A Trapped Nerve
- It could happen anywhere
in the spine: in the neck (cervical area), in the lower back(lumbar
area), or mid back (thoracic area).
- It can cause pain that affects
nearly every part of the body: arms, fingers wrist, shoulders,
head, leg, knee, ankle, foot, toe - it can affect our mood and
make our life miserable.
Trapped ?
Are the nerves really trapped ? There's a lot of controversy
over this. In fact, most authorities feel that the term is so
inaccurate that it should not be used at all.
"Trapped nerve" is
really a lay or common term and is not scientific. Instead, it
is argued, other terms should be used to properly describe what
is going on: "nerve irritation", "spinal stress".
But people use the term because
it's so descriptive. It really can feel like something is being
trapped in there. In fact even some health professionals are
using it.
So what's a "trapped nerve" ?
Let's investigate ...
First, what is a nerve? What do they do? Are nerves important?
Nerves: Where Do They Come From?
There are billions of nerve fibres
in your body; they travel in tightly bound bundles called nerves.
Millions of nerve fibres may be found in a nerve. With a few
exceptions the nerves take the following journey from the brain:
they go through a large hole in the bottom of the skull (foramen
magnum) and travel down inside the spinal column as part of the
spinal cord. The spinal cord contains billions of nerve fibres.
From it, nerve bundles exit through holes or foramina located
between the vertebrae called invertebral (between the vertebrae)
foramina.
After Leaving The Spine
After they leave the spinal column
through the foramina, the nerves continue to branch into smaller
and smaller bundles until they complete their journey to every
nook and cranny in the body. Our nerve network is so extensive
that if you were to disappear and only your nerves were to remain,
you would be perfectly recognisable, though a bit ghostly.
What Do Nerves Do?
Nerves send impulses or messages
from the brain to the body and from the body to the brain. Different
nerves send different messages. When the message goes from the
brain to the body it
travels over a motor nerve. When the message goes from the body
to the brain it travels over a sensory nerve. The nerve messages
keep your brain and internal organs communicating so
they may work together in a co-ordinated, harmonious manner.
Without Nerves
Without sensory nerves we couldn't
see, hear, touch, taste, smell, or feel hot, cold, pain or pleasure.
It would be the ultimate sensory deprivation tank. We would be
totally cut off from
existence. Our body couldn't respond to any of our commands.
We'd be a prisoner within ourselves.
Nerve Regulation.
Nerves also regulate our internal
automatic processes: breathing, sweating, shivering, internal
organ function, heartbeat, digestion, excretion, regulation of
blood supply to different organs, control
of blood pressure and many other things.
So you see our nerves, which
are really extensions of our brains, are the centre of our beings..
Without nerves our bodies would be quite useless we'd be little
more than vegetables and barely
survive.
We Need Healthy Nerves.
We need to do all that we can
to keep our nerves healthy. Without healthy nerves the body is
weakened and not able to adapt to environmental stresses. It
would be diseased. A diseased body is weak and a candidate for
all types of physical and mental diseases and disabilities.
The most common form of nerve
damage is the so-called "trapped nerve". It can affect
the health of the nerves and the entire body.
How Do Nerves Get Impinged or
"Trapped" ?
When the nerves come down from
the brain they travel through a bony canal formed by the vertebrae.
If the vertebrae misalign slightly they may cause the nerves
to be irritated or compressed or stretched. Nerves aren't the
only things in the affected area - there's blood vessels, discs,
ligaments, joints, muscles, fascia, tendons, meninges, lymphatics,
other connecting tissue and fat tissue, and they may all be affected.
What can cause this ? Many things.
For example, a trauma- a fall or an accident, even a very mild
one may be enough to misalign your spine. It may be due to bending
or twisting in a certain way, it may be as a result of poor sleeping
or poor posture, or both. It may occur after weeks or months
of constant stress of either physical or emotional origin (usually
it a compilation of the two).
When the nerves are compressed
their impulses may be altered and this affects the entire body.
Physical and emotional conditions
of many kinds have been related to the improper functioning of
the nervous system. When the spinal column is misaligned the
entire skeletal system is
thrown off balance.
This can cause fatigue and exhaustion.
Most "Trapped Nerves"
Don't Hurt.
Some people with "trapped
nerves" are not in pain. Remember we said only certain nerves
(sensory) carry pain messages? If certain sensory nerves are
not badly damaged then no pain will
be felt. The damage to the nerves and other tissues may be happening
but no pain will tell the unlucky person that they have nerve
pressure. People with painful trapped nerves might be
considered the lucky ones - they know they have a problem in
their spine and, hopefully, they will get themselves checked
by a chiropractor.
Chiropractic helps
your
body help itself
|
