Numbness In Your Lower Leg
Overview
Numbness, tingling, or lack of feeling in your lower legs can be a temporary experience after sitting down for too long. Sometimes we say our limbs go to sleep.
It can also be a warning sign of many serious medical conditions. Its important to know what to look for and how to tell when it may be time to see a doctor.
How Is A Herniated Disc/pinched Nerve Diagnosed
A neurological history and examination performed by a trained physician will provide the most objective evidence of a herniated disc and pinched nerve. There are no laboratory tests that can detect the presence or absence of a herniated disc, but they may be helpful in diagnosing unusual causes of nerve root pain and irritation. An EMG may help to determine which nerve root in particular is being pinched or is not working normally in the situation where several nerve roots may be involved. An MRI is the test of choice for diagnosing a herniated disc.
Signs And Symptoms Of Low Back Pain Lower Back Hip Pain Leg Numbness
These might range from a dull pains to a stabbing or shooting experience. The pain may make it tough to relocate or stand directly. Discomfort that begins all of a sudden is acute. It might occur during sporting activities or heavy training. Pain that lasts more than 3 months is thought about persistent. If your discomfort is not far better within 72 hours, you need to consult a physician.
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Lower Back Pain Causing Leg Cramps: Symptoms Reasons Treatments
For some unknown reason, Lower back pain causing leg cramps that can occur to anyone at any time, and the lower back area is not exempted.
The cause of leg cramps can also be attributed to kidney problems.
But whatever the reason is for lower back pain causing leg cramps, you have to consult a doctor at once.
What Is A Herniated Disc
Herniation describes an abnormality of the intervertebral disc that is also known as a “bulging,””ruptured,” or “torn” disc. This process occurs when the inner core of the intervertebral disc bulges out through the outer layer of ligaments that surround the disc . This tear in the annulus fibrosis causes pain in the back at the point of herniation. If the protruding disc presses on a spinal nerve, the pain may spread to the area of the body that is served by that nerve. Between each vertebra in the spine is a pair of spinal nerves, which branch off from the spinal cord to a specific area in the body. Any part of the skin that can experience hot and cold, pain or touch, refers that sensation to the brain through one of these nerves. In turn, pressure on a spinal nerve from a herniated disc will cause pain in the part of the body that is served by that nerve. Most disc ruptures occur when a person is in their 30s or 40s when the nucleus pulposus is still a gelatin-like substance.
Four Degrees of Disc Herniation
Nuclear Herniation
Sequestered Nucleus
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What Causes Numbness And Tingling
Lumbar spine problems can cause symptoms of tingling and numbness in the lower extremities. Many patients expect that problems in the lumbar spine should cause symptoms of back pain. However, some of the most common symptoms of a lumbar spine problem are experienced in the lower extremities.
One important function of nerves is to provide information about sensations from the body to your brain. When these signals are damaged, interrupted, or irritated, the sensations can be experienced abnormally. This can manifest as sensations of numbness, tingling, prickling, or other abnormalities of the skin.
In many common spine conditions, these nerves that travel to your brain are pinched or compressed. This pressure on the nerve can cause abnormal sensations, commonly experienced as tingling or numbness.
When the nerve that runs from your foot to your brain is pinched, you may experience a numb footeven if that nerve is pinched all the way up in your back. This is the same reason your hand experiences tingling when you bump your “funny bone.”
Medications Drugs Or Toxins
Many medications, drugs, and toxins can cause unpleasant effects lower leg tingling is one possibility. Certain chemotherapy drugs cause damage to the nerves in the arms and legs and can be associated with leg tingling. Excessive alcohol intake can also lead to nerve damage long-term. Exposure to toxins like lead, mercury, and arsenic can also lead to tingling in the lower leg.
This list does not constitute medical advice and may not accurately represent what you have.
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Diagnosing The Cause Of Your Lower Back Pain
November 5, 2021 By Kassandra Silva
Lower back pain happens to people of all ages all over the world. Around 80% of all individuals will experience this condition at least once in their lives.
The pain can range from mild to severe and dull to pulsating. It may result from an injury, structural problems, or disease. With so many possible reasons, it might be difficult to figure out the root cause of your back pain.
In this article, well go through some of the conditions causing lower back pain.
Is Your Task Contributing To Back Pain
A job that involves pulling, training, or twisting with the reduced back can create injury and low back pain. Also long term sitting in an awkward setting can trigger low back pain. Depending on your feet for hours at a time? That can trigger lower back pain also. The very best means to prevent back pain is to recognize if you go to threat.
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Feeling Of Pain Numbness And Pins And Needles In The Feet Can Be Hard To Pin Down
Relatively speaking, your feet are a long way down from most vital organs. To keep them in sync with the rest of your body, your feet sit at the end of a long network of blood vessels and nerve conduits.
The most significant of these nerve conduits that connect your lower extremities to your main nervous system is the sciatic nerve. It originates from your lumbar spine, just above the sacroiliac joint, which connects your spine to your hip bones. This nerve then winds its way along the backside of your femur, through the calf, and on down to the ankles and feet.
In addition to the sciatic nerve, there are hundreds of smaller nerves branching off from your main spinal conduit into the various regions of your thighs, knees, calves, and feet. Basically, you have an entire network of nerve signals controlling the operation of your legs various muscle systems while also sending vital feedback to and from your central nervous system.
Strange sensations including shooting pains, stabbing pains, prickly sensations, numbness, tingling, and muscle weakness can be caused by interference along any of these nervous system pathways.
Back Pain Offender: Your Exercise
Overdoing it at the fitness center or golf links is one of one of the most common causes of overextended muscle mass bring about low back pain. Youre particularly susceptible if you have a tendency to be non-active throughout the job week and afterwards spend hours at the fitness center or softball field on the weekend break.
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Causes Of Lower Back Pain
This type of pain is mechanical and it is often linked with the general deterioration of the spine health . This loss of health can be caused by:
There are other causes of lower back pain, including spinal stenosis, yet the right thing is to seek assistance at the chronic pain treatment centre. It is possible that you have a disease that is affecting your lower back, including tumors, abdominal aortic aneurysms, kidney stones, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, fibromyalgia, endometriosis and cauda equine syndrome.
Numb Leg From Alternate Sources
If leg numbness exists without lower back pain, then the diagnostic possibilities open up to include many other possible causations. Locating the exact source of symptoms can be a time consuming process to be sure. Numbness in the leg or legs can also occur due to many other potential causes, including any or all of the following conditions:
Cervical spinal stenosis or thoracic spinal stenosis can cause weakness and numbness in the legs, as well as the inability to stand or walk. We see obvious severe cervical stenosis as the cause of many leg symptoms, although in some patients, this cause is never even investigated, due to the existence of scapegoat lumbar issues which take the blame, while remaining completely innocent.
Numbness can come from pseudo-sciatica, including piriformis muscle-enacted compression of the sciatic nerve or compression of the nerve by a tumor or cyst.
Leg numbness can be caused by a disease process, a neuromuscular disorder or other systemic cause, although it is rare that numbness will be the exclusive symptom expressed.
Numbness might result from localized nerve tissue injury or disease in part of the leg.
Numbness can come about due to circulatory problems that might affect one or both legs and may be further complicated by specific factors that might relieve or exacerbate the symptomology, such as position of the legs or body.
Help for a Leg Numbness
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What Are Common Sciatica Symptoms
Sciatica is the most common symptom of lumbar radiculopathy, a condition described as pain, and sensations such as numbness or tingling, muscle weakness, or poor reflexes found along the path of a nerve.
Radiculopathy means irritation or injury to a nerve root that causes pain and other symptoms that radiate away from the affected nerve root. In the case of sciatica, usually the pain is felt as low back pain that radiates down the leg.
Pain is the hallmark sciatica symptom. Although sciatica symptoms may be felt anywhere along the sciatic nerve, classic sciatica radiates from the low back into the butt, and down the leg to below the knee. In fact, your doctor will usually check for sciatica if you have low back pain. Less commonly, sciatica pain may be felt starting in the buttocks or hip area and radiates down the leg.
Sciatica pain is often described as electric, burning, or sharp. The nerve pain can vary from mild to excruciating and can worsen when you bend down, twist your spine, or cough.
Although you have two sciatic nerves , sciatica symptoms typically only occur on one side of the body. If you have radiating pain down both of your legs, it is less likely that the pain is caused by a pinched sciatic nerve, Dr. Wang says.
In addition to pain, if the sciatic nerve is compressed, the muscles it serves may become weak. It may be hard to bend your knee, bring your thighs together , and point your foot and/or toes upward or downward.
Why Your Mental Health Matters When Dealing With Lower Back Pain
The mind-body connection plays a huge role in chronic pain. Major depression can make a person three times more likely to develop chronic lower back pain.21 People who have a history of childhood trauma often develop chronic pain, Jamison explains. We can carry traumatic events, whether big or small, with us into adulthood.
They can manifest as feelings of powerlessness, and that could keep you from addressing a pain problem early on, before it has a chance to progress into a chronic situation.22 While some people may just want to focus on the now and treat the pain as quickly as possible, it can be helpful to use psychotherapy to address past issues that may be contributing to the physical pain, Jamison says.
Its important to take care of your mental health when living with chronic pain, but some people resist getting help because of whats called provider fatigue. As Jamison explains it, you might have little or no interest or motivation to see a psychologist because youve already seen a host of other providers. And if youve tried numerous treatments and medications, all to no avail, making the effort to locate a mental health provider may feel overwhelming.
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How A Chiropractor Can Treat Pain Related To Sciatica
Visiting a chiropractor in Chicago is one of the best ways to treat sciatica pain. Sciatica is caused when pressure is applied to the sciatic nerve. This pressure can be caused by:
- Spinal misalignment or slipped / herniated discs. Chiropractors can treat these conditions by manipulating the spine and restoring spinal alignment.
- Spinal stenosis. While chiropractic care cannot correct spinal stenosis, regular chiropractic treatments can stave off the development or progression of spinal stenosis.
- A tight piriformis muscle. Chiropractors can treat this by using a number of different techniques, from spinal manipulation, to massage, to stretching, both in the office and as a directed at-home treatment
Due to the different causes of sciatica, its essential that the cause of the pain is diagnosed correctly. Only through the correct diagnosis, can the best and most rewarding treatment plan be created.
Best Treatment for Sciatica Pain in Chicago
Before you undergo any treatment for sciatica pain at Advanced Spine & Sports Care, well perform a proper diagnosis, which will involve a review of your medical history and a physical examination. In some instances, the diagnosis may also involve further tests that will enable us to gain a more in-depth understanding of your condition.
A treatment plan for sciatica at Advanced Spine & Sports Care can involve many different treatments, including:
- Spinal manipulation
- Lifestyle changes
- Stretches
What Are The Symptoms Of Sciatica
The symptoms of sciatica include:
- Moderate to severe pain in lower back, buttock and down your leg.
- Numbness or weakness in your lower back, buttock, leg or feet.
- Pain that worsens with movement loss of movement.
- Pins and needles feeling in your legs, toes or feet.
- Loss of bowel and bladder control .
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Is The Weight Of Pregnancy The Reason Why So Many Pregnant Women Get Sciatica
Its true that sciatica is common in pregnancy but increased weight is not the main reason why pregnant women get sciatica. A better explanation is that certain hormones of pregnancy cause a loosening of their ligaments. Ligaments hold the vertebrae together, protect the disks and keep the spine stable. Loosened ligaments can cause the spine to become unstable and might cause disks to slip, which leads to nerves being pinched and the development of sciatica. The babys weight and position can also add pressure to the nerve.
The good news is there are ways to ease sciatic pain during pregnancy, and the pain goes away after birth. Physical therapy and massage therapy, warm showers, heat, medications and other measures can help. If you are pregnant, be sure to follow good posture techniques during pregnancy to also ease your pain.
Leg Pain And Numbness: What Might These Symptoms Mean
Leg pain can be intermittent or constant and can range from a dull ache to a searing, throbbing, or burning sensation. Numbness may be felt like a loss of sensation or a cold, icy feeling in one or more areas of the leg.
Leg pain may be the symptom of a variety of underlying causes or conditions, and getting a correct diagnosis is essential to informing the most effective course of treatment.
Leg pain often starts as a problem in the lumbar spine, or low back. Watch:Sciatica Causes and Symptoms Video
This article provides an in-depth review of common causes of leg pain, along with prominent symptoms and progression of the pain.
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Is This The Same As A Ruptured Disc
No. Lumbar canal stenosis is not the same as a ruptured disc. A ruptured disc usually pinches one or two nerves at a time. The pain caused by a pinched nerve in the lumbar spine usually is easy to diagnose. This pain has a special name: sciatica. Sciatica usually causes back pain that shoots down one leg. This pain can happen any time, not just when you stand up or start walking.
When To Call The Doctor
Your sciatica may go away on its own, but if your pain is severe or doesnât go away, you may want to see your doctor. Sciatica can be treated with physical therapy, medication, and surgery.
Seek immediate medical attention if you have any of the following symptoms:
- Weakness in your lower extremities
- Numbness in your leg
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How To Get Rid Of Lower Back Pain That Causes Leg Cramps
A healthy diet will ensure that your baby receives all the nutrients he needs from the very beginning.
Healthy eating will improve your mental alertness, your immunity against disease and illness, and your general well-being.
Healthy eating does not only promote physical health but mental health as well.
The ability to concentrate and focus better is one of the benefits that you get from a good diet.
Regular exercise will prevent the development of low back pain and leg cramps as well as improve your mobility, coordination, and balance.
Taking multivitamins on a regular basis will provide the vitamins and minerals essential to good health and to ward off diseases like cancer, diabetes and heart problems.
If you have a poor diet and have low iron levels, leg cramps could occur at any time.
Iron plays an important role in blood clotting and is essential in the transfer of oxygen to different parts of the body.
Without iron, circulation is impaired leading to cramps and other types of discomfort.
In addition, a low iron level in the body could result in weak bones and muscles, making it more difficult for you to walk and limber up.
Treatments
Taking herbal supplements that have a diuretic effect can also help treat leg cramps.
There are several herbs that have diuretic properties, which means that they encourage urination.
Herbs such as witch hazel, hyssop, and aloe Vera can help to alleviate cramps because they reduce the inflammation and pain associated with them.
