What Can Your Chiropractor Do About A Pinched Nerve?

When you're suffering from a pinched nerve, it's often difficult to find the cause. Regardless of how it happened, the numbness, tingling and pain you experience can soon make life feel miserable. If you're looking for a natural solution to treating your pinched nerve, it's worth consulting a chiropractor. Here's how: 

They'll assess your posture

Sometimes it's difficult to determine whether your pinched nerve is causing poor posture or whether your poor posture is leading to a pinched nerve. Depending on the location of your symptoms, your chiropractor may be able to tell whether your posture is a contributing factor. If it is, they can provide you with advice on correcting it. In some cases, this may require the use of additional tools, such as blocks that provide lumbar support when you're sitting at a desk.

They may use spinal manipulation to address the nerve root

All your nerves stem back to roots in your spinal column. Although spinal manipulation isn't always the answer, it can help patients in a significant number of pinched nerve cases. Using examination techniques that focus on your dermatomes, your chiropractor may be able to highlight the nerve root your symptoms are stemming from. Using spinal manipulation, they can try to free the pinched nerve, resulting in symptom relief. In some cases, the professional you visit may have access to an x-ray machine that can confirm their suspicions.

Temperature therapy for different areas

It isn't always the case that your pinched nerve symptoms will arise from the nerve root. Sometimes they can start in other areas, such as a brachial plexus injury or nerve compression resulting in carpal tunnel symptoms. When this happens, a combination of temperature therapies and stretching exercises can speed up your recovery. Temperature therapies such as applying hot and cold compresses to the area introduce your brain to a different sensation, which temporarily distracts it from the pain. At the same time, you'll experience relief from inflammation. From there you can try the stretching exercises that gently release your nerve.

They'll discuss lifestyle modifications

Receiving chiropractic care is an excellent step in the right direction when you want to treat a condition naturally. However, you should also expect to make some changes at home. Your chiropractor will discuss lifestyle factors with you and help you adjust the ones that contribute to your pinched nerve. This can range from the way you sleep to reducing the amount of time you spend sedentary at home.

By taking an all-encompassing approach, your chiropractic team may speed up your pinched nerve recovery.