Ulnar Nerve Entrapment and a DIY Cure
⌚️ read time: 5 minutes
Have you experienced numbness, tingling, or burning in your pinky finger? Or are you struggling with inner elbow pain? Even if the answer is no, you’ll want to pick up some tips below to prevent yourself from getting this potentially dangerous nerve compression.
Many of you have probably heard of carpal tunnel syndrome. But have you heard of its sibling, cubital tunnel syndrome?
Another common name for this condition is ulnar nerve entrapment.
Whereas carpal tunnel syndrome is a pinched nerve (median nerve) in the wrist, cubital tunnel syndrome is a pinched nerve (ulnar nerve) at the elbow. The ulnar nerve’s job is to provide sensation to your ring and small finger. It also controls most of the muscles in the hand itself.
This makes it by far the most important nerve for hand function.
Cubital tunnel syndrome is yet another incredibly common condition, but unlike carpal tunnel syndrome, you can take many effective steps to cure yourself at home…right now!
The key is this: “Stay straighter than 90 degrees”
Huh?
Stay with me for a moment. The ulnar nerve (the nerve that’s pinched) is the only major structure that runs around the back of your elbow. In fact, as we have evolved from four-legged creatures to animals that stand on two legs, the upper extremities have slowly rotated over time from legs into arms. Every other important structure in the arm eventually made its way to the front — but the ulnar nerve has (so far) been left behind!
Also…have you ever hit your funny bone? That’s a direct hit on your ulnar nerve around the inner back side of your elbow.
So now you know where it is :).
This position of the nerve means that, based on pure physics, this nerve is tensioned and compressed when we bend our elbows past 90°. A tensioned, compressed nerve is a nerve that cannot receive its delicate blood flow.
Cue the elbow pain and the burning, numbness, and tingling in your ring and small finger.
An easy way to visualize ulnar nerve entrapment
Ok, here’s a fun experiment you can do (see images below).
Straighten your elbow. Grab the loose skin on the back of your elbow and wiggle it all around. No tension on that skin!
But keep holding onto it and now bend your elbow all the way. Now that skin is tight!
Remember, your ulnar nerve is right under that skin and it’s doing the same thing. Extreme tension and compression when bent past 90°. And thus, no blood flow to the nerve.
Which brings me back to my first point: “Stay straighter than 90 degrees.”
This means that, as you go about your day, you need to pay really close attention to keeping your elbow from bending past a position of 90° for prolonged periods of time.
This is easier said than done for many in today’s economy. Desk jobs involve lots of typing, a position that puts our arms at 90° of elbow flexion for hours at a time. Which then suffocates the ulnar nerve. And cubital tunnel syndrome ensues.
This applies to so many activities in our modern lifestyle. Imagine the position of your elbows while you drive, type, text, scroll, eat, read a book, curl up to watch TV, curl up to sleep…and on and on.
Before you know it, you’ve spent 80% of your day in a flexed elbow position. And that poor ulnar nerve spent all that time without meaningful nutrition or oxygen. Trust me, sooner or later it will voice its displeasure.
Your DIY strategy against cubital tunnel syndrome
But don’t worry. This is not a condition where it’s all or none. You don’t have to quit your desk job or take weeks off work.
You simply need to be mindful of elbow position and breaks to get those arms moving a bit, as outlined below.
If your work requires a bent elbow for hours at a time, be sure you’re taking 10-15 second breaks every few minutes to let that elbow hang down at your side and straighten out (in fact, an elbow bent at 45° puts the lowest pressure on the nerve). This can be a quick rest from the keyboard as you’re either thinking about your next idea to type, grabbing a sip of coffee, or answering the phone.
Blood will rush back into that nerve and allow it to keep functioning the way it should.
Make this a habit and you will almost certainly cure yourself of, or prevent the appearance of, cubital tunnel syndrome.
In fact, nearly 9 out of 10 people will improve or eliminate cubital tunnel syndrome with this simple daytime position modification plus three months of using a nighttime brace that keeps the elbow at 45°. Unfortunately, no current studies have examined activity modification (ie, the “taking breaks” strategy I outlined for you above) by itself, so we don’t know how effective this strategy is without the nighttime bracing component.
But my guess would be ‘pretty darn effective.’
😀
The big warning
If you make these changes for 3 months and your symptoms don’t resolve, then it’s time to visit a hand specialist. And without delay.
Remember that whole part above about this nerve controlling most of the muscles in your hand?
Yeah. It’s important.
So.
DO NOT IGNORE prolonged cubital tunnel symptoms that don’t improve with basic home care. As with carpal tunnel syndrome, the compression often slowly worsens over time. Before you know it, you’ve passed the point of permanent nerve damage, which causes a debilitating hand weakness that not even surgery can fix.
Takeaways:
Cubital tunnel symptoms reliably respond to changes in elbow positioning throughout the day.
Avoid prolonged periods of elbow flexion in order to restore the blood flow to your nerve and alleviate your numbness, tingling, or pain.
Do not ignore sustained cubital tunnel symptoms - this can lead to irreversible hand weakness.
There’s lots more to know about cubital tunnel syndrome, or ulnar nerve entrapment. Hopefully, this gives you a helpful starting point, especially if it’s something you already struggle with.
In reality, the above tips will help all of us prevent this potentially dangerous nerve compression. Stay tuned for more information about cubital tunnel syndrome in future articles.
