Do you take carpal tunnel herbal supplements? Do you feel they help treat carpal tunnel syndrome? If so, you’re not alone.

Many people suffer with this progressive and painful disorder. And to avoid surgery or prolonged therapy, they take herbal supplements to ease their symptoms. But do supplements really work? Here's what experts say.

• Think you have carpal tunnel?  Complimentary self-test

• Already know you have carpal tunnel?  This Quiz tells you its severity

You're also not alone if you suffer with carpal tunnel syndrome. The incidence of carpal tunnel syndrome is relatively high, affecting nearly 2 million Americans each year. And approximately half of these patients take carpal tunnel herbal supplements to relieve their symptoms. 

Many people take supplements with the "it can't hurt" attitude. They try supplements, ice baths, and adhesive tape remedies in the hope they will work to relieve symptoms - even a bit. And that would be far better than having carpal tunnel surgery.

But today, other well-recognized nonsurgical treatment options are readily available. In most cases, they're more effective than surgery. And they're surely better than taking herbal supplements.

In spite of all this, herbal supplements are still used by many people. But despite their popular use, there are no reliable clinical studies showing herbal supplements are actually an effective treatment for this disorder.

Specifically, after years of clinical research, the most reliable evidence shows that when it comes to treating carpal tunnel, herbal supplements have little (if any) effect. But as with most herbal remedies, the main problem is poor quality research. As a result, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) cannot conclude that carpal tunnel herbal supplements have any effect whatsoever. In other words, they cannot refute claims, either.

Carpal tunnel syndrome is a serious condition. That means it requires serious medical attention. If not properly treated, carpal tunnel will almost always worsen. That's why the National Academy of Medicine says patients should not rely of supplements to treat carpal tunnel syndrome.

How carpal tunnel happens

The condition known as carpal tunnel syndrome is actually a neurological disorder of the median nerve. The median nerve controls sensations from the fingers and palm of the hand. 

The actual problem begins when you overwork your flexor tendons. These are the ropy structures that pull your fingers and make them curl and grasp. The tendons run from the muscles in the forearm, through the wrist joint, and to the individual fingers. 

Overworked tendons tend to inflame and swell. No one is really certain why this happens. But in the narrow space inside the wrist joint (called the "carpal tunnel"), the swelling pushes against the median nerve. The nerve runs directly adjacent to the tendons. As the tendons swell more and more, they eventually crush the median nerve.

Every symptom of carpal tunnel syndrome is the result of that nerve crushing action. The symptoms are felt in the fingers and palm and include:

• Pain
• Numbness
• Tingling (pins & needles)
• Burning
• Weakness
• Shooting electric shocks
• Loss of finger and hand dexterity

In almost every instance, the origin of pain is inflammation. And carpal tunnel syndrome is also certainly due to inflamed tendons.   

So logically, if you reduce the inflammation inside the wrist, you should reduce carpal tunnel symptoms.

How do you reduce inflammation? There’s no debate that certain foods and herbs have anti-inflammatory effects. This has been known and verified for decades. As a result, using natural anti-inflammatory agents for certain kinds of pain relief can be quite effective.

However, no serious study has ever shown an herbal product having an effect on the wrist joint, particularly in carpal tunnel syndrome. Therefore, local inflammation reduction (at the wrist joint) is not possible with foods or supplements.

In short, it takes more than herbs to reduce tendon inflammation and ease compression on the median nerve.

Despite the evidence, many people still claim some anti-inflammatory substances can provide local relief. Today, the most popular carpal tunnel herbal supplements claiming to reduce inflammation include:

• St. John’s wort
• Bromelain
• Capsaicin
• Turmeric
• Ginger
• Cloves
• Thyme
• White willow bark
• Frankincense
  

It's important to recognize that carpal tunnel syndrome is a serious neurological condition. Therefore, it must be treated with serious medicine. Carpal tunnel herbal supplements just won't do what's needed.

Remember, there's no reliable scientific evidence showing you can treat this painful condition with supplements. For the most part, you're just wasting money on such supplements to relieve symptoms.

More importantly, you're losing valuable therapy time by allowing the condition to progress. This makes treatment using more standard remedies much more difficult.

If you have carpal tunnel syndrome, get serious therapy NOW to effectively reduce tendon inflammation inside your wrist joint. Only then will symptoms truly resolve. Your doctor can give you direction about how to do this.

Taking carpal tunnel herbal supplements is a popular therapy for this painful disorder. And the logic for taking herbals seems sound; because some herbals have anti-inflammatory effects. But it's a false association. There isn't a single credible medical study which demonstrates herbal supplements have any effect whatsoever on carpal tunnel syndrome.