It might be depressing to realize that carpal tunnel syndrome may involve a genetic predisposition, rather than being a form of repetitive strain injury (RSI). But it may be even more sobering to realize that genetics play only a partial role in whether or not a person ends up with this sort of hand disorder. There are other medical and physical problems that are strongly linked to this syndrome; a fact that might make you yearn for the good old days when carpal tunnel problems were thought to indicate a relatively simple RSI.
For example, genetics might play an important role in that they determine the form of your very body structure. If you have several relatives with carpal tunnel, then there is a strong possibility that there’s some kind of heredity involved, meaning you may be structurally more susceptible to the disorder yourself. Age also plays into the issue, with older people being at much higher risk than younger ones. Fortunately though, such hand disorders are very rare in children. If you are female, however, you are much more susceptible to this particular problem than men. Three times more susceptible, in fact.
Women develop problems in their carpal tunnel health at a rate three times higher than that of men. A superficial explanation would be the generally smaller size of the carpal tunnel in female wrists, yet the clear connection with hormone changes indicates that there has to be something more going on than that. With women suffering autoimmune diseases more than men as well, and carpal tunnel syndrome also being linked to some of those diseases, more research on this question is definitely needed.
It may not seem fair that obesity and carpal tunnel syndrome are also very strongly linked, since obesity gets the blame for so many other medical problems as well. But both the UMMC and the Mayo Clinic note the connection. And carpal tunnel disorder is linked to a host of other conditions too, such as diabetes, end-stage kidney disease and thyroid problems. This means that while the syndrome appears at first to be primarily a disorder of the hands, it actually plays a much larger role in a person’s medical condition than previously thought.