The Power of Chiropractic Care: How Do You Fix a Pinched Nerve in Your Neck?

Do you feel sharp pain running down your arms and legs? How about on your neck? If yes, you could have what is known as a pinched nerve. Sadly, a pinched nerve is a frequent issue that many individuals sometimes encounter. How do you fix a pinched nerve in your neck? Although many think they might need surgery to fix this nerve, this is not always necessary. A chiropractor can assist. What is a pinched nerve? Why do they occur, and how can a chiropractor help a person recover?

A pinched nerve in the neck often causes pain for many individuals. They can result from various reasons, usually overworking the neck or back, sports-related injuries, or repeated movements. They also occur more frequently as we age because of body wear and tear.

While the exact reason remains unclear, pinched nerves may occur when vertebrae misalign.

Pinched Nerves: What Are They?

A pinched nerve occurs once a nerve root gets squeezed through a narrow space, usually in the shoulder, neck, or upper back areas.

For a simpler explanation, think of a blocked water hose; when it’s blocked, no water can get through, but when it’s jammed, water can flow but is disturbed. Pinched nerves might occur in any part of the body, based on where the nerves are affected. This squeezing can cause oversensitivity, swelling, and discomfort in the nearby area served by that nerve. The shoulder and neck, back and upper chest, arm and elbow (which often happens when you hit your elbow’s “funny bone”), and wrist and hand (which can be caused by carpal tunnel syndrome) are the most common places where you will feel a pinched nerve.

Pinched nerves can cause pain in many different ways, but most of these can be influenced by irritation to the joint. Disturbances in the signals of nerves can lead to various issues, including unhealthy or dying nerve fibers in the body, which can cause pain, numbness, tingling, or other symptoms.

What Causes Pinched Nerves?

A pinched nerve can happen because of a sudden injury from sports or an accident. A herniated disc might be caused by awkward lifting, tugging, or twisting motions. Many structural stress factors can lead to a pinched nerve, and chiropractors are specialists in reducing that stress and preventing pinched nerves. Although a pinched nerve might hurt, it can usually be treated with rest, over-the-counter medicine, and physical therapy. Most people heal completely from a pinched nerve. Pinched nerves can affect individuals of any age. Still, those who are 50 and older are more likely to develop them because of degeneration in the spine, arthritis, and other parts of the body. Below are the usual causes of a pinched nerve:

Inflammation

Inflammation of the ligaments, muscles, and other structures surrounding the nerve can result in pinched nerves. Inflammation and tension in other spine structures, including ligaments and muscles, can also contribute to the compression of the spinal nerves. Rheumatoid arthritis, for instance, is a type of arthritis that results in inflammation in the joints, which can put pressure on nearby nerves. Inflammation in your facet joints (joints in the spine that let you bend or twist your back) pushes the nerve that leaves the spine.

Repeated Movements

Repeated movements of damaged or dysfunctional joints can cause nerve pinching in the arms or legs. These movements can compress nerves, reducing the space they have to move between joints without much soft tissue protection. Repeated motions and bad posture habits, like typing for a long time, holding your wrists wrong, or leaning on elbows too much, can strain your wrists and hands. This can lead to carpal tunnel syndrome, where tendons get inflamed and press on the median nerve in your arm.

Bone Spurs

As people age, their spine and discs “wear and tear.” Over time, spinal discs can lose their water content and become flatter. The vertebrae (bones in your spinal cord) move closer together, and the body reacts by forming bone spurs. These bone spurs can press on nerves.

What are the Symptoms?

Once a nerve in your neck gets pinched, you might notice less movement in your neck. It could also cause shoulder pain, making your arms numb or tingly. Inflamed nerves can make your muscles spasm, adding to the discomfort. Sometimes, you might pressure the sciatic nerve in your leg’s back. This pressure might affect how your discs grow and put more pressure on your nerves. Even if you don’t feel it, compressed nerves in your arms and legs can affect how your organs work.

If you feel pain due to a pinched nerve, a herniated disc or piriformis syndrome could be the cause. When a disc in the spine is herniated, it can cause serious issues with the lower body. If the spine is too far apart, the pressure on nerve roots can push out the intervertebral disc. Sciatica pain can be severe, but chiropractic treatment can help. Chiropractors can alleviate pinched nerve pain in the spine by reducing stiffness and inflammation in muscles that ache or feel tense.

How Do You Fix a Pinched Nerve in Your Neck: Treatment of a Pinched Nerve

Once in a while, a pinched nerve might improve after resting for a few days. While waiting, you’ll still feel the pinched nerve symptoms, which can be bad. To help you heal quicker, our chiropractor offers a variety of treatments. After discussing your health, we’ll select one or more of these treatments to quickly relieve your pinched nerve and the pain and swelling it brings.

Chiropractic Care—Chiropractic adjustments heal your pain and inflammation through spinal realignment. As we adjust, we release the pressure pinching your nerve to reduce the inflammation and pain you feel immediately. Many patients say their pinched nerve signs get better after the first treatment. Our chiropractors will lessen the pain, help muscles recover, and align the spine for overall body health.

Massage—Getting a massage can be calming and help with neck or back pain. During a massage, the therapist works on tight muscles, breaks up scar tissue, and warms up muscles so our chiropractors can better adjust them.

Therapy – Physical therapy comes after we’ve reduced your pain and healed the injury. We often suggest exercises to strengthen your muscles and show you stretches to do at home. These exercises and stretches will make your muscles stronger, relieve pressure on nerves, and help you heal. When you’ve healed enough, it’ll help, and we’ll give you individual therapy to focus on what you need.

Acupuncture—Because acupuncture releases endorphins, it can make individuals with a pinched nerve feel better. It also helps more blood flow around the nerve, which speeds healing up. We’re glad we can provide acupuncture for various issues, such as recovering from a pinched nerve.

Pain Management: We provide ways to ease pain naturally instead of suggesting that you use medicine to hide the pain caused by a pinched nerve.

What Does Chiropractic Therapy Do for Pinched Nerves?

Chiropractic therapy aims to correctly align the vertebrae in your spine, fixing any misalignments that might lead to pinched nerves and long-lasting pain.

There are several ways to do this, often using spinal manipulation, chiropractic adjustments, or mobilization. When you get a back adjustment, it’s a hands-on or mechanical fix for a joint that might be out of place or misaligned. Adjustments are gentle movements done to a joint, usually with the hands. Mobilization, on the other hand, is a gentler, more controlled movement to flex and rejuvenate the joint and surrounding tissues. Your chiropractor might use a combination of these methods depending on your condition.

Why Choose a Chiropractor

Studies show that 85% of adults in the United States are affected by pinched nerves, which result in back and neck pain. While a pinched nerve can happen to anyone at any age, data show that people 50 and older are more likely to have them because of arthritis and degeneration in the spine and other parts of the body.

The most common reason for a pinched nerve is a herniated disc, followed by repetitive motion, injury, arthritis, and obesity. Pinched nerves can cause neck pain, loss of range of motion, numbness and tingling, significant pain, and muscle weakness.

Studies show that chiropractic treatments can help with pinched nerves. Depending on the affected area, we accomplish this via spinal decompression, active release therapy, chiropractic adjustments, and other drug-free methods. The end goal is to relieve the pressure aggravating the nerve.

Conclusion: How A Chiropractor Can Assist Release Your Pinched Nerve

Often, a pinched nerve stems from issues with how your spine is positioned about your body’s parts. These parts might be your bones, tendons, ligaments, cartilage, or muscles. They shouldn’t squeeze your nerves. If they do, they need to be aligned properly again.

This is where a chiropractor comes in. They can use hands-on methods to adjust how these body parts are positioned, which can release the trapped nerve. While surgery might be an option, it carries more risks and potential problems compared to manual therapy. Hence, using a chiropractor’s expertise to address a pinched nerve is wise.