Nerve injuries can significantly impact your quality of life, causing pain, numbness, and weakness that can disrupt daily activities. Physical Therapy for Nerve Injuries plays a vital role in rehabilitation, offering targeted exercises and techniques that promote nerve healing and restore function. By focusing on movement, strength, and flexibility, physical therapy helps to alleviate symptoms, improve mobility, and accelerate recovery. Whether it’s recovering from a sports injury or managing a chronic condition, physical therapy is a crucial component of the journey back to a healthier, more active life.
What are nerves?
Nerves are comprised of loads of neurons that arise from the brain and the spinal cord. Neurons send electrical signals and, thus, make nerves agitated. Your body accommodates a magnificent combination of nerves, including the spinal nerves and the cranial nerves. The retired are messengers of impulses to and from the spinal cord, while the cranial nerves hold impulses to and from the brain. In other terms, these nerves are the transmission lines that connect the body to the Central Nervous System.
How Does Nerve Pain Originate?
Indicating the source of the pain requires a profound knowledge of your illness or injury and a complete medical exam. Still, it can typically be a consequence of injury to tendons, muscles, or joints. Nerve pain can also occur due to traumatic injuries, infections, metabolic problems, inherited ailments, thyroid issues, Vitamin B deficiencies, extreme medication intake, etc. A medical professional will document whether the pain is neuropathic and where it might form based on where you feel the pain and what it seems like.
Signs of neuropathic pain:
- It feels like burning or tingling
- Sharp jabbing pain
- The pain comes and goes
- Sometimes, it is a shooting pain
What happens when nerves get damaged?
Peripheral Neuropathy refers to injury to nerve cells in the peripheral nervous system. This will often provoke weakness, tingling, or numbness and pain. Counting on the cause, nerve damage can be cured, mainly if caused by a treatable ailment.
Damage to the nervous system can be pushed by a combination of situations, including:
- Stroke
- Traumatic brain injury
- Spinal cord injury
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Guillain Barre Syndrome
- Ataxia
- Progressive neurological conditions
What Is Peripheral Neuropathy?
Peripheral neuropathy is damage to one or more of your nerves outside of your central nervous system. The term peripheral neuropathy can be broken down into three parts:
- Peripheral — meaning beyond. In this instance, it would refer to beyond your brain and your spinal cord
- Neuro — indicating that it concerns the nerves
- Pathy — meaning disease (in medical terms)
Simply put, peripheral neuropathy is when the nerves communicating messages to and from your brain, spinal cord, and the rest of your body have been diseased or damaged. These messages help your body react to internal and external changes by sending signals about movement, temperature, pressure, and even pain. Once these nerves become damaged, there can be some interference in transmitting messages to our CNS.
How Does Physical Therapy Help With Nerve Damage?
Peripheral Neuropathy involves the nerves and is organized by the type of nerve cell involved and the number of nerves. For instance, Mononeuropathy guides to circumstances affecting one nerve—such as carpal tunnel syndrome. A physical therapist will evaluate the possibility of nerve damage through a sequence of tests that contain reflexes, sensations, reactions, and muscle strength. Then, they will question you for a complete dive into your medical record and potential injuries that contain trauma or occupational characteristics. Many people who encounter car accidents, for instance, will discover sometime later that they have suffered nerve damage.
Finding a physical therapist
Finding a good physical therapist for each person can apply a variety of elements. These contain:
- what insurance does the therapist accept
- whether they treat neuropathy or specialize in neurological conditions
- what geographic location a person is in
Some healthcare professionals may have a checklist of physical therapists in their neighborhood whom they suggest, and insurance companies generally provide an index of physical therapy places that are part of distinct health plans.
Summary
Physical therapy can be beneficial in managing neuropathy and may alleviate symptoms like pain and weakness. However, the effectiveness of physical therapy depends on the underlying cause of the neuropathy and the specifics of the exercise program. Combining physical therapy with medication to address both the root cause and symptoms, such as pain, may offer additional benefits. The research on the effectiveness of exercise for treating neuropathy is mixed and limited, partly due to the varying causes of neuropathy and types of exercise involved. Exercises that focus on aerobic capacity, flexibility, strength, and balance may help improve symptoms, enhance overall health and well-being, and reduce the risk of injury.
Insurance may cover some of the costs associated with physical therapy, but it’s essential to check with your insurance provider and find a physical therapist within your network.
Tags: physical therapy for nerve injuries, physical therapy for nerve damage
