The nerves in your body help your brain send and receive messages to and from organs, limbs, and even your skin. Nerves are located all over your body, can carry sensory and motor information, and help you regulate body functions that are involuntary, like breathing and your heart beating. When one of these nerves is pinched or compressed, it can cause symptoms like pain, tingling, and numbness at the site as well as in other areas of the body. The most common pinched nerves occur in the neck, back, and around other joints like your wrists. While sometimes a pinched nerve may go away on its own, other times you might need to find a chiropractor in College Park to help you experience lasting relief.
Causes of a Pinched Nerve
A pinched nerve is such a common experience that many people don’t even realize that’s what is happening to them! In fact, the most common example of a pinched nerve is the sensation of your foot “falling asleep”. Perhaps you were seated for a very long time in the same position, like with your legs crossed. That type of position may put too much pressure on a nerve that sends messages to and from your foot, so it might slowly start to “fall asleep”, or temporarily lose sensation because of how the root is compressed.
Compressed nerves can occur for a number of reasons, including injury, disease, and general wear and tear on the body. A pinched nerve is common with a herniated disc injury, because the disc that has slipped out of place may put excessive pressure on a nearby nerve. Whiplash is a common car accident injury that can cause a herniated disc and lead to a pinched nerve. Aging leads to general wear and tear on your joints, which can become inflamed or develop bone spurs that may compress nearby nerves. Rheumatoid arthritis is also an example of a condition that can lead to a pinched nerve.
Symptoms of a Pinched Nerve
The most common symptoms of a pinched nerve are pain, tingling, and numbness. Many describe these sensations like “pins and needles”, or that tingling and sometimes uncomfortable feeling as your foot “wakes up” after it has “fallen asleep”. That pain may be sharp and feel like burning, or it could feel more like a dull ache. When you have a pinched nerve, you may also notice the area has become numb and you can’t feel anything in and around the area. Similarly, you might also notice muscle weakness and temporary loss of mobility, like when your foot has fallen asleep and it seems like you can’t move it until it wakes up. In some cases, these symptoms go away once you start moving around and relieve the pressure on the nerve. In other cases, though, the nerve may continue to be under pressure.
Pinched Nerve Complications
What happens if you let a pinched nerve get untreated? A pinched nerve that doesn’t get treated right away can lead to a number of complications. If you experience pain, tingling, and numbness that doesn’t seem to go away after resting the area or repositioning then you should go see your chiropractor in College Park. When a pinched nerve isn’t treated it can cause other issues in your body and even lead to chronic pain and discomfort.
When a nerve is pinched at the root it can lead to a disease called radiculopathy in the cervical, thoracic, or lumbar spine. Cervical radiculopathy is caused by a pinched nerve in your neck that is causing symptoms like pain, tingling, and numbness that radiate into the arm or chest. Lumbar radiculopathy occurs due to a pinched nerve in your lower back and can even cause sciatica, which is a type of back pain due to too much pressure on the sciatic nerve. A pinched nerve in your wrist can also lead to carpal tunnel syndrome.
Treatment for a Pinched Nerve
Your chiropractor in College Park can provide you with an individualized treatment plan that addresses your symptoms as well as the root cause of the pinched nerve. This means you will start to experience immediate relief from your symptoms while your chiropractor also uses safe, non-invasive techniques to reduce the pressure on your nerve that is causing you pain. At AICA Orthopedics, our team of chiropractors in College Park offers comprehensive chiropractic care for anyone struggling with a pinched nerve.