Date: August 2, 2013
Newspaper: Capital Weekly
Heading: What causes numbness in our hands? Is it our neck and our posture?
Mrs. Chan is a 45 years old accounting clerk who works daily at her computer. Two years ago, she started to have headaches. It began with only 2 to 3 times a week, but gradually, the headache episodes increase and the pain radiated around the back of the head to the two sides of her shoulders. Eventually, she started to feel numbness in her left thumb and index finger. She came into the clinic for chiropractic consultation to find out after xrays that her neck (Cervical spine C6 and C7) were misaligned. There were also signs of degeneration around neck. After multiple treatments with chiropractic adjustments, her numbness disappeared and headache episodes decreased significantly.
In today’s society, electronic hand held devices like laptops, smartphones are very common. We use them everyday but we never thought about what our posture is like when we are using them. Many patients are having very similar postural problems when using their computers. Their head will shift forward, both shoulders will fold forward, and their back will be slouched. This will cause tightness in the upper trapezius muscles and neck muscles. The longer this problem persists, the more damage it will create to the neck and eventually leading to misalignment of the neck vertebrae. Neck misalignment can cause impingement of the spinal nerves which will affect the grip of the hands and loss of sensation of the hands and arms. In more severe cases, the disc can bulge causing disc herniation.
The neck consists of 7 vertebrea. The nerves that control the sensation and motor function of our hands and fingers come out from our 6th and 7th vertebrae (C6 and C7). When these vertebrae are misaligned, the C6 and C7 nerves will be impinged. This will lead to muscle tightness and pain in our shoulder and neck. As the condition gets worsen, we will feel numbness and tingling in our hands and fingers. In addition, C6 and C7 nerves control our thyroid gland, tonsils, bursea of our shoulder and elbows. Possible symptoms such as tonsililitis, chronic cough, thyroid conditions and bursitis can also occur.
The best way to minimize neck misalignment is to live an active life. Do more exercises and stretches! Be aware of our postures especially when we are using the computer for a long period of time. Choose the right pillow and other neck support products so that our sleeping posture will not be compromised. If symptoms such as neck pain and numbness in the hands occur, seek professional help immediately. It is very rare that these pain and numbness will go away on its own.
