outside to be still and inactive, sleep is a time when the body is quite busy.

During the night, while you snooze your body is working to restock your hormones, process serious toxins, repair tissue damage, re-arm the immune system with vital white blood cells, eliminate the effects of stress, and process those big heavy emotions.

Currently we humans have an epidemic of sleep disorders – from trouble falling asleep to often-interrupted sleep to actual insomnia. Luckily, there are several straightforward remedies I can offer you in the sleep area.

Whenever a new health participant is struggling with sleep, it is always one of the first priorities I address in their journey back to wellness. Routinely getting a sound sleep improves motivation and ability to make the changes necessary to heal the body.

There are 2 sides to the sleep story, the first part being what goes on in your body, the second being the environment you are sleeping in. BOTH are important to achieve really great nourishing sleep.

How You Fall Asleep

We human animals fall asleep due to the magic of the pineal gland. The pineal gland is a wee tiny gland, roughly the size of an ant (not a Texas ant, but a regular size one), located near the middle of our skull in the interbrain.

Following our circadian rhythm, the pineal gland secretes a neurotransmitter and hormone called melatonin. You’ve probably heard of it in the form of a supplement or sleep aid, but it is naturally produced in the body via this little pineal gland.

Melatonin suppresses the activity of many other neurotransmitters, resulting in the calming of the brain. Part of the reason for this brain calming is because it counters things like cortisol, the stress hormone secreted by our adrenal gland.  

As you become more drowsy, your brain slowly begins to turn down the volume on our voluntary skeletal muscle functions, eventually turning them off. This is super cool because it is your body’s way of keeping you from moving around so much and doing things like acting out your dreams. Keeping you still is the body’s built in way to prevent disruption of that internal revitalization work I mentioned - the restocking of your hormones, processing of the serious toxins, repairing tissue damage, re-arming the immune system with white blood cells, eliminating the effects of stress, and processing those big heavy emotions.

In this episode, you will learn how stress contributes to heart disease. Resources mentioned in this episode:

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Q&A: Booze, Vitamins, Veganism, HAES, Exercise

Wow, QA episodes are so much fun! First, because I LOVE LOVE LOVE the interaction and second because answering YOUR questions are one of my very favorite things to do! Just so you know - in case you are worried about me calling you out in front of 1,000s of listeners - all questions are Annon unless you specifically ask for a shout out. ANd I do answer the questions via the mode they are sent too! Let’s dive in!

Q: I hate exercise. I do it because it is good for me but I hate it. Any advice?

A: Honestly, it sounds like a reframe is in order. I would guess that you don’t hate moving your body, you just hate the idea that you SHOULD do it, you may even hate the type of exercise that you are doing or maybe you are bored with the type of fitness you are doing. Let’s start by reframing it - if you could do anything to move your body - because you want to move - what would you do? Walk? Ride your bike? Dance? Yoga? Garden? Swim? Do more of THAT. Start thinking of exercise as a celebration of what your body CAN do not a punishment that has to be taken. And keep trying new things until you find the thing that clicks - even if it's not traditional cardio/strength training.

Q: What are your thoughts on b12/lipo injections?

A: B-12/lipo injections are offered all over the place many family docs and some chiropractors offer these injections touting the benefits of increased energy and weight loss - sometimes they market them as “skinny shots” - these offerings hurt my heart tbh, It's not that they are "bad" per se or inherently dangerous its just that they don't fix the problem. A b12 deficiency or lipo need "fixed" by injection only temporarily masks the symptoms. It can give a boost in energy and it can increase the serum levels of B12 temporarily, BUT the evidence that it helps metabolism is inconclusive at best because its only increasing blood levels of the stuffs, not the body's ability to put it to use. Often the other markers I use to discover root cause clues in blood work still remain unchanged like Uric Acid, Phosphorus, Total Protein, Total Globulin, SGOT/AST, RBC, and/or MCV, MCHC, RDW levels.

The deficiency in b12, the anemia, the lipo "deficiency" is a downstream effect of an upstream issue. Its a branch on the tree with several different roots (causes).

All that said - are they dangerous? Nah. I do tend to see some rebound weight gain when the treatments stop. And they defiantly give you an energy boost. It's essentially main-veining an energy drink.

Q: Why did you change your recommendation on vitamin d?

A: Well, I didn’t exactly change it, D3 is still a critical nutrient you need to be getting naturally via 20-30 minutes of un-mitigated sun exposure (meaning not through a window or through sunscreen). The beauty of science and evidence is that when new findings come out, you can adjust course. When the new evidence came out, I investigated and deemed it important to change my recommendation slightly, if you are taking d3 as a supplement - you need to make sure you are taking one that includes k2. My favorite brand is LiveWise.

The primary reason is that d3 helps your body to put calcium to use (this is just one of its functions) and the k2 is needed to tell the calcium to go to the bones, or other places it is needed,  instead of settling in the blood vessels.

Q: I see you drinking Kombucha in wine/cocktail glasses on IG, do you drink alcohol?

In this episode, you will learn how stress contributes to heart disease. Resources mentioned in this episode:

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How does stress contribute to heart disease? And what to do about it.

How does stress contribute to heart disease? Does stress even matter when it comes to heart disease or is it just clean living? Let's dive in - and yes, I have a lot more questions for you.

What do you think of as the primary organ? Which one came first? I'll narrow it down for you - which came first...the heart or the brain? It's a rather chicken or the egg type question, right?

If you guessed heart, you are correct! The heart develops first in fetal development - way before the mind. There is a beating heart before the brain starts to develop. While you are reading this article, I want you to think of another question - what do YOU think the number 1 risk factor for a heart attack is? And I will answer the question on down the page.

Why is the heart the primary organ and why does it matter?

Most of us have been taught in school that the heart is constantly responding to "orders" sent by the brain in the form of neural signals. However, it is not as commonly known that the heart actually sends more signals to the brain than the brain sends to the heart!

As I mentioned The heart develops first in fetal development - way before the brain. There is a beating heart before the brain starts to develop. The heart is what is considered a PRIMARY organ in the body. 

What that means is that all of the data from our environment, all of the information from nature, from other people, from objects around us enters the body through the heart. Then subsequently the heart entrains the brain and there is a 2-way connection and communication happening. The heart actually directs the brain, although often it feels different if you aren’t perceptive of it.

If you think about it, when you get scared - it feels like your brain is scared and sends the message to your heart to start racing. 

What actually happens is the HEART perceives the threat, sends the message to the brain, and THEN the brain sends the message back to the heart to start racing as a response to prep for fight or flight.  

This communication sets into motion a cascade of events that makes everything work in harmony. But in order for this to take place and to work well, the heart has to be in what is called a coherent state or a coherent heart rate variability.

Heart Rate Variability

Heart Rate Variability is the measure of variations in your heartbeat over a specific time frame. This one of the ways heart health is measured. Coherence is akin to heart intelligence which isn’t often cultivated. It is a rhythmic or a coherent heart rate variability (HRV) that balances the nervous system and emotional state.

Science tells us that the signals the heart continuously sends to the brain actually influence the function of higher brain centers involved in perception, cognition, and emotional processing. Our hearts can also entrain the hearts of other people around us—research illustrates our hearts actually respond and are connected to the oscillations of the earth frequencies. What does that mean? The heart is basically its own brain. 

Remember that coherence is like a frequency wave. For example, when you are mad, or angry or frustrated, your heart sends out un-coherent signals, and counter to that, when you feel grateful, you are a literal beacon of a beautiful coherent signal to your brain (and the rest ...

In this episode, you will learn why gluten is bad for you and if gluten is okay for anyone. Resources mentioned in this episode:

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How to Go Gluten Free for Beginners 

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Why is Gluten Bad for You?

I’m going to respectfully sound like some of my elders when I say this, BUT, if I had a dime for every time someone said to me, “gluten doesn’t seem to be a problem for me.” I’d be sitting on the beach somewhere full time.

I'd also love to let the world know- that gluten-free is not a fad. Depending on where you are in your health journey it can be VERY detrimental all the way to EXTREMELY dangerous and DEADLY. Nothing irritates me more, especially as the parent of kids who can't have gluten for health reasons, when adults (or kids) act like gluten-free is just a coddled request or a silly fad.

What is Gluten?

Gluten is a group of proteins that are found in grains. It makes up 75-85% of the protein content in wheat but is also found in related wheat species and hybrids, such as spelt, Khorasan, emmer, einkorn, and triticale; barley, rye, and oats as well as products derived from these grains such as breads and malts.

These days, with modern food manufacturing, you can bet that many things, even things that shouldn’t have gluten in them do. Unless they are specifically labeled as “gluten-free”. This includes many shampoos, conditioners, topical products, and well as food! (Hint: it's a cheap way to thicken products.)

Should I avoid Gluten?

In short, a resounding YES. But that usually isn’t enough to convince people that they should avoid this inflammatory agent.

Even me, standing on my soapbox and shouting it from ALL of my platforms, “NO MORE GLUTEN PEOPLE!”  I still hear questions and statements like:

“I don’t think I have issues with gluten” or “ Gluten doesn’t seem to be a problem for me” while also inquiring about pain, inflammation, chronic illness, autoimmune, fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, brain fog, hormones issues, inability to lose weight, anxiety, ADHD, psoriasis, cancer, allergies, chemical sensitivities, seizures, depression, and/or medically unexplained symptoms.  

Rather than dive into all of the physiology and anatomy about gluten and its effect on the cells. Let’s take a look at the bigger picture. There have been many many studies on this topic, but let's look at a most recent one, in 2015, there was a study completed and published from Harvard.

For this study, they took four different groups of people. Group 1 had people with recently diagnosed celiac,  so very inflamed people. Group 2 was full of people that had been diagnosed with celiac but it had been put into remission with at least 1 year on a gluten-free diet.  Group 3 had people with nonceliac gluten sensitivity, so they had come to the Harvard clinic with complaints about gluten but had not been diagnosed with celiacs. The final group, group 4, were people that “didn’t feel they had an issue with gluten” at all.

They took all 4 of these groups and exposed them to alpha-gliadin. Alpha-gliadin is the scientific name for one of the proteins found in gluten. Do you know what they found?

In ALL FOUR groups, every single person, in all groups developed intestinal permeability also known as leaky gut. And they didn’t just develop it, it occurred within 5 minutes. Interestingly and as a side note: I usually talk about animal studies and how they do or do not correlate to humans, in this case, this study was duplicated in animals, sooooo kick the gluten to the curb for your dogs too.

Signs Gluten is Affecting Your Health

In this episode, you will learn how to reduce cholesterol without medication and what those cholesterol numbers really mean on the lab report.

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How to Reduce Cholesterol without Medication

Do you get annual physicals? More and more often people are walking away from those appointments, meant to asses your wellness, with a prescription for statins. You know, the cholesterol-lowering drugs. And while I am definitely a practitioner that takes a yes and approach to medication there is def a time and a place where medication is needed for acute issues..., today I want to dive into cholesterol a little bit and talk with you about what cholesterol is, when you should worry, and how you can actually fix it instead of just mask the symptoms.

What is cholesterol?

Cholesterol is a fat-like waxy substance that is contained in all cells throughout the body. It’s manufactured and secreted by the liver. It is super necessary in your human suit although it has been really vilified in medicine as something to be scared of.

In your body, cholesterol is a precursor or a necessary ingredient in the creation of Vitamin D, it is a precursor for the hormones that break down fats, carbs, and proteins so that your body can use them. Your brain also needs cholesterol to be floating around because it helps to create really important neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine.

How did cholesterol get such a bad reputation?

What if I told you that the study that was published that largely leads the way traditional medicine views and treats cholesterol was actually published in a really misleading way?

Much of modern medicine’s view on normal cholesterol and what it means has stemmed from a large study published in the 1970s. For nearly 40 years since then, one of the biggest cash cows for pharmaceutical companies is cholesterol-lowering medications, also called “statins” (things like Lipitor).

You can look at the impact this study has had for Americans as a population and for the pockets of drug companies:  between 1988–1994, the CDC reports less than 2% of Americans were on a cholesterol-lowering drug, in 2011-2014, we were at over 14% taking them and now…a shocking 50% of people over the age of 65 take medication to lower their cholesterol.

As I said those studies were flipped the cholesterol culture on its head and the way they were published was SUPER misleading. The way medicine measures cholesterol levels and even what is believed for them to mean has been based on a false premise. Doctors are pressed and sold to prescribe drugs like statins (Lipitor, for example) to tens of millions of “qualifying patients” to reduce cholesterol levels.

As you may have heard me say before, their goal of reducing cholesterol levels is a mostly pointless effort with statins only actually reducing cholesterol levels about 2%.

Despite the inaccuracy of what has become the cultural norm...normal cholesterol levels are important to maintain because extremely high cholesterol is a sign that something isn’t right — or could go very wrong in the future, like with heart disease. Further, these risks increase when you have high triglycerides BUT the cause isn’t dietary cholesterol or trying to a cholesterol surplus. It’s important to get to the root of WHY there is too much cholesterol and/or triglycerides floating around in the bloodstream.

Good Cholesterol vs Bad Cholesterol

There is a lot of talk about “my good cholesterol” and “my bad cholesterol” here’s the thing….it's all just cholesterol.

In this episode, you will learn the why and how stress impacts your health, how to determine if stress is having an impact on you, and what to do about it.

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Got Stress?

Do you feel stress? You know, the kind where you might have a pounding head or maybe you can't sleep? Maybe you wake up in the middle of the night? Maybe you're anxious or irritable? Sometimes this can be a really familiar scenario. In fact, it's estimated that millions and millions of humans all over the globe experience it all day every day.

Sometimes, this all day everyday stress is referred to as stress overload. Now you may be thinking, this is NOT a new topic and you would be right. Stress has been around since the beginning of time, and as we said about inflammation, it's not always a bad thing. Stress CAN serve a purpose.

Stress can give you that necessary zing to jump into action or to move from a thought process into action. Stress could generate a simple or easy action: like, jumping into action after planning to ride your bike, or planning something in your work or business life, getting to a deadline or avoiding something life-threatening. On the flip side of that stress is what allows you to escape from a flood or fire or other dangerous situation. In fact, you can even say that stress, much like inflammation is one of the reasons why our species, the human species has survived.

When stress becomes something that happens regularly, or when we're under a sustained amount of stress, our health, our livelihood, and our relationships suffer, because stress affects our moods, and it can affect our ability to form clear thoughts, actions, and plans. Science has now led us to understand that stress has a physical effect on the body. The mental or emotional, aspect of stress has a physical effect on the body, it makes us more susceptible to getting sick, makes us more prone to inflammatory diseases. And overall, it weakens the body and it weakens the spirit.

What is stress?

So what the heck is stress? Really, when you look at it through the lens I have just described, it's survival. Right? The term stress was actually coined in 1936. And in that same discovery, an interesting quote arose, take it for what it is worth, Dr. Hans Selye, a Canadian doctor said, “to be totally without stress is to be dead.”

With that quote, the good doctor was describing that stress, whether you're in real danger or perceived danger, whether it is acute or chronic stress, is a built-in fight or flight response inside the body.

The response system that is responsible for stress includes the hypothalamus, the pituitary gland, the adrenal glands. And once it's activated, it is those three glands (sometimes referred to as the HPA-axis), instantly put the body on high alert, it gets the body ready. Ready to either run away and flee the situation, or stand against it fight or flight.

So the stress response begins in the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is this little gland or cluster of cells at the base of your brain, and it controls things like regulating your body temperature, your thirst, your sleep, and wake cycles, even your energy levels - its all regulated right there at the base of your brain.

This fancy little gland, the hypothalamus also releases a compound that drives your response to stress, it drives a hormonal cascade that controls how your body responds to stress. Once that cascade starts, it continues through the pituitary gland,

In this episode, you will learn the why and how chewing your food impacts your health, how to make sure you are chewing enough, plus an at home stomach acid test to determine if you are suffering from low stomach acid.

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5 Ways Chewing Improves Your Health

I know what you are thinking, “you want me to chew my food? How do you think I eat? I CHEW!” Ahh yes, I totally get it, but I would wager that you typically eat in a rushed or distracted (or both) manner. Am I right?

Do you eat fast? Do you eat while you are watching tv? Scrolling Facebook? Driving? Do you have a really short window to eat your lunch (like most schools - but that is for a different day)? Are you a parent and you are managing additional plates during mealtimes? Then it is quite likely that without thinking about it - you aren’t chewing your food well at all.  

But, fear not! We are going to fix that TODAY! Because chewing (and the steps before it) are crucial to start your metabolism, get your stomach acid flowing, and to help you increase your energy. Did you know it did all that stuff?

Where does digestion start?

This is kind of a trick question - because some of you are probably guessing in the stomach or if you are a little more into the human suit function and physiology you might even have guessed the mouth. Both guesses are a little off though!

Digestion actually starts BEFORE you even put the food in your mouth! Crazy right? Digestion starts in what is called the Cephalic Phase. Cephalic is just a fancy word meaning the head.

Digestion begins when you start thinking of food. Sometimes this is initiated by hunger or site or often by smell. But the act of thinking of food starts a chain reaction that is the beginning or the first step of digestion. When you begin thinking of food, you activate the Cephalic Reflex, you start to salivate (so the amount of saliva in your mouth increases, you start to build up your stomach acid and enzymes so that you stomach is ready for the food when you eat it.

The second step of digestion is chewing. If you have taken the time to get hungry, think about your food, or bless your food your the enzymes in your mouth that initiate break down carbohydrates are already prepared and waiting (as well as the acid + enzymes in the stomach).

What does chewing do?  

There are 3 main functions of chewing:

1- reduce particle size, break down the food

2- expel the air from the food and mix with saliva

3- increase the surface area of the food to allow more digestive enzymes

How does chewing benefit my health and wellness?

If you aren’t convinced yet, and maybe you aren’t here are some specific ways in which chewing really benefits your health and wellness:

Chewing mindfully and fully increases your energy.  It sure does! It can actually reduce your fatigue and increase your energy levels.

Here's the thing digestion is the most energy draining process in a healthy body. The act of breaking down the food you ingest, absorbing the nutrients, and excreting the leftover waste takes up more energy than any other function.

The longer your food is chewed, the easier it is to digest. This means your body uses less energy to digest the food and related functions. This leftover energy isn’t just wasted, as a result of chewing thoroughly and mindfully, your body has more energy for other functions.

Chewing your food can eliminate gas, bloating,

In this episode, you will learn what to watch for when buying supplements and why you should avoid buying supplements from your local grocer or Amazon.

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Where to Buy Supplements

Let me preface all of this information with, I love Amazon. Amazon is a widely celebrated and trusted organization, and despite what we are going to talk about today, it does not appear to be actively encouraging these troubles, it just can’t effectively police the problem.

In an ideal world, everything we see and buy online would be just what we expected. Never a surprise in the mail or a disappointment when we tear open the package. But in reality, it happens and when we are talking about things we ingest, it can be harder to tell the difference between the real deal and counterfeit products. It’s one of the reasons I began recommending only certain brands of essential oils because it is just too much to risk.

I try to recommend exactly what I would do for my own family and think of you, my audience as well as of course my clients, as a family. For years I have been recommending and purchasing my own supplements from Amazon. But it has come to light over the last little bit, that Amazon, although AMAZING, has gotten a little ahead of itself, too big for its britches if you will, and quality control has slipped. This quality control hasn’t slipped once or twice, but about 1 in 4 times.

Much of this came to light in early 2018, but Amazon had put in some protective measures to prevent this from happening on the product side - you know hard goods - like shoes and clothes. And added “verified sellers” categories for products including supplements. BUT even the best protections for counterfeit products don’t offer ENOUGH protection when you are talking about what you are putting in your body, especially with the goal of healing or overall wellness.

For those of you who regularly visit the Wellness Tools page, you may have noticed that some of the links change frequently, and now this information has switched from Amazon altogether to full script. This is in light of Amazon - still not having it together (and with their business model may never have it together) with their supplement sourcing and regulation. Unfortunately, its just too important to leave to chance.

The Supplement Industry is HUGE

Did you know that the supplement industry is a $112 billion industry? Interestingly enough, the supplement industry has almost no regulation and essentially operates on scouts honor. Crazy right? We are all unwilling guinea pigs unless you do your research or find a recommendation that you trust. (On a side note: I don’t think it will be this way forever. As the medical industry continues to shift away from its current model, to the function approach I practice, you will see regulations becoming tougher.)

The words “guinea pig” isn’t really something you want to hear when its what you have been putting in your body each day? Or your little body each day? Not to mention spending your hard earned cash on.

Don’t let this disturb you out of using natural products though or start rallying for big changes in regulations. This would make the supplement industry like big pharma - where only the deepest pockets survive. It would mean that smaller companies that produce quality products wouldn’t be able to compete and it would take ...

In this episode, you will learn how to read food labels and why you need to be reading food labels, as well as some of the top ingredients to watch for.

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How to Read Food Labels

Why do I need to read labels?

In an ideal world, we would eat all whole natural vegetables and fruits and the freshest of meats and avoid packaged food altogether. BUT even the most mindful eaters, even the most prepared eaters, still have to rely on SOME packaged foods. Maybe it's just my family, but we generally don’t make our own mayo and mustard and I find that is true for most of the clients I work with.

That’s all fine and good, but WHY do you need to take the time to read the labels?

Here’s the thing, you are the first line of defense for what goes into your body, your home, and your littles, right? So we live in a time and age (and have for some time) where you can’t trust that just because it is on a store shelf it is safe for you to put on or in your body or in your home. The guidelines for what can be sold to people and called food is so loose it is almost non-existent, and don’t get me started on what is permitted in your cleaning, laundry, and cosmetics!

As we get savvier as consumers, some food manufacturers use misleading tricks to convince people to buy these highly processed and unhealthy products.

You can do your best by selecting to use natural plant-based products and shopping the perimeter of the grocery store. That is generally where the fresh foods are found like your produce and bulk bins. You know the unprocessed, whole foods you strive to eat. In these fresher foods, you are less likely to find unhealthy ingredients lurking.

When you do dash down the center aisles for, things like condiments, beans, sauces, etc. take a good hard look at the labels they're adorned with. Do it before you put those pantry staples in your buggy.

Labels can be confusing but it does get easier - there is a lot of information on them - and here’s the thing, it is still best to avoid packaged food, because as you will learn today, food manufacturers don’t have to be as transparent as you think they do.

How do I read the label?

First, don’t get distracted by the labeling on the front, its all marketing hype. All. Marketing. Hype.

Studies show that adding health claims to front labels makes people think they are healthier than the same product that doesn’t list health claims on the labels.

Unfortunately, manufacturers are often very dishonest in the way they use these labels. They use health claims that are misleading or simply 100% false. Take for examples boxed cereal, you can find a boxed cereal to cure just about any vitamin deficiency even high-cholesterol or heart disease! That is simply false. It’s best to just ignore the packaging completely.

Now, many practitioners will tell you should start with the nutrition side of the label - you know - where you find the calories, carbs, fat grams, etc. It probably comes as no surprise to you, I am going to tell you something different. I disagree and frankly feel like instructing to read nutrition labels first falls in line with fear mongering and diet culture. If you want to look at those nutrition facts, fine, but I want you to first interpret the ingredients listed on the other side of the label. These ingredients are far more important for you and your ...

In this episode, you will learn about natural carpal tunnel remedies and why surgery doesn't cure the problem.

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Natural Carpal Tunnel Remedies

What is carpal tunnel? What causes it?

Carpal tunnel is a pretty common neuropathy disorder of the hands. Some studies estimate that about 4% of the population suffers from this issue. It helps to know exactly what it is, in order to fully utilize and understand the benefits of various treatment options.

As it sounds, the carpal tunnel is a literal tunnel in your wrist. The sides of the tunnel are made of ligaments and bones. In the middle of that tunnel is the median nerve, the tunnel surrounds that nerve providing it safe (usually) passage through the mobile wrist to the hand.

Sometimes that tunnel gets inflamed, tissues get swollen and it aggravates the synovial membrane around the nerve itself, which in turn aggravates the nerve. The median nerve that passes through the carpal tunnel provides feeling to the palm side of the thumb and to the index, middle, and part of the ring fingers.

The carpal tunnel is very narrow so it is pretty susceptible to swelling and inflammation caused by everyday stressors. Like many issues with our human suit, carpal tunnel has both a physical (or anatomical) and a physiological component to it.

Carpal Tunnel is generally caused by overuse and stress in the tendon/ligament that builds up over time. It’s not an injury exactly where you “oops inflamed your carpal tunnel.” It happens gradually over time, due to extending the wrist too much and/or keeping it in one fixed position too often. Often this is a result of excess typing on computers/devices, working with the wrists extended, and poor posture of the arms/upper body.

What are the symptoms of carpal tunnel? How do I know I have it?

As usual, people have many different symptoms, here are a couple:

Number one symptom is usually pain in the hand or arm, typically the worst of it is around the thumb, first finger and middle finger

Numbness and tingling in the wrist, hand, and arm, and sometimes a loss of awareness of where your hand is in space (loss of proprioception)

Loss of range of motion or trouble moving hand or arm normally

Nerve shocks or sensations that are sharp and shock-like sensations throughout the hand and fingers

Weakness in the hand or arm

Usually, these symptoms start out less severe and sometimes not noticeable at all and then they build in severity and frequency. Often symptoms get worse at night.

Conventional carpal tunnel treatment options

As you know, I like to give both options, the conventional treatment and then the holistic functional perspective, because more important than my opinion is informing you of the options so you at least understand the playing field.

Medication. Your doctor will likely recommend over-the-counter pain-killer, such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen or Advil, when symptoms get bad. You may have already reached for these yourself without talking to your doctor. These do help reduce inflammation temporarily but are not a safe long term option. Sometimes your doctor will recommend getting steroid injections, usually, this is cortisone, also serving to temporarily reduce the inflammation. Eventually, symptoms will return if you don’t correct the root causes.

Braces for carpal tunnel.