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Tingling, Numbness and Weakness

Very often the three above symptoms are a team. Tingling and numbness fall into the category of paraesthesia, which consists of tingling, numbness, burning, crawling, and any abnormal skin sensation. They can be caused by a vascular problem (decreased blood flow) or more commonly, a neurological condition.

Nerve Problems:

  1. Nerves exiting the spine carrying messages from the brain to the various organs, muscles and tissues can become irritated by the vertebrae (subluxations = misalignments) which can cause pain as well as paraesthesia that radiates into the arms or legs.
  2. Compressive irritation of peripheral nerves can also cause paraesthesia and weakness. This can occur in the shoulder, elbow, wrist (carpal tunnel), hip, knee, ankle (tarsal tunnel). These are forms of localized peripheral neuropathy.
  3. Diffuse peripheral neuropathy results from decreased blood flow to the extremities as a result of pathology such as diabetes, peripheral artery disease, cardiovascular disease, embolism, etc.
  4. Neurological disease such as Multiple Sclerosis, Postero-lateral Sclerosis, and demyelinating disease such as Charcot-Marie Tooth.
  5. Other diseases such as cerebro-vascular accident, nutritional deficiencies like vitamin B12, hypo-thyroidism (underactive thyroid), amyloidosis, sarcoidosis, and various infections can all cause paraesthesia and weakness.

Most commonly, paraesthesia is caused by spinal irritation of the nerves, carpal tunnel syndrome and diabetic neuropathy.

Treatment of Tingling, Numbness and Weakness

  1. Spinal irritation of the nerves usually results from subluxations or bulging and herniated discs. Chiropractic adjustments realign the vertebrae which removes the pressure to the spinal nerves and relieves the symptoms. Herniated and bulging discs can be treated with VAX-D or Cox Distraction. The purpose of these treatments is to relieve the discal pressure on the nerves.
  2. Peripheral Neuropathy treatment must be geared to increasing blood flow to the extremities. We use a relatively new treatment called Cold Laser Therapy, which gets terrific results with neuropathy by increasing the blood flow and rejuvenating the nerves. Cold laser is not the type of laser used in surgery. The patient does not feel anything except for a feeling of warmth.