Tips to Help Numbness or Tingling in Hands!

Our body is very intelligent! Pain, numbness, and tingling is a signal from our body to warn us something is not going right. Have you ever experienced numbness or tingling in your hands? You may experience this sensation when you wake up, lifting heavy weight, carrying grocery shopping or simply when writing.

This can be frustrating as we use our hands daily. I used to experience burning pain and numbness in my hands. As a chiropractor, I am under regular chiropractic care and do stretches at home to prevent the same problem coming back again.

In this article, I am sharing 3 highly effective tips to help relieve numbness and tingling in your hands.

Tip 1 – Chiropractic Adjustments
Nerves in our neck, lower cervical C6,C7, C8 vertebrae provide sensation in our forearm. C6 cervical nerve supplies sensation in the thumb side of our forearm and hand. C7 cervical nerve supplies sensation into the middle finger and C8 cervical nerve supplies sensation to the pinky side of the forearm. Very often, people with numbness or tingling in hands often have a misalignment in the lower part of their neck (cervical spine). Adjusting the lower cervical spine can help to take pressure from neck, that allows better signaling between nerves, arm and hands.

Tip 2 – Scalene and Pectoralis Stretches
The brachial plexus is a network of nerves which provides sensation and movements in the shoulders, arms and hands. The network of nerves starts from nerve root of the neck and upper trunk (torso) section of spine radiating down towards our arm. When the scalene or pectoralis muscles are tight, they can compress on the brachial plexus causing altered sensation in hands.

To stretch your left scalene muscle, bring your opposite (right) hand over your head and gently pull your head towards your opposite (right) shoulder. Your head should be in a tilted position to the opposite side of the scalenes you want to stretch. Hold the position for a maximum of 20 seconds and repeat until you feel your neck is looser.

To stretch your pectoralis muscle, stand at the opening of a door with one hand resting on the side of the doorframe. Your hand should be slightly higher than your shoulder. Then, lean forward with your chest, you should be able to feel a stretch along your upper chest, over your pectoralis muscle and hold this position for 20-30 seconds. Repeat until you feel your pectoralis is looser.

Tip 3 – Sleep Position
Are you a side sleeper? Axillary, median and ulnar nerves runs through your elbow and wrist. People who sleep on their side very often sleep in a fetal position, with their elbow resting on top of each other and resting their wrists under the face. This sleeping position can add significant amount of pressure into the arm that can lead to compression on the nerves, causing numbness or tingling sensation in the hands the next morning.

It can be difficult to change your sleeping position. If you prefer sleeping on your side, you can consider adding a thin pillow in between your arms, which reduces the amount of direct pressure into your elbow and wrist that causes numbness or tingling the next morning.

These tips are highly effective and most of my patients find them very useful. Please let me know how you are getting on with these tips, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

If you have been implementing these tips but are still struggling with pain, numbness or tingling in hands, have you considered exploring chiropractic care?

With love,

Joyce