Pins and needles can be horrible!
Many clients have struggled to sleep, let alone work when a nerve develops acute pins and needles.
Paraesthesia which the NHS defines as “…tingling or numbing sensation that’s usually felt in the arms, legs, hands or feet.”
There are two main reasons you have one area of localised pins and needles:
1. Respectively overstretching a nerve.
2. External pinching is often called nerve entrapment.
(In my clinical experience mechanical tearing of a nerve is very rare)
Overstretching and pinching a nerve, both over time result in reduced oxygen. Nerves tingle when they are deprived of nourishment, which is most commonly oxygen.
WHERE nerves get pinched (entrapment sites):
1. Spinal nerves (the root of a nerve).
2. Nerve roots from the neck (which turn into arm and head nerves: radial, ulnar, median, long dorsal, sub occipital nerve).
3. Nerve roots from the lower back (which turn into leg and foot nerves: femoral nerve and others become sciatic nerve).
4. In muscles alongside the arm nerves.
5. In muscles alongside the hip and leg nerves.
WIDESPREAD tingling could be something else! (Please consult a medical practitioner if you suffer from this).
Sometimes nerves can start to tingle even when they are supplied with oxygen, for example in the following pathologies:
1. Polyneuropathy
2. Reynard’s syndrome
For more info about the causes of widespread nerve issues read my sciatica eBook.
3 ways you can STOP pins and needles
1. Stop overstretching the nerve (See the eBook for details on this).
2. Increase blood flow to the area, as reduced blood supply leads to reduced oxygen which is the primary reason nerves tingle.
3. Reduce excessive muscle spasms in the area. It is not always a disc issue, sometimes it is the muscle that pinches the nerve.
How osteopaths help people suffering from pins and needles:
Osteopaths encourage blood flow to grumpy nerves by:
• Moving the adjacent joints.
• Relaxing surrounding muscles