Alternative treatment for carpal tunnel syndrome: women's business?

Are women more open than men to alternative treatment methods for chronic diseases? In principle, this question can hardly be answered. However, this seems to be the case when treating carpal tunnel syndrome with curpal®. Interested in a little discovery?

Since 2017, patients can have their carpal tunnel syndrome curpal® treated manually and thus without surgery. curpal® is a cuff that is used to mechanically widen the carpal tunnel.

In many cases, this stretch will quickly relieve the pain. A customer survey now shows: curpal® seems to work better on women than on men. While searching for the reason, we made a surprising discovery.

Carpal tunnel syndrome mainly affects women

In fact, women are five times more likely to suffer from the painful condition than men. This is because as women age, tissues soften and put pressure on the carpal tunnel. This pressure pinches the median nerve, which is the cause of the pain.

The pain occurs mostly and especially at the beginning of the carpal tunnel syndrome during the night on. That's why it's so important to see a doctor at night at the first sign of pain in your hand and arm, or if your hands go to sleep and your fingers tingle. Because the earlier carpal tunnel syndrome is treated, the better the chances of rapid relief of the symptoms. But what about alternative treatments?

The independent experience report from focus.online.

Very few doctors know about curpal®

For many patients, and especially for many female patients, the journey to the doctor ends in disappointment. Because unfortunately very few doctors know about curpal®. And in ignorance of this alternative treatment method, they naturally recommend the classic route.

The conventional treatment for carpal tunnel syndrome is to first immobilize the hand during the night. This is achieved by applying what is known as a night splint.

However, this immobilisation can only stop the course of the carpal tunnel syndrome in very few cases. Because the splint prevents the typical buckling of the hand at night. The actual cause, the narrowed carpal tunnel, however, remains untreated with the conventional method.

This is also the reason why the majority of all carpal tunnel patients still end up under the knife sooner or later. Mind you: This is not due to a lack of alternative treatments for carpal tunnel syndrome, but solely because doctors recommend alternative treatments such as the mechanical stretch don't know or don't recommend.

However, it is not without risk if patients constantly immobilize their hand with a splint and even wear the night splint during the day, which is often recommended. These patients risk their wrist becoming stiff. Because the actual function of the wrist is movement!

Treat carpal tunnel syndrome alternatively with curpal®

If you compare the effect of curpal® with the effect of the night splint, you quickly see the strength of this alternative treatment method.

In contrast to the splint, curpal® does not immobilize the wrist, but curpal® is a cuff which stretches the hand and in this way widens the carpal tunnel. The result is that the pinched nerve gets more space and the pain can decrease.

Incidentally, the same effect can also be achieved through surgery. The aim of the operation is to give the nerve space again. The only difference is that the carpal tunnel is opened by an incision during the operation. However, this procedure can lead to postoperative complications.

These complications include severe scarring, which can be associated with an increased sensitivity to pain or restricted mobility and strength of the thumb and fingers.

Does curpal® work better in women than in men?

A patient survey commissioned by the manufacturer of curpal®, curmed GmbH, in the summer of 2017 showed that curpal® appears to work better in women than in men.

200 patients were questioned. In the survey, around 83 percent of the women stated that they were very satisfied to satisfied with the success of curpal®. In contrast, only about half of the men confirmed this satisfaction. So curpal® seemed to work well for 83 percent of the women, whereas it apparently had less of an effect on men. But where did these differences come from?

The first hypothesis was that the difference lies in the different tissue structure of women and men. Carpal tunnel syndrome mostly affects women after the menopause. During this time, women's connective tissue generally becomes softer.

On the one hand, softer tissue makes you more susceptible to carpal tunnel syndrome, on the other hand, it is also easier to stretch. The hypothesis seemed plausible at first glance: softer tissue could be the reason for better treatment success in women.

Alternative treatment for carpal tunnel syndrome: Patience pays off

At second glance, however, there was another reason for the greater success of the alternative treatment method among the women interviewed.

When the patients were asked about the length and frequency of use, most women reported a proper "use routine".

Almost without exception, the women reported that they put on the cuff several times a day, often at very specific times. Many women even described using the device every evening in front of the TV.

In this way, a frequent and very regular use came about in women. The men in the survey did not describe this routine of use. On the contrary: If success does not come very quickly, many men will lose interest in further treatment with the alternative method and consider surgery to be the better solution.

Alternative treatment for carpal tunnel syndrome? Many women seem to have more patience.

In our survey, most of the women reported a correct "application routine" in the alternative treatment of their carpal tunnel syndrome with curpal®.

This suggests that the women appeared to be more patient and consistent in their use. While men were often not willing to invest the time required for the application over a longer period of time and were more quickly disappointed if the hoped-for success did not materialize within days, the women proved to be more patient and consistent in the application.

At curpal® this patience pays off.