Your arms and hands are some of the busiest parts of your body, and it’s not surprising that these areas will easily fall prey to injuries and health problems. For your arms to feel well and function properly, your nerves need to be unhampered and in good shape all the time. However, a problem like a pinched nerve can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere, and understanding what causes a pinched nerve in your arm as well as what it feels like can be very helpful. Knowing the remedies to make a pinched nerve in arm heal and recover faster will also help you and anyone you know going through the condition.
Symptoms of pinched nerve in arm
Because of the many nerves in your arms, only a doctor or a neurologist will be able to locate the exact one that has been pinched, and it’s not unusual that a pinched nerve pain in arm can reach all the way to the neck, shoulders and back. A pinched nerve forearm isn’t as common as one in the upper arm or neck, but it can still lead to weakness and pain all the way to the tips of your fingers. In other cases, you may feel pain extending over the entire arm from a pinched nerve under armpit or from the neck.
Over the years, neurologists have devised an elaborate system that can help them pinpoint the particular nerve or group of nerves in the arm that have become compressed or pinched. You will feel symptoms such as throbbing or steady pain, muscle spasms, numbness, burning, tingling and weakening that can extend from your shoulder all the way to the tips of your fingers. Sometimes what you may think is a pinched nerve right arm is actually located on the right side of your neck or shoulder. But don’t worry, for you won’t need to know the exact location of all the nerves in your arms to understand its symptoms.
Arm tingling pinched nerve is often described as that pins and needles feeling you get when your arm or leg has fallen asleep. At other times, you may feel a heavy, burning sensation, as if your entire arm is too heavy or numb to move. Other cases of pinched nerve in arm report sudden spasms or jerking of the muscles. But the most common symptom is a pinched nerve causing arm pain. The pain can vary from slight and manageable to deep and agonizing. Severe arm pinched nerve cases can even result in insomnia, where sleep is hard to do and is regularly interrupted due to the constant pain.
All these symptoms you can feel with a pinched nerve arm can be attributed to how the nerves work. These bundles or cables of fiber work as conductors that send impulses and signals all throughout our bodies, and any sort of injury to the nerve will naturally lead to pain as well as poorer function of the area where the damaged nerve is located. This is why severe cases of injured nerves can lead to paralysis. But luckily, pinched nerves in the arms will rarely if ever paralyze you, especially when you practice the right treatments that have been proven safe and effective.
How to treat a pinched nerve in arm pain?
Pinched nerve arm pain can be eased in several ways: rest, ice packs, pain relieving medicines, massages, exercise, acupuncture, and surgery. Acupuncture should only be done with a doctor’s approval. Only certified acupuncturists should attempt to heal pinched nerves in the arm. And surgery is unnecessary if all your arm needs is a few weeks of enough rest and exercise to recover.
If your doctor has diagnosed your pinched nerve as nothing serious, then all you may need is rest, such as eight hours of sleep a day, combined with regular applications of ice packs for a few weeks. This is because healing a pinched nerve is all about relaxing the muscles, tendons and ligaments in the area that may be causing the compression; and it can take time to heal, from several days to a few months. You may be advised to take painkillers such as Advil and Tylenol, but these medications will just ease the pain and any possible swelling, so you will still need to rest properly to fully recover from a pinched nerve.
Getting a massage is a popular option for treating a pinched nerve in the arm, but ask your doctor first on whether you can benefit from it or not, for in some cases a massage may only cause more pressure to a pinched nerve in upper arm and increase your discomfort.
Sufficient exercise can do wonders to speed up recovery from a pinched nerve. The right moves can relax the muscles where your pinched nerve is located. A pinched nerve under armpit may benefit from arm swings and stretches, while light weight lifting and push ups can ease a pinched nerve in the left and right arms. For the best results, ask a physical therapist to help you get to know the correct exercises and moves that will hasten the healing of your pinched nerve.
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