Is A “Pinched” Nerve Making Your Life Miserable?
Being pinched hurts, but to pinch a nerve? Ugh! That must feel like a severe, intense pain, and it often does. “Pinched” nerves could happen anywhere in your Spine; can affect nerves that go to your arms, fingers, wrist, neck, back, shoulders, head, legs,muscles and internal organs; and can affect your general health, posture, energy level, resistance to disease, even your emotionalhealth. “Pinched” nerves can make your life miserable.
Pinched?
Are the nerves really pinched? “Pinched” is an inaccurate term. Many chiropractors feel that “vertebral subluxation complex,” nerve impingement,” “nerve irritation,” “foramina compression,” “chronic proprioceptive sensory-bed disturbance, “nerve-meningeal tension” and “spinal stress” are more accurate and should be used instead. But people like the word pinched because it’s so descriptive.It can really feel like something is being pinched in there. Some health professionals use it. People sometimes enter a chiropractor’s office saying their M.D. told them they had a “pinched” nerve and they need a chiropractor.
Nerves: Where Do They Go?
There are billions of nerve fibers in your body often in bundles called nerves. Many billions of them travel inside the spinal column as part of the spinal cord and exit through openings between the vertebrae. After leaving the spinal column the nerves separate into smaller and smaller bundles and travel to every nook and cranny in your body
Life Without Nerves
Without nerves you couldn’t see, hear; touch, taste, smell or feel hot, cold, pain and pleasure. Your body would be the ultimate sensory deprivation tank; you’d be completely cut off from existence. Without nerves you would be completely paralyzed, no muscles could move; your body couldn’t respond to any of your commands~you’d be a prisoner within yourself.
Nerve Regulation
Nerves regulate your breathing, sweating, shivering, internal organ function, heartbeat, digestion, excretion, regulation of blood supply to different organs and control of blood pressure. Without nerves your body would be quite useless.
We Need Healthy Nerves
Without healthy nerves the body is weakened, not able to adapt to environmental stresses and becomes a candidate for physical and mental diseases. The most common form of nerve damage is the so-called “pinched” nerve. It can affect the health of the nerves and the entire body
How Do Nerves Get Impinged Or “Pinched”?
When nerves travel down from the brain, they pass through a bony canal formed by the vertebrae. If the vertebrae become misaligned or surrounding structures place pressure on the nerves, they may become irritated, compressed, or stretched.
Nerve irritation can also involve nearby discs, ligaments, joints, muscles, fascia, tendons, and other tissues. Falls, accidents, poor posture, awkward sleeping positions, repetitive strain, fatigue, and other physical stresses may all contribute to changes in the spine and surrounding tissues that affect nerve function.
Because nerve irritation can be connected to other spinal conditions, it’s important to look at what may be contributing to the problem rather than focusing on the nerve alone.
Pinched Nerves & Related Conditions
A pinched or irritated nerve can sometimes be connected to other problems in the spine. Low back pain, sciatica, and herniated discs may occur alongside nerve irritation or contribute to pressure on nearby nerves, which can lead to pain, tingling, numbness, weakness, or discomfort that travels into the arms or legs.
Because these concerns can overlap, treatment may need to address more than one issue at the same time. Chiropractic adjustments and spinal decompression may be included in a personalized care plan to improve joint movement, support spinal alignment, and reduce pressure on irritated nerves or discs.
The goal is to understand what is contributing to the nerve irritation rather than treating the symptoms as an isolated problem.
“Pinched” Nerves Cause Disease
When the nerves are compressed, their impulses may be altered and this affects the entire body Dis-ease, a general weakening of your body may result. Dis-ease sets the stage for diseases of all kinds. Chiropractors have observed that physical arid emotional conditions of many kinds have been related to the improper functioning of the nervous system, among them ulcers, constipation, diarrhea, luiig coiiditioi is such as astlinia, fevers, headaches, seizures, allergies, bed-wetting, colds, hearing, vision and a host of other problems. If the spinal column is misaligned the entire skeletal system is thrown off balance which can cause fatigue and exhaustion
Most “Pinched” Nerves Don’t Hurt
Most people with “pinched” nerves are not in pain. People with painful “pinched” nerves might be considered the lucky ones they know they have a problem in their spine and they hopefully will get themselves checked by a chiropractor But what of the ones without pain? This is the big job of chiropractors today educating the public and telling them about vertebral subluxations and the need for periodic spinal checkups.
Correct Your “Pinched” Nerves
Only doctors of chiropractic are able to analyze the spinal column for “pinched” nerves or vertebral subluxations. Using the art of the chiropractic spinal adjustment, the doctor of chiropractic then begins a process of correcting the spinal damage. No painkillers, muscle relaxants, other drugs or medical procedures can do it. No surgery cair do it. “Pinched” nerves (vertebral subluxations) will not go away by themselves. Anyone suffering from “pinched” nerves needs a proper chiropractic spinal analysis and spinal adjustment to relieve their body of vertebral subluxations riothing else will do.
No matter what disease or condition you have, you can benefit from a healthy spine. Spinal health can be as important for your overall healing as proper nutrition. Are you and your family carrying the vertebral subluxation complex in your spines? Only a chiropractic spinal checkup can tell. Among the many things contributing to your health; the quality of the air; food and water you take in; how you handle emotional stress; your inherited weaknesses and strengths; your use of drugs; exercise; and relaxation a healthy spine is absolutely essential. In some people it is a major factor and can make the difference between a life of health, strength and vitality or a life of disease, weakness and disability.
