Things to try before everything for beginners
 

1) Forcing you to keep a good posture, doing things slowly
2) Relaxation therapy
3) Acetyl-N-Carnitine

what does Acetll-N-Carnitine do for you?

i didn't take it but datas suggest it is effective for neuropathy like this.

I took it at the suggestion of a doctor, but cannot report that it helped me any.

I would add postural stretches and exercises to the list, excluding ones that are known to exacerbate TOS, including neck stretches, neck exercises and pushups.

For maintaining good posture, I can't recommend the iPosture monitoring device enough.

I would be very careful before doing stuff on your own. Every self help book, posture exercise, ergonomic setup, yadda yadda yadda ONLY MADE THINGS WORSE.

A good therapist who knows rib mobilization and myofacial release from the Inst. of Physical Art would be my first and only stop if I were a beginner. All the 101 things I tried and 101,000 dollars (slight exaggeration) were pointless.

interesting that you say to exclude neck exercises. The chiropractor that I am seeing for a work injury said not to do any neck stretches and has not even tried to adjust my neck, even after MRI of cspine was not too earth shattering. He instead has referred me to a neurologist for further testing. What about neck stretches is aggravating to TOS?

It's a good question. I think in my case, the scalene stretches cause the first rib (to which they connect) to elevate, which then pinches the nerves and blood vessels that lay over them.

I've also wondered if people could have adhesions between their brachial plexus and their scalenes such that stretching those muscles would pull on the plexus and irritate it.

Whatever the reason, I know from experience that neck stretching makes me worse. Which is very unfortunate as it works great for the rest of my body (pec minor, back, hips).

Someone just posted that they found scalene stretches to be very helpful to them. So maybe the real advice should be to try them out at some point and see which category you fall into.

Additionally, I have to try things one at a time because otherwise it can be hard to distinguish what's helping and what's hurting.

I would also add to the list:

* Monitor posture using the iPosture device.

And let's add these to the list for people new to TOS:

* See 2 vascular specialists/surgeons for consultation, diagnosis, q&a and advice.
* See 2 neurologists for the same.
* See 2 chiros for the same.
* See 2 PTs for the same.

Sometimes I overemphasize chiro, PT, posture, stretching, etc. but some people have real anatomical issues like scar tissue from auto accidents, cervical ribs, etc. and may need to go the MD route to get relief. TOS cases vary widely.