Several conditions can cause pinched nerves like vigorous exercise, monotonous work routines, or any other activity that could cause the tissues surrounding a nerve to exert too much pressure on it, leading to dysfunctionality and, in turn, pain.
The pain could range from mild to severe depending on the underlying cause, and some can heal by themselves within a few days, while others might need mediation or surgery. Pinched nerves affect people of any age, although adults above fifty years are most prone.
How can I tell I have a pinched nerve?
- We have different ways pinched nerve symptoms present themselves and any of the following feelings will likely be caused by a pinched nerve.
- If you keep having a feeling like your hand or foot is not responding to actions like movement, grabbing, or touching, as a result of numbness, it could likely be caused by a pinched nerve
- If you feel a sharp pain or a burning around your leg, foot, arm, or neck
- You could feel your muscles becoming weak and you struggle walking, lifting, or turning
Where is a pinched nerve likely to occur?
Around your neck
Some of the contributing factors could be sleeping in an uneven position, which puts pressure around your neck muscles
You could fall, receive a blow or accidentally crush your neck, causing injury
Moving your neck repetitively during an exercise
The above three factors can cause a pinched nerve in the neck leading to pain and a pickle ling sensation
On your leg
A pinched nerve on your leg can be a result of vigorous exercise or due to a herniated disc
Shoulder
One of your shoulders suddenly develops sharp pains caused by a pinched nerve resulting from injury, arthritis, or tendon inflammation
Wrist
Your wrist could develop pinched nerves as a result of frequent activities involving fingers like typing or kneading.
Hip
The main causes of pinched nerves in the hip are being overweight, a growth in your bone, or arthritis.
Lower back
A pinched nerve is associated with sharp pains on your lower back and buttocks, mostly caused by herniated disks, injury, or arthritis.
How long until the pain is gone?
Pinched nerve treatment includes surgical and non-surgical treatment. Non-surgical treatment involves medication and non-medicated procedures. When the treatment of a pinched nerve is done through non-surgical procedures, the pain will cease within a period of six to twelve weeks.
Other factors contribute to the duration of pinched nerve treatment, which may include:
- The strength of your immune system; if your immunity is strong, your pinched nerve can heal faster and may surprisingly take two weeks or more.
- The cause for pressure on the nerve: –
- pressure caused by exercise will heal faster than pressure caused by a herniated disk
- The amount of pressure on the nerve: – the more the amount of pressure, the more the pain takes to cease.
Which part is likely to heal faster?
Many factors contribute to how fast the pain goes including;
The level of injury that caused a pinched nerve
Your daily activities – part of therapy include resting and if you are too busy to rest, you might take longer to heal.
Pre-existing conditions like arthritis and obesity
Your wrist could heal faster because it does not carry a lot of bodyweights, unlike the lower back, which carries and supports your body structure and experiences constant pressure when you are standing, sitting, or walking. If we put all underlying factors as equal, the wrist will heal first, followed by the leg, then the neck and hip and lower back last but each individual is tied to several factors as discussed above.
What remedies will speed up healing?
You can heal faster if you minimize movement and rest on your bed
- Massaging the pinched nerve area
- Using ice cubes to cool off the pain
- Elevating your legs
- Using pain revelers
- Use chairs with advanced back support and armrests
