Numbness and tingling conditions are conditions that can affect people of all ages. Most commonly, numbness or tingling results from underlying nerve compression conditions. Other times, blood flow is restricted to the affected area for a variety of medical reasons.
Paresthesia — the pins and needles feeling we get when our foot falls asleep — is the most common type of numbness and tingling. In isolated incidents, such as falling asleep on your arm and waking up to it numb, paresthesia is normal.
However, if paresthesia occurs regularly without obvious explanations, or if it happens to last more than a few minutes, it can be a symptom of a serious underlying condition. These conditions can include a herniated disc, nerve trauma, inflammation, vitamin deficiencies, multiple sclerosis, toxins and more.
Dysesthesia is another condition related to feeling numbness or tingling, although it is much rarer than paresthesia. Sufferers can have extreme nervous system reactions to normal stimuli, such as feeling like your hand is burning when you rest it on a flat surface.
If that numbness is coming from nerve compression, the main culprit could be due to a misalignment in the spine causing pressure on the nervous system. The chiropractor makes sure the spine is aligned and moving properly. When in alignment and moving properly, there is typically no more radiating symptoms.
Take a look at the case of this 41-year-old woman. She experienced numbness in part of her right forearm and with three of her fingers. Initially, she assumed she had slept on it wrong, but the symptoms didn’t go away after the few minutes it usually takes in cases of temporary paresthesia. After being diagnosed with ulnar nerve compression, she underwent chiropractic care. After 11 visits, her symptoms disappeared entirely.
