The most important takeaway from this post: DO NOT get carpal tunnel surgery until you've looked into whether that tingling and numbness in your fingers is caused by something else! Read on:
Do you sometimes have tingling and/or numbness in your fingers after you've been knitting for awhile? Do you wake up at night with "pins and needles" sensations in your hands? I do! I've had these symptoms for over ten years, and when I first started getting them, my doctor told me it sounded like carpal tunnel syndrome, in which the median nerve becomes compressed when it goes through the carpal tunnel, on the underside of the wrist. I told her I did a lot of knitting, and usually slept on my side, with my wrists folded under my chin, so she prescribed wrist braces to keep my wrists straight, because flexing them causes the carpal tunnel to narrow.
Well, the wrist braces were awkward and annoying, so I didn't wear them for long, but I did start keeping my wrists straight as much as possible while knitting and while falling asleep. I had also been having some trouble with trigger points in my neck and upper back, which sometimes caused pain and stiffness severe enough to keep me from turning my head, so I generally became more conscious of my posture and positioning, not just while knitting but also while using a computer, driving, and reading.
My neck and upper back issues improved, but the tingling and numbness in my fingers persisted. it was especially bad when I had a tight deadline for a magazine pattern, and had to knit for hours a day. And then a few years ago I started playing the mandolin, which requires a lot of flexing of the left wrist. The tingling and numbness started to get worse; I would have to stop frequently and shake out my hand while knitting or practicing, and when I woke up at night, the pins and needles were painful, and sometimes kept me from falling back to sleep.
At some point I discovered the book "Knitting Comfortably" by Carson Demers, which is a great resource regarding proper ergonomics while knitting. But I had already corrected most of the postural issues he covers.
Then I discovered Paul Ingraham's website, PainScience.com, which is devoted to discussion of treatment options of various stubborn aches, pains and injuries, and read in one of his posts that trigger points in my forearms might actually be causing many of the symptoms that I was attributing to carpal tunnel syndrome. This post on repetitive strain injuries (RSIs) is quite lengthy, but this paragraph jumped out at me:
And then I found his post on massage therapy for tennis elbow and wrist pain (forgot to mention that I also started playing tennis about five years ago, and had started to develop a bit of tennis elbow). I found some very painful knots in my forearms and massaged them as he suggested, and believe it or not, that same night, for the first time in weeks, I slept without being woken up by those pesky pins and needles!! I experimented with different techniques, and found that fingers, massage balls, a lacrosse ball, and finally, my elbow, were all effective (see video). But I did find that the symptoms would return unless I massaged these trigger points every other day or so.
And then something totally unexpected happened: a few months ago, to see if I could improve my blood cholesterol profile, I started the keto diet (which severely restricts carbohydrates), and within a few days, even though I continued to knit and practice mandolin as usual, my carpal-tunnel-like symptoms were almost completely gone! Was it due to the state of being in ketosis, or something else? I wasn't sure. But after about six weeks, and no change in my cholesterol, I decided the keto diet wasn't for me, so I went back to my previous eating habits, and the symptoms returned. I did some experimenting and soon realized that if I avoided eating wheat for a couple of days, the numbness and tingling in my fingers lessened. Could I be sensitive to gluten? I had never had any digestive issues from eating bread or pasta. But upon Googling, I found numerous links referring to "gluten neuropathy." It appears that sensitivity to gluten can cause nerve inflammation and damage, or neuropathy, without causing indigestion.
I have mixed feelings about this discovery, as I do love pasta and pizza and beer. Could I continue to massage my trigger points, and still eat (and drink) as I please? Maybe, but it does seem to make more sense to remove the cause of inflammation, rather than try to treat it after it happens. And I do love lots of other foods too, and I love my knitting and my mando and my tennis, so given the choice between gluten and less nerve pain-- I think I'll take the latter.
Comments