Good morning! Dr Kelly here. Are you having hand or wrist pain?
With today’s typical day, most people are using their hands and wrists daily.
I feel like I adjust thumbs on several patients every day.
We use our hands everyday all day long. From washing dishes, cutting vegetables to opening doors, hanging light bulbs.
When your thumbs, or any finger for that matter, ache getting adjusted feels good.
Even if the ache is coming from arthritis, the adjustment feels good.
As a patient at Tree of Life Wellness Center, you know I typically use an instrument to adjust you. The instrument allows me to be very precise.
I can get into each individual joint of the wrist and hand.
Just like the spine is made up of several bones. Your hands and wrist are made up of several bones too.
Where these bones connect, there is a joint. This joint is what I work on.
It is like flossing in between your teeth. I am flossing in between the joints of your hand and wrist.
Here at Tree of Life Wellness Center, I work on the bone, the nerve and the muscle.
It is important to address the joint, but working with everything around the joint helps to keep it moving well.
I want to get things moving and keep it moving. Prevent & slow it down from happening again.
If you have carpal tunnel, I will be working on not only your wrist, but also your elbow.
Keeping the muscles of your forearm flexible helps to prevent future injury.
Here are a couple of wrist exercises demonstrated from hep2go.
Carpal Tunnel Exercises
- Stand with the arm at the side, fingers hooked/flexed.
- Lift the arm to shoulder level, with elbows straight and the fingers pointing down to the floor.
- Flex the wrist up and curl the fingers into a fist, while keeping the elbow straight.
- Bend the elbow, keeping the hand in a fist and the wrist flexed.
- Rotate the arm to your side, maintaining the bent elbow, flexed wrist, and fist. Turn the head towards the fist.
- Lastly, straighten the elbow and wrist, and release the fist, pointing the fingers again to the floor. Slowly lean and turn your head toward the opposite shoulder.
- Raise both arms up to shoulder level, bringing the backs of the hands together with the fingers pointing down at the floor. Pull shoulders back.
- Bring hands up with palms together and shoulders inward, in a prayer position.
- While keeping palms together raise both hands above your head.
- Keeping palms together, bring both hands back behind the head, pulling shoulders back.
- Stretch both arms out to the side at shoulder level, flexing the wrists and fingers into a fist.
- Straighten out the fingers, bring your arms down by your side and then back behind you. Bend your wrist up so palms are facing the floor and stretch your chin up.
- Relax your arms by your side and shake out your hands.
FOOD – that makes a difference too.
You may not think about food affecting your joints. But if you are reactive to foods, it can come out as achiness in your joints.
Think about inflammation from foods. They can cause inflammation in your joints.
So, get your hands and wrist, do the hand exercises once a day & make healthy food choices every day.
You can reach out by responding to this email, text us or even better, ask me about your hand and wrists at your next visit. I can review the exercises with you, make food suggestions & adjust your hands and wrist!
Yours in Healthy Naturally,
Dr. Kelly