Nothing can be more painful than having a pain in the neck that won’t stop, and I am not referring to your spouse! Truly, neck pain can simply ruin day to day living if not cared for and treated. A pinched nerve or radiculopathy comes from arthritis or degenerative disc disease. Just the word, [dis ease] helps one to understand the full impact of what this means. Bone spurs can be formed and begin to literally pinch nerves that are running through the tiny openings, or foramen.
Fortunately, these aberrations don’t happen until later in life. Just another thing to look forward to. In a young person, a pinched nerve can be caused by trauma. Football players wind up with pinched nerves because of the extreme blows they have taken to their heads, necks, backs and shoulders causing inflammation and swelling.
Symptoms To Consider
Symptoms of a pinched nerve won’t kill you but they might make you think you were dying and wishing you could at the same time. Imagine not only having severe pain in your neck and head region but along with that agony comes the possibility of numbness or muscle weakness, , tingling and traveling or radiating pain depending on which nerve is being pinched. All these symptoms can be brought on by a healthy disc gone awry.
As the area swells, the nerve gets crowded and begins to get angry causing a disruption in normal activity such as circulation and electrical output. Without going into great depth from a medical standpoint, suffice it to say that when you have a pinched nerve, even a minor cough or sneeze can cause havoc in the pain department.
Pinched Nerve In Neck Treatments
So, what can be done about this pinched nerve? Treating it with a non invasive approach is the first plan of action. Cervical collars can be purchased from online retailers and they can immobilize the neck to try and reduce the inflammation around the pinched nerve. The warmth provided by the collar can also be instrumental in providing relief.
Cervical traction is another mode of treatment where the traction actually helps to separate the vertebrae pinching the nerve. In conjunction with the cervical traction, the chiropractor or orthopedic doctor might prescribe some neck exercises to loosen the impending muscles.
A chiropractor could be employed to manipulate the neck for realignment adjustments. Sometimes it just takes a few of these to relieve the pain and reposition the nerve so it has adequate space so as not to be pinched.
Moving to a more invasive approach, the doctor might recommend NSAIDs (non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs as an adjunct to the manipulation or traction. If the pain persists, oral corticosteroids are the next line of attack in trying to lessen the pain brought on by the pinched nerve. Moving up the ladder of invasive treatment, spinal steroid injections to actually block the nerve can help the discomfort and alleviate pain.
Finally, when all else has failed, the ultimate in invasive therapy would be surgical intervention. If no improvement has been shown and the patient is in chronic pain with no relief in sight, surgery to correct the pinched nerve is eminent.
