Pain in your arm, hand or wrist can be annoying and frustrating. You don’t know how much you use your arms and hands each second of the day until pain, numbness, or tingling gets in the way. Finding freedom of the pain may be easier than you think.
Did you know that the cervical spine contains nerve roots that travel down your arm? Did you know that pins and needles, pain and other sensations in the upper limb usually have a common denominator in the neck?
The pairs of nerve roots emanating from the neck transmit pain and other signals when the nerves are compressed, injured and irritated. Find the source of that injury can be difficult if you have no clue what you’ve been doing to injure yourself.
Regardless the key is to find the source of the compression or injury and try to relieve the inflammation causing the nerve pain or neuralgia. Hand, wrist and arm pain often starts with a neck problem.
When a spinal disc in your neck irritates or presses on a nerve, it can result in arm pain. Just like the power lines that bring electricity to your house, your brain and spinal cord split into individual nerve roots that deliver information to every part of your body. The nerves in your neck are specifically focused on providing strength and sensation to your head and arms.
A bulged or herniated disc in your neck can irritate or compress the nerves that travel to your hands, arms, and shoulders. A recent study of people with cervical (neck) disc herniation showed improvement in over 86% of those who received chiropractic adjustments. Improving spinal mobility, decreasing inflammation, and improving your posture may help prevent future
episodes of neck and arm pain.
Reference: Symptomatic, Magnetic Resonance Imaging-Confirmed Cervical Disk Herniation Patients: A Comparative-Effectiveness Prospective Observational Study of 2 Age- and Sex-Matched Cohorts Treated With EitherImaging-Guided Indirect Cervical Nerve Root Injections or Spinal Manipulative Therapy. JMPT 2016.
