
The term “pinched nerve” applies to any length of nerve tissue that is experiencing compression from some neighboring physical structure. Nerves and like information pipelines or electrical wiring, branching off from the spinal cord as major nerve roots which then branch out into all the smaller nerves. When this tissue becomes impinged (pinched), it cannot relay sensory and/or motor signals correctly.
The symptoms of a pinched nerve will vary according to where the impingement is occurring. Impingement of a lumbar nerve root, for example, causes tingling, pain, weakness, or numbness in a leg and/or foot. The same problem in a cervical nerve root will cause similar symptoms, but in an arm and/or hand. To make matters more complicated, pain from a pinched nerve may be felt far from the impingement site itself, making you think you have some other health issue altogether.
Why do pinched nerves happen in the first place? Acute injuries that push spinal components onto nerve roots can cause immediate, acute impingement. Chronic issues such as bulging discs, spinal stenosis, or musculoskeletal alignment errors can bring pinched nerves problem on more gradually.
Our Kitchener ON chiropractor, Dr. Nik Dukovac, knows how to track down and fix nerve impingement issues. Detailed examination of your spinal structure and alignment can reveal the exact source of your symptoms. We can then provide you with natural, non-surgical treatments to help you achieve pain relief and rid yourself of other neurological symptoms.
We can then administer chiropractic adjustments to bring spinal components back in line with each other — and away from the nerve tissue. This allows the nerves to regain their normal function so you can feel like yourself again.
Corrective exercises may also be useful for helping you rehabilitate weakened muscles and reinforce proper posture.
If a pinched nerve is causing numbness, tingling, or weakness and has not gone away with chiropractic care, spinal decompression therapy can be a valuable tool in reducing pressure on the nerve and promoting healing.
If you’re in a real pinch due to nerve impingement, do something about it. Call our Kitchener ON chiropractic clinic today at 519-748-5535 so we can take the pressure off!
We look forward to hearing from you
I haven’t woken up with a migraine in a month – that’s the first time ľ’ve been able to say that in the past 59 years. The migraines were for many years hormonal but as I got older they evolved into what I felt had a more physical cause. Over the years I’ve tried chiropractic, acupuncture, massage, Botox, and naturopathic remedies. I’ve been prescribed many ‘preventative’ migraine medications, all to no avail. I’ve been hospitalized with tests showing no causation of the migraines and when, many years later, a neurologist told me he could not help me I gave myself up as a lost cause.
Every time I awoke with a migraine I blamed myself in part – too much time vacuuming perhaps or raking or even sitting for too long. The only resource I had was a migraine medication taken with OTC pain killer/muscle relaxants and often in addition antinausea tablets. My days, sometimes as many as 5-6 times weekly, were spent enduring the migraine until the medications kicked in many hours later or, in the following days, feeling the aftereffects of both the migraine and the medications.
Regular chiropractor adjustments, particularly with Dr. Nik, reduced the severity of the migraines so when he suggested Spinal Decompression along with more frequent chiropractic adjustments I was only too willing to try the treatment even though it was costly. I was not apprehensive but instead interested in starting the process which I found relaxing and not at all painful or uncomfortable and I appreciated the reassurance given that I was in the correct positioning. The 30-minute sessions passed quickly, and I appreciated greatly the wonderful care I received. I expected that if the
treatment was successful for me it would be after perhaps half of the 25 sessions, but 1 started feeling better after only a few appointments and improved incrementally with each session.In the past my life was filled with pain and the ensuing procrastination in many aspects of my life and now to wake each day without a migraine is so astounding that it is taking me a while to adjust mentally. I am no longer surviving my days but living a life I thought was impossible due to the constant migraines. I am now able to sit at my laptop and write regular emails to my family members overseas – a task which would always result in a migraine and was, therefore, constantly postponed. I no longer dread going out for the day knowing it would result in a migraine that night. My adult children are so happy to see the difference in me – seeing me live each day fully with optimism. It would have been so easy to discount the suggestion that there was yet another option in my constant search for migraine relief given the cost and the logistics of multiple appointments, but I am so glad that I took a leap of faith and ended up with a lightness of being in body and spirit which I thought was improbable if not impossible.
MBW