Dealing with a pinched nerve can be a painful experience. Pinched nerves cause problems that are temporary or go on for quite some time. They are usually caused by disc issues in the spine, putting pressure on the spinal nerves resulting in pain. Where you feel the pain typically depends upon where the pinch on the nerve is occurring. Here is what you need to know about treating a pinched nerve and how our chiropractors at Neck, Back, Arm, Leg and Headache Pain Relief Clinic of Marin can help you resolve this painful issue.

What Can Cause Pinched Nerves?

The nerves in your body expand from the brain, down the spinal cord, and then to the extremities. These nerves send messages throughout your entire body, and when they become compressed, pain often occurs. There are many causes of pinched nerves, including:

• Subluxation or Spinal Misalignment: A subluxation is a misalignment of one of the vertebrae. It irritates the nerve that exits the spine and causes pain and muscle spasm.
• Disc Degeneration: Due to spinal subluxation or loss of motion at a spinal joint, discs can begin to dehydrate and degenerate. When the disc deteriorates, the space between vertebrae gets smaller, which decreases the intervertebral foramina, or holes where the nerve exits. This loss of space crowds and puts pressure on the exiting nerve.
• Osteoarthritis: This form of arthritis predominantly affects weight-bearing joints, including spinal joints. The spinal joints are located behind the intervertebral foramina and bone spurs linked with osteoarthritis. They crowd into the intervertebral foramina, putting pressure on the spinal nerve.
• Disc Herniation: An increased or abnormal pressure on the spine causes the nucleus to push against our outer fibrous ring. This pressure causes the ring to protrude and compromise the space where the nerve needs to exit the spine. With enough pressure, the nucleus can herniate out and contact the spinal cord or the exiting nerve.

How Can Chiropractors Help Pinched Nerves?

The goal of chiropractic treatment is to eliminate pain and restore the patient to complete health. Our chiropractors can provide various therapies to help you get relief from severe conditions like pinched nerves.

Because chiropractic care looks at the whole person, there is an emphasis on treating the cause of any problem and educating our patients on understanding how they can prevent a reappearance of the same ailment in the future. By realigning these joints and strengthening the soft tissue surrounding them with chiropractic care, you can stop the degenerative process from getting worse and, in many cases, avoid more aggressive treatments like surgery in the future.

We want everyone to know how to help their bodies heal, how to maintain optimal health, and how to avoid ill health in the first place. Give Neck, Back, Arm, Leg and Headache Pain Relief Clinic of Marin in San Rafael a call today at (415) 223-9060.