Have I got a trapped nerve?

This is a question I get asked at least once or twice a week, the answer depends on where your pain is and what symptoms you are getting.

A trapped nerve is exactly that, when a nerve has become squashed or restricted at some point along its course. This could be at the point the nerve exits your spine or it could be further down the nerve somewhere in your arm or leg.

If you think of your nerves like electrical cabling if they get squashed or pinched then this stops the signals getting down the cable correctly. Generally a trapped nerve will give you symptoms such as pins and needles, numbness and a feeling of weakness usually in the hands or feet.  In extreme cases it can also affect you bladder and bowel causing either an inability to go or incontinence.  PLEASE NOTE: if you are experiencing any unexplained changes in your bladder or bowel which you think might be related to nerve pain then this is a medical emergency! Stop reading this and seek help from a doctor now!

Typically nerve pain will also travel, usually along an arm or leg, rather than being in just one location. The length of time the symptoms lasts for will depend on how and why the nerve has been trapped. I’m sure most people have woken up with a dead arm, or wacked your funny bone giving you pins and needles into the arm and hand. This is an example of a trapped nerve, but the squashing of the nerve was only for a short period of time so the symptoms do not last for long – thankfully!

Nerves can become trapped anywhere along their course, from where they exit the spinal cord in the spine, right down to between the small joints and muscles of the feet and hand. Examples of things that might cause a trapped nerve at the spinal level would be a disc prolapse or instability of the vertebrae or more common and less worrying reasons further down the nerves course could be simply a muscle spasm! Other more unusual causes could be a neuroma, such as a Mortons Neuroma seen in the foot, which is a swelling of the nerve that increases the space the nerve needs to effectively pass the signals along it.

Can an Osteopath help?

Well that partly depend on why and where your nerve is trapped, what an Osteopath can do is examine you to help diagnose the problem more in depth and then suggest the best form of treatment, for more simple causes such as muscle spasm or a minor to moderate disc prolapse the answer will usually be yes. If it isn’t then your Osteopath can advise on what the best action to take will be.

What about Sciatica?

Sciatica is a trapped nerve, a specific nerve in the body to be exact. The Sciatic nerve is the main nerve that runs down your legs, commonly irritated by conditions already mentioned and yes for most cases of sciatica Osteopathic treatment will be beneficial.