Recovering from RSI with Osteopathy

The human body is meant to move. It’s not meant to move like a machine in a factory – repetitively performing one action. And yet office work, modern technology and many manual jobs force us to move in such a way. Even our leisure time is invaded with some sports, hobbies and instruments encouraging limited, unbalanced, repetitive movement patterns. If we’re unlucky Repetitive Strain Injury (or RSI) can be the result. And it can be debilitatingly painful. So let’s talk about recovering from RSI with osteopathy.

What Is RSI?

Repetitive Strain Injury, also called Occupational Overuse Syndrome, is really a descriptive term for overuse injuries rather than a specific diagnosis. The condition can affect any part of the body although it’s more common today in the wrists and forearms due to our reliance on computers and keyboards at work. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is a type of RSI, as are bursitis and tendonitis. We have a lot of names for it: tennis elbow, texter’s thumb, housemaid’s knee, trigger’s finger, Rubik’s wrist (when Rubik’s cubes had everyone obsessed). The list goes on. In fact, when the condition was first described back in 1700 by Italian physician Bernardino Ramazzini after observing industrial workers, he noted more than 20 categories of RSI.  It's simple really - repetitively performing one action without rest can cause inflammation and damage to the body’s soft tissues and nerves. Symptoms can include tingling, numbness, shooting pain and burning sensations, excessive weakness and fatigue, and clumsiness.

What to do about it?

Firstly, please don’t ignore the mild, early symptoms. A small annoyance can become chronic pain if left untreated and continually exacerbated.  Now some commonly given advice is to stop doing the activity causing you pain. But as osteopaths we know that’s sometimes not realistic or desirable: a guitarist with a gig coming up can’t just stop practising and a keen tennis player shouldn’t have to give up the sport they love. And we all have to work!

So, what can be done to prevent it?

Ergonomics

Take the time to ensure your work (and play) space is ergonomically sound. Check that your desk, chair and monitor are set at the right height. Similarly, make sure you’re playing with the right sporting equipment for you.

Rest

Take breaks throughout the day and move differently during them. The repetitive nature of typing, playing the piano or swinging a golf club is a problem, but so too is the limited range of motion those actions take you through. Take a moment to stretch and move in an alternative pattern (a few wrist rotations if you’ve been typing for hours for example.)

Posture

Working in a misaligned posture places extra load and aggravation on your body. So sit, stand and move well through whatever activity you’re doing. It’s important to note, that having your environment set-up with ergonomics in mind will help with this, but even the best chair can be slumped in! If you’re really too tired to move well then it’s time for that rest we mentioned earlier.

Treatment

Make an appointment with the osteopaths at Holistic Hands Osteopathy by calling 0439379847 today.  The sooner you make an appointment the sooner we can help you. If you have only niggling pain, but it’s becoming persistent, please take action before it becomes debilitating. If you’ve taken steps to improve your workstation, implement rest breaks and moved mindfully, but find things have not improved in forty-eight hours, we advise you make an appointment as soon as convenient. But don’t despair if you have left it too long and are suffering chronically. It might take a little longer, but we can still help. It’s what we do! 

After an initial consultation to understand your discomfort and its causes, your treatment will most likely include massage, stretching, and possibly the realignment of some affected joints.  Your osteopath will also advise you on exercises and stretches to bring relief.  While a cure is unlikely to be instantaneous, your osteopath is uniquely skilled to assist in recovery from RSI. By promoting blood flow to stiff or painful soft tissues and returning the body to a balanced alignment, your osteopathic treatment enables the body’s own healing mechanisms to work efficiently.  

We look forward to seeing you at the clinic and helping you back to tennis, golf, gardening, guitar-playing, writing, sewing (or working) with less pain.

Carpal Tunnel: Symptoms and treatment

It’s been a long day at the office, the kids are fed, bathed, and down for the night, and it’s time for my head to hit the pillow. Exhausted doesn’t cut it, but I still cannot sleep… What IS this tingling in my fingers and wrist pain I keep getting?! I felt it a bit at work earlier too, but why now? I’m nowhere near a desk or computer!

Sound familiar? Wrist pain is quite common, and one of the most common causes for pain over the palm side of the wrist and hand is Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS). CTS presents when one of the larger nerves that travels from your shoulder down to the tip of your fingers (it’s called the Median nerve) gets compressed as it passes through the wrist. The ‘tunnel’ is a small space in the wrist, made up on one side by the wrist bones (the ‘carpals’), and a soft tissue covering on the other side. Alongside the nerve travels a group of tendons from the forearm, and once all of that has passed through the tunnel, there isn’t a lot of room for anything else. Throw in a heap of repetitive wrist movements over a prolonged period (for example typing at a desk day in, day out), and the structures running through the tunnel can become irritated and inflamed making an already small space even smaller. Once the nerve becomes compressed, symptoms start to creep in.

Signs and symptoms

CTS can be characterised by the following signs and symptoms:

•   Burning wrist pain (on the palm side of the wrist)

•   Numbness, pins & needles or tingling of the thumb, index, middle and inside part of the ring finger

•   Night time symptoms

•   Pain that radiates to the forearm, elbow or even the shoulder

•   Reproduction of symptoms when compressing or tapping over the palm side of the wrist

As well as repetitive motions of the wrist (seen commonly in desk-based workers, sports people, and even our very own manual therapists), CTS can be caused by some underlying conditions, such as Diabetes Mellitus, Thyroid disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis, high blood pressure, and from fluid retention associated with pregnancy or menopause. Trauma or fractures in the wrist may also lead to this condition. Unfortunately, if you are female, you are also three times more likely to experience this problem.

Treatment

If caught early, this problem can be managed conservatively with a combination of the following treatments:

•   Soft tissue release, joint mobilisation/manipulation (contact your local Osteo

•   Anti-inflammatory medication

•   Splinting of the wrist (particularly at night time)

More severe and persistent cases may require more invasive treatments including having a steroid injection, or possibly surgery to decompress the nerve.

If you have wrist pain, and you think it could be CTS, then our best advice is to visit your local Osteo where you can be assessed thoroughly, diagnosed accurately, and given the best advice and tools to manage your problem. We’ll get you waving goodbye (pain-free) to pain in no time!