Treatment Options For A Pinched Nerve
Non-Operative Treatment for Pinched Nerves
Your doctor will want to start with conservative treatments for your pinched nerve. These benefit most patients with pinched nerve symptoms. Conservative treatments include:
- Pain medication, including muscle relaxers, anti-inflammatories, and sometimes even narcotic painkillers.
- Alternating cold and hot compresses for the first twenty-four to forty-eight hours.
- Physical therapy to stretch, massage, and strengthen your back.
- Epidural steroid injections to reduce your inflammation and help your spine specialist pinpoint the exact location of your pinched nerve.
Least Invasive Endoscopic Procedure Options for Pinched Nerves
If you are still experiencing pinched nerve symptoms after attempting conservative treatments, then it may be time to consider a surgical option. The following procedures offer up to a 90% success rate in treating bulging discs and pinched nerves.
What You Need To Know
- Radiculopathy describes a range of symptoms produced by the pinching of a nerve root in the spinal column.
- The pinched nerve can occur at different areas along the spine .
- Symptoms of radiculopathy vary by location but frequently include pain, weakness, numbness and tingling.
- A common cause of radiculopathy is narrowing of the space where nerve roots exit the spine, which can be a result of stenosis, bone spurs, disc herniation or other conditions.
- Radiculopathy symptoms can often be managed with nonsurgical treatments, but minimally invasive surgery can also help some patients.
Set An Appointment With Our Pinched Nerves Chiropractor In Mckinney
At Crowder Specific Chiropractic, you will receive excellent upper cervical chiropractic care. Our pinched nerves chiropractor in McKinney provides a long-term solution for pain. To begin your pinched nerve recovery journey, contact our office today. You may request an online appointment here or call our office at 562-0674.
To schedule a complimentary consultation with Dr. Crowder, call our McKinney office at 972-562-0674. You can also click the button below.
If you are outside of the local area, you can find an Upper Cervical Doctor near you at www.uppercervicalawareness.com.
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Pinched Nerve In Lower Back: Secrets To Coping With The Pain
A pinched nerve is a form of nerve injury that often results in numbness, pins and needles sensation, and radiating pain. It can occur in specific regions in the spinal column, including the lower back. Lumbar radiculopathy, sciatica, or a pinched nerve in the lower back affects about 3 to 5 percent of the population. This condition can easily cause severe disability and discomfort. If left unresolved, it can lead to long-term problems like permanent nerve damage.
Learn about how you can cope with a pinched nerve in the lower back in our discussion below. Check out the top options that patients use and how each remedy can help you manage your symptoms.
Pain Or Burning Sensations Radiating Down Your Leg
Sciatica is a common type of low back pain that happens when the sciatic nerve gets pinched or compressed where it exits your lower spine . Because branches of the sciatic nerve extend from your lumbar spine through your buttock and all the way down your leg, if the nerve gets compressed or irritated, you can feel pain, burning sensations, or a dull aching anywhere along that nerve pathway.
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Arthritis In The Spine
As with arthritis in other areas of the body, the condition can cause swelling, which in turn can render your spinal nerves compressed and aching. Rheumatoid Arthritis is a particularly common form that affects the back.
Through the natural process of aging, there are a number of conditions that can develop due to changes and degeneration in bone and tissue structures and positioning. For this reason, we see most pinched nerves first appear among people between 30 and 50.
Symptoms arent always debilitating when they first become noticeable, however.
Surgical Procedures To Alleviate Pinched Back Nerves
As a last resort, your spine doctor may recommend a minimally invasive surgical procedure to help correct a pinched nerve in your back. The exact procedure will depend on the root cause of the pinch. For instance, a microdiscectomy calls for a small incision in the back to correct a herniated disc.
Ultimately, in many cases, having a pinched nerve is a temporary condition. Once the cause is removed, pressure dissipates, and usually the previously affected nerve returns to normal functioning.
When your condition goes unaddressed, however, both chronic pain and permanent nerve damage are likely to occur. So if you feel you may be experiencing symptoms of a pinched nerve in your back, it is always best to err on the side of caution and have the issue checked out.
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Speed Up Your Recovery From A Pinched Nerve In The Neck Or Lower Back With These Exercises
If youve ever had a pinched nerve in your lower back or neckugh, the agony. Pinched nerves are the laymens term for nerve compression that can trigger symptoms much farther away from the site of the pinch.
It may seem counterintuitive, but keep moving if you have a pinched nerve in the neck or lower back.
With cervical radiculopathy, you may feel pain, tingling, and numbness or weakness in your arms and hands. With lumbar, those same symptoms can appear in your back, butt, or upper legs. Hello, sciatica.
Many people feel pinched nerve symptoms for just a day or two before they quickly resolve, but if theyre long-lasting and severely impact your days, youd be wise to get checked by a doctor, says Kaliq Chang, MD, an interventional pain management specialist board-certified in anesthesiology at Atlantic Spine Center.
Some factors that put you at higher risk of pinching a nerve include:
- Obesity
- Lifting or twisting wrong
- Keeping your body in a certain position for a long time
Most patients need only rest, temporarily avoiding any activities that worsen symptoms, Dr. Chang says. If it doesnt exacerbate your pain, exercise may also be a way to find some relief.
How To Get Rid Of A Pinched Nerve
Commonly, people come in with a story about moving a couch, holding something heaving out in front of their body, or a bending/twisting movement says McCormick. They might be loading their lower back with the weight, rather than lifting with their knees in a spine-neutral posture, and that can cause disk herniation. Treatment usually starts with physical therapy and activity modifications.
We do a positional assessment to find what movements might reduce an individuals pain symptoms. A physical therapy program is built based on those positional preferences, to try to reduce pinched nerve symptoms. McCormick says anti-inflammatories are also used, depending on other medical conditions present and what’s safe for an individual to take. Plus, medicine to stabilize nerve membranes, reducing nerve pain signaling.
Other U of U Health pinched nerve treatments include:
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Massage Or Physical Therapy
Having a massage may also help reduce physical pain and stress. Applying gentle pressure around the affected area may help relieve tension, and a full body massage can help the muscles relax.
Deep tissue massages may not be a good idea because the extra pressure may make the symptoms worse.
Physical therapy, using a combination of exercise, massage, and gentle stretches, can help relieve symptoms.
Massage With Warm Oil
Another great way to reduce the pain from a pinched nerve is by massaging your muscles with warm oil. This will help activate pressure points. In turn, blood flow will improve, stiff muscles will relax, mobility improves, and the pain lessens.
Try warm olive, mustard, or coconut oil along with a few drops of peppermint oil.
Gently rub on the affected area and massage for ten minutes.
Do two times a day until you see an improvement. You may need to ask for help if its in an area you cant reach by yourself.
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What To Expect Following Treatment
Most patients are able to recover from a pinched nerve with a combination of rest and non-operative treatment options within a few days or weeks. However, if your doctor recommends a surgical option, like the endoscopic discectomy performed by the specialists at Spine Institute of North America, you can usually expect a short recovery time.
How Radiating Pain Helps You
The location of your symptoms tells you when youre making progress. Symptoms travelling further away from your spine means the nerve is more irritated. Pain moving closer to your spine is a positive sign that the nerve is feeling better.
This phenomenonwhen pain moves closer to your spineis called centralization. Patients who experience centralization are 7.8x more likely to feel better in 2 weeks than those who dont!
Use this information to your advantagespend less time doing things that send pain down your leg. Instead, find the positions that move the pain towards your spine!
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Seeing Your Doctor About A Pinched Nerve In Your Back
Should at-home treatment methods prove ineffective in relieving your pain, consider heading in to see your doctor about the situation. When symptoms seem to persist to a point that they interfere with your day-to-day routine, or its been more than a few days dealing with the same issues, set an appointment.
There are a number of treatment options your doctor may be able to offer after diagnosing a pinched nerve in your back. Generally, a pinched nerve treatment plan consists of a combination of base-level treatments. When those dont provide ample relief, more aggressive options may be presented.
Shoulder Rolls And Shrugs
Try the following exercises to relieve tension and pain in the shoulders and neck area:
- Lift your shoulder blades upward
- Roll them back down to the starting position
- After five or six times, try it in reverse
For shrugs, start by standing then:
- Keep both arms relatively straight at your sides
- Move your shoulders in a rotating motion
- Rotate in the opposite direction to return to the first position
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Secret Remedies For Managing Lumbar Pain
Sometimes, lower back pain can go away on its own. This is common primarily if the pain stems from physical overexertion at work. However, if the problem arises from other conditions such as a previous injury, herniated discs, bone spurs, neck misalignment, and spinal stenosis, you may need medical attention.
Below are some of the usual remedies that patients seek when they experience mild to severe lower back pain:
- Work on your posture No matter if you sit or stand, you should always take note of your body posture. This can heavily impact your spine health. Poor posture can also aggravate a pinched nerve in the lower back.
- Try doing gentle lower back stretches Pain sometimes get worse when the muscles get stiff. To prevent this from happening, we suggest doing gentle back stretches. Try spending about 10 to 15 minutes a day on your stretching exercises to see improvements.
- Use heat and cold therapy wisely Soothe muscle pain and soreness with cold therapy and promote healing with a hot compress. Use either of the approaches for no more than 15 minutes per interval.
- Manage pain with OTC pain medication If you need quick relief from your symptoms, taking pain medications like NSAIDs might help. Be sure to follow the prescription and avoid taking too much.
Treatment For A Pinched Nerve In A Leg
When suffering from a pinched nerve symptom in the leg, the trick is figuring out whether the nerve is in the leg itself or in the lower back. The leg has only a few major nerves and only a few places where those nerves could be pinched, so accurate diagnosis and thus proper treatment is relatively straightforward. Clinical examination is the most important tool in that regard, and if necessary a nerve test called an EMG can provide additional details.
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Causes Of Pinched Nerves
A pinched nerve typically happens when a nerve is damaged and cannot send regular signals to the brain, which may cause feelings of numbness and tingling.
A pinched nerve can happen for a range of reasons. A herniated disc or bone spurs that are compressing the nerve may cause it. It may also be caused by arthritis in the area.
Also, certain activities and habits can cause a pinched nerve. Sitting, standing, or walking with poor posture may contribute to a pinched nerve.
Injuries from sports or repetitive actions may compress a nerve. Extra pressure and weight caused by obesity may also lead to pinched nerves.
How Common Is A Pinched Nerve
Pinched nerves are common every year about 85 out of 100,000 adults in the United States are affected by pinched nerves. People of any age can experience pinched nerves, but those aged 50 and older are most likely to have them, due to arthritis and degeneration in the spine and other parts of the body.
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How To Reverse A Pinched Nerve In Lower Back
2020/05/23 by Meital James
When it comes to healing from a pinched nerve in the lower back, early diagnosis is critical to prevent further damage and complications.
But whats really confusing is that youll be offered the exact same pinched nerve treatment, whether youre diagnosed earlier or later.
Pills.
Nice colorful pills. Those will be offered to you as a solution.
But the average doctor will teach you absolutely nothing about fixing the root cause of your pinched nerve, how to heal it completely and prevent it from coming back in a month or so.
Nor will he tell you that medication only covers up the symptoms and that the pain will come right back, if you dont address the root cause.
Here youll find the best alternative, safe and natural treatments for a lower back pinched nerve, and how to fix whats been causing it in the first place.
Page Contents
What Is A Pinched Nerve
Your spine is made up of 33 individual bones called vertebrae that stack together to create your spine. Up the center of these bones is a channel or tunnel known as the spinal canal. This is where your spinal cord resides. Your spinal cord runs from your lower back all the way up to your brain, carrying signals from nerves throughout your body.
All along your back nerves emerge from the spinal canal and out between these vertebrae. Sometimes one or more of these nerves can become pinched or impinged. This can be due to an ongoing condition or issue or can happen acutely, such as when you twist or bend in an awkward manner.
When a nerve is pinched it can result in a multitude of symptoms, ranging from mildly annoying to incredibly painful or debilitating. Numbness, tingling, pain, loss of small motor coordination and changes in bowel or bladder control are just a few of the symptoms that can accompany a pinched nerve.
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How To Release A Pinched Nerve
Stretching exercises can be very useful here. The right stretch can release the nerve from its bind, help calm the inflammation and thereby alleviate the pain.
While the two stretches described here are light and designed to help the lumbar area, you need to tread carefully to avoid aggravating your condition. Make sure you follow the instructions and perform the exercises slowly and attentively. The right time to increase the stretch is while breathing out.
We start by lying flat on the floor, bending the painful leg and slightly pull it towards the shoulder. Once you feel a stretch, hold the leg in that position for some 30 seconds. Afterwards, release and straighten the leg back in the starting position, take a short break, and repeat the movement two more times.
Again, from a supine position, bend your knees and slowly pull them toward the chest make sure you are not lifting your buttocks of the floor! Cross your legs, as shown in the figure above, and pull the healthy leg with your hand. Keep the legs in this position for 30 seconds, release them, and return to the original position. Repeat the exercise two more times.
If you liked this, be sure to also check our recommended yoga exercises for sciatica and daily activities that are aggravating your sciatica.
Talk To A Doctor First
Hold on there it’s not quite time to stretch yet. If you’re experiencing the symptoms of a pinched nerve, it’s very important that you speak to a doctor before undertaking any exercises or stretches for a pinched nerve in the lower back.
There are two reasons for that. The first is that while pinched nerves can cause the symptoms already listed, your doctor can help you figure out whether there’s anything else behind the pain and discomfort. She’ll also find out whether you need any additional treatments, including anti-inflammatory meds or pain relievers, or even more serious interventions such as steroids or even surgery in extreme cases.
Second, depending on the specifics of how your nerve is being put under pressure, certain positions might actually worsen your condition. For example, if your pinched nerve is caused by a herniated disk, the direction in which that disk has “slipped” can determine which movements help you and which make it worse.
Tip
Can you work out with a pinched nerve? Maybe but again, which movements help and which movements hurt depend on the specifics of your nerve problem. A doctor will help you determine the exercises that are safe and beneficial for you.
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