Effects of Nerve Compression
If you’ve ever felt pins and needles under your feet or hit your funny bone and felt a shock down your arm, you have experienced the effects of nerve compression. Usually, this unpleasant sensation is temporary and disappears soon after the source of compression is removed, for example, by standing up or letting your arm relax for a bit.
When a nerve is compressed over a period of time, however, the effects can be long-lasting and debilitating. Nerve compression is commonly caused by tight muscles, poor posture, degenerative bony changes, or trauma. While the spinal cord and brain do not heal, peripheral nerves, or the nerves that run from your spine to your limbs, do have healing capacity. This means that you can recover from most nerve injuries like sciatica and carpal tunnel syndrome.
How Can Physiotherapy Help?
Treatment may consist of dry needling (also known as intramuscular stimulation or IMS for short), soft tissue release, stretching, work modification, and exercise. Usually, a combination of these techniques produces the best results. In any case, identifying the source of neural tension or compression is key. If you work in a poor posture five days a week, the injured nerve will be continually subject to compression, even if treatment temporarily relieves the symptoms. Similarly, if you overuse a muscle that is constantly putting pressure on a nerve, you will need to use that muscle differently. It is therefore important to analyze your movement patterns and postural habits and consider the residual effects of past injuries.
Other Treatments
In addition to physiotherapy, anti-inflammatory and pain medications can help bring temporary relief. Although medications are rarely a good long-term solution, they may reduce discomfort enough to allow you to participate in therapy and become more mobile. In moderate to severe cases, surgery may be indicated; for instance, if osseus (or bony) changes are causing chronic nerve compression, surgical intervention can decompress the nerve in ways that manual (or hands-on) therapy cannot. Whether medication, surgery, or other treatments are needed or not, physiotherapy is often the first and best line of treatment because it is non-invasive and the side effects are relatively harmless. A qualified physiotherapist can assist in making the appropriate referrals for further treatments and consultations if needed.
If you have been experiencing prolonged numbness and tingling, you may have been overlooking a possible source of compression. A physiotherapist can thoroughly assess your body for deficiencies and develop a treatment plan to ease your pain!
