And a good source of posible tests are the Liza Jane spreadsheets:

www.lizajane.org

Also a good way to track test results over time for patterns, and to get doctors to consider things that may be outside their immediate awareness.

Both carpal and tarsal tunnel may evolve simply due to local compressive forces on the nerves in those areas--admittedly, there is less space in those areas for nerves to pass through than in other areas, so the wrist and ankle areas are more prone to compression--but in my experience, many cases of carpal or tarsal result from other conditions, and therefore decompressive surgery may be of limited value if the other conditions are not addressed. For example, hypothyroidism is often associated with carpal tunnel; there seems to be a mechanism, as Mrs. D has described, in which incompletely metabolized waste products resulting from low thyroid function lodge in the area of the wrists and lead to nerve symptoms--normalizing thyroid function helps.

Many cases of carpal and tarsal tunnel probably are related to the double crush phenomenon with nerves--a compressive force is applied to nerves already compromised by some other condition, and while neither condition alone produces major symptoms, the combination of both does:

http://www.tifaq.org/archive/double-crush.txt

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1...ubmed_RVDocSum