Understanding Nerve Pain
June 16, 2013
Pain is the bodies warning system that something is wrong. Things that your nerves can sense are hot, cold, vibration, light touch, and even control muscles to contract. When you touch something hot, your nerves are responsible for telling the muscles to retract from the heat. Sometimes when these nerves are not properly functioning you may not properly feel pain to protect your body. Injuries are common in patient's with nerve damage due to the lack of feeling to the affected area such as kicking things, hot or cold damage. I've even seen an example of a patient who experienced a burn from keeping a laptop on their lap for too long resulting in a burn to the thigh. Nerve damage can also cause a person to feel pain that is not real. Some of these activities that may cause pain could be sitting or standing for extended periods. Even the weight of bed sheets can elicit nerve pain.
Overuse injuries such as continually using the hands and fingers to type can cause inflammation around the median nerve in the wrist. Continual fine motor use of the hands cause this pain. This is commonly referred to as carpal tunnel syndrome. This squeezing around the nerve can give the person a feeling of wearing rubber gloves not allowing the brain to properly interpret the signal from the hands. Numbness and tingling is associated with this nerve pain.
We can think of the nervous system as the wiring of the body conveying brain signal to and from every cell, tissue, and organ in the body.. Balance comes from what our eyes perceive, our inner ear detects, and what our feet and legs tell the brain. Our muscles play an important role in giving you a sense of balance. If the wires are damaged going from the brain to the musculature of the feet and legs 33% of your balance has been lost. This often results in many falls and more injuries.
If activities are not address and these pain are ignored, nerve damage typically progresses going from hands and feet then up the arms and legs. Proper assessment and treatment can often have positive results or at lease halt progression. Some things that may be the cause of nerve pain can been pinched nerves at the spinal level due to vertebral misalignments, disc damage, and even uncontrolled diabetes. Beach Blvd Chiropractic is trained in the different causes of pain and how best to help you with your nerve pain.
