Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) gets lots of attention, and most of us are familiar with the idea of what it means.

Maybe you had a diagnosis by a doctor or perhaps you are suspicious that you have carpal tunnel syndrome. Regardless of whether you truly do or not, the fact is that you do have pain, numbness or tingling sensations in your arms, wrists and/or hands.

The carpal tunnel, by the way, is the internal tunnel, or passageway, inside the wrist through which nerves and blood vessels pass. If these get compressed, uncomfortable sensations result.

Compression can result from movements which aggravate the wrist or arm, or from swelling of the tissues. Swelling and compression are most often the result of incorrect and repetitive usage of the hands, arm and body. This may be referred to as Repetitive Stress Injury (RSI) or Repetitive Movement Disorder. We move incorrectly when we move differently than the way we were built to move.

Whether you actually have CTS, RSI, or something else, the cure is basically the same.

Because the cause is basically the same.

Crabby muscles.

Here are three categories of people whose carpal tunnel syndrome may not be caused solely by muscles which are complaining:

-Women who are pregnant. Their pain goes away after delivery. -Diabetics with carpal tunnel pain. Those individuals need to be treated by their physician, but may also benefit from this information. -And a very few individuals who actually have a much smaller carpal tunnel than average. They may be more prone to CTS, and may be the only true CTS sufferers.

If you don't have any of the above, but you do have pain, read on--this is for you.

When our posture "fails," or we become collapsed forward, we compress nerves in our neck and shoulder. Those nerves cause symptoms in our hands, arms and wrists. Our muscles are no longer holding us upright. We need to get back to our original good posture, and we can.

When we get this "forward-head posture", we also usually develop trigger points. Trigger points can cause pain in--surprise!--our hands, arms and wrists, as well as other areas of our bodies.

Here's a simple carpal tunnel pain relief tip for computer users:

If you use a computer mouse, pull a tray table or something similar next to the side of your body. Put your computer mouse on it. This lets you hold your elbow close to your waist, which keeps your arm from getting strained from stretching to reach your mouse. Use a table height for your keyboard and mouse which allows your elbow to be bent at about 90 degrees and keep your wrists straight. Let your wrists "float" above your keyboard.