When something damages one or more nerves around your body, you might lose all sensation in the affected region. If you’re experiencing areas of numbness, Jonathan Donath, DC, and Vinh Tran, DC, CCSP, at Joint Effort Chiropractic in White Plains, New York, can help. These experienced chiropractors resolve common causes of numbness like compressed nerves using advanced, noninvasive techniques. To benefit from their expertise in resolving numbness, call Joint Effort Chiropractic today or book an appointment online.
Numbness is a common problem that arises when your peripheral nerves stop sending messages back to your brain. Peripheral nerves are the ones that spread throughout your body from their origins in your spinal cord.
These nerves have many functions, including transmitting sensations to your brain such as pain, hot and cold, and information about things you’re touching. If anything damages or pinches the nerves, they can transmit faulty information, for example, sensations like:
In some cases, nerves become hypersensitive. If this happens, you might feel pain in response to a light touch. In other cases, the nerves send no messages, causing a loss of sensation or numbness.
Numbness is a symptom of numerous conditions, including:
Neuropathy is a term for pain and other symptoms coming from the nerves outside your spinal cord.
There are many ways in which neuropathy might develop, but one of the most common is diabetic peripheral neuropathy. This is a complication of diabetes that causes nerve damage due to high blood sugar levels. It causes pain, tingling, and numbness that usually affect the feet.
The carpal tunnel is a collection of small bones in your wrist. Carpal tunnel syndrome develops when a thickened ligament or other tissue in the wrist compresses the median nerve that runs between your shoulder and your hand.
Symptoms include numbness in the hand and wrist that’s usually most severe when you wake in the morning.
Radiculopathy is nerve compression in the spine. The spinal cord, where all your peripheral nerves come from, is in your spinal canal inside the vertebrae. When the nerves leave the spinal cord they have to go through gaps in your vertebrae to travel into the rest of your body.
If anything in your spine presses on or pinches a nerve, it can cause pain and other problems — commonly tingling and numbness that spreads into your arms or legs, depending on where the problem occurs.
Common causes of radiculopathy include osteoarthritis, bone spurs, herniated discs, spinal stenosis, and subluxations (misaligned bones).
The treatment your provider at Joint Effort Chiropractic recommends for numbness and tingling depends on the cause. If you have a condition like a herniated disc, Non-surgical spinal decompression could help by gently opening space in your spine so the disc can return to its position.
The team can also use chiropractic techniques, including Cox flexion/traction and the McKenzie protocol, to treat spinal restrictions, spinal dysfunctions and realign the vertebrae.
If you’re experiencing numbness or other problems like tingling sensations, find the solution by calling Joint Effort Chiropractic today or going online to book an appointment.