Tis the season to be merry, but if you suffer from pain sometimes it feels like the Grinch is stealing your Christmas.
Don’t Pinch Me, I’m Dreaming of a Pain-Free Christmas
Being pinched can sting, but to have a pinched nerve? Ugh! That can feel like severe, intense pain – and it often does. It’s possible for a “Pinched” nerve to happen anywhere in your spine; they can affect nerves that go to your arms, fingers, wrist, neck, back, shoulder, head, legs, muscles and internal organs, and can affect your general health, posture, energy level, resistance to disease – even your emotional health. “Pinched” nerves can simply put a pinch in your daily life.
The Nerve Bank
There are billions of nerve fibers in your body, often arranged 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.
A Host With No Nerves
Without nerves, you couldn’t see, hear, touch, taste or smell. You also wouldn’t be able to feel hot, cold, pain or 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 wouldn’t be able to respond to any of your commands, and you’d be a prisoner within yourself.
Nerve Regulation
Nerves regulate your breathing, sweating, shivering, internal organ function, heartbeat, digestion, excretion, blood supply to different organs and blood pressure. Without healthy nerves, your body would be quite useless.
Why Do Pinched Nerves Occur?
When the nerves come down from the brain, they travel through a bony canal formed by vertebrae. If the vertebrae are misaligned slightly, they may cause the nerves to be irritated, compressed or stretched. Nerves also send more than electrical impulses; it is now known that chemical nutrients, which are necessary for muscle health, travel over the nerves. What can cause nerve pinching or impingement? A fall or an accident, even a very mild one that happened years ago, may be enough to misalign your spine. Some common causes are unnatural sleeping positions, bad posture, fatigue, dental work, a difficult birth, emotional stress, poor nutrition or a combination of stresses.
Dis-ease and Pinched Nerves
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 and emotional conditions of many kinds have been related to improper functioning of the nervous system. Some of these include ulcers, constipation, diarrhea, lung conditions such as asthma, fevers, headaches, seizures, allergies, bed-wetting, colds, hearing, vision and a host of other problems. When the spinal column is misaligned, the entire skeletal system is thrown off balance, which can cause fatigue and exhaustion (common early signs of spinal problems).
Do All Pinched Nerves 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 about the ones without pain? Less than 10% of the nerve system can feel pain, so you don’t always know if there’s a problem.
Your Pinched Nerve Solution
Our team of experts specialize in the diagnosis and treatment of “pinched” and trapped nerves. So before this holiday season passes you by schedule to visit our team and let us help you ring in the new year healthy and jolly!
For Your Health,
Dr. Wendy Lanser D.C.