Could Your Neck or Shoulder Pain Be a Trapped Nerve?
Pain in the neck or shoulders can really make you miserable. It's difficult to ignore, sometimes leads to pain elsewhere in the body, and is generally distracting and unpleasant. Sometimes, neck or shoulder pain can be caused by something as simple as sleeping in an awkward position, but on other occasions, there's another underlying cause.
You may have heard of a trapped, pinched, or compressed nerve. Neck and shoulder pain is quite often blamed on a trapped nerve, but it's one of those terms that's often used inaccurately. If you do have a trapped nerve, the problem can often be healed by massage physiotherapy. But first, you need to work out if that's really what the issue is. Here are some of the usual signs of trapped nerve pain.
The pain usually has an obvious centre
With some types of neck and shoulder aches, you can be unsure of where the pain is actually coming from. It might seem spread over a wide area, or with multiple points that seem like the centre.
When it's a trapped nerve, you're likely to notice that there's a distinct point where the pain originates. If it's in the shoulder, it will only be in one shoulder.
There's numbness or pins and needles
A trapped nerve isn't just about pain. For a lot of people, there will also be a numb feeling or the sensation of pins and needles. This might come and go or be fairly constant, but it's a key sign of a trapped nerve rather than any other problem.
The pain gets worse with movement
This is easier to notice when the trapped nerve is in your neck rather than your shoulders, but it can apply to both.
With a trapped nerve, the range of movement you normally have will become more restricted. You might notice the pain becoming sharper or more severe when you move your neck or turn your head by a small amount. Because the nerve is compressed, it becomes irritated easily when the muscles and tendons stretch around it.
You might get pain and numbness elsewhere
Although the pain has an obvious point of origin, people with a trapped nerve often experience lesser pain in other parts of the body, most often the arms, legs, hands and feet. It might come and go throughout the day.
And it's not just the pain you can feel elsewhere; numbness and tingling might be present in other body parts, too.
