Radiating Nerve Pain and Spinal Decompression

Nerve pain of any sort can be a real killer. If you’ve ever known someone that suffered from sciatica (or a similar nerve condition) or suffer with it yourself, you’ve seen how badly it can work its way into every nook and cranny of your life. You can’t move without pain. You can’t sleep properly because of pain. You sit down, pain. Stand up, pain. Everywhere you look, it’s just pain. What the heck are you supposed to do?

At Living Well Medical, my practice (it's a pain relief center in NYC), we see patients with nerve problems all the time. It’s not uncommon under certain circumstances. Trauma like in traffic accidents can cause spinal discs to tear and herniate. A herniated disc is just one way that people find themselves suffering from sciatica. Age and level of activity play a role in spinal health too, of course, but injuries will often catalyze the actual pain. Nerve pain of this sort can be described as a burning sensation that may radiate to other areas of the body like the legs and buttocks; the lower back isn’t going to be the only part that hurts necessarily.

Once we’ve determined that the source of pain is indeed related to a nerve problem like impingement or sciatica (technology like EMG and NCV is used for this purpose as well as MRI’s and x-rays), we put together a plan to get you back on track. Your personalized plan often includes elements like spinal decompression therapy as a portion of multidisciplinary rehabilitation. Spinal decompression therapy is a potent therapeutic technology that works to relieve pain associated with disc-related nerve pain like sciatica. In concert with other non-surgical treatments, we have seen patients make massive improvements in range of motion, quality of life and, really, overall wellness. Combining spinal decompression with important measures like physical therapy and postural training to try and prevent re-injury is also commonly part of a plan. This varies, of course, from patient to patient as needs will differ greatly.

Nerve pain is a major issue, but with the right help, lots of people can get better without surgery and without pain medication, and that’s a big deal. If you are hurting, give my office a call today at (212) 645-8151 and make an appointment to come in and see us.

- Dr. Shoshany, NYC Chiropractor

Pinched nerve in the neck causing shooting stabbing arm pain NYC

Pinched nerve in the neck causing shooting stabbing arm pain-NYC

Pinched nerve treatment nyc
I wanted to post a brief discussion about a “pinched nerves” and “slipped discs”.
The last several weeks I have seen an influx of patients that can hardly move their neck comfortably in any range of motion and describe their arm pain as stabbing and or shooting.
If the symptoms are in the left arm the patient is concerned that it could be a sign of a heart condition and usually get it checked out by their medical doctor, once it is confirmed that it is not the heart almost always it points to a cervical disc (neck)involvement.
What that means is the disc in the neck is misplaced and can causes pressure or irritation to the very delicate nerves that innervate the hand and arms.
Hence the term” slipped discs”. So the disc themselves don’t necessarily slip they can and do move out of their normal position and the proper medical terminology for a “slipped disc” is either a bulging or herniated disc. To better understand the disc I wanted to go a bit into the disc biomechanics.
Cervical Herniated disc treatment discussion
In people between the ages of 30 and 40 years, their nucleus has a water content of 80% which decreases with age. The average person is 1% shorter in height at the end of the day than on first arising in the morning. This difference is attributed to decreasing water content in the disc, which occurs with advancing age.

The nucleus pulposus, which occupies about half the disc surface area, bears the vertical load, whereas the annulus or outer bands bear the tangential load.
Two terms are used to describe disc degenerative change allowing nuclear herniation. “contained disc” and “noncontained disc” They refer to the state of the annulus fibrosus, that is whether it is intact and restraining the nucleus pulposus ( a contained disc) or whether it has completely radially torn to allow the nuclear material to sequester or free-fragment into the vertebral canal.



Once you start to understand the anatomy of the region it starts to really make sense that the most effective way to not only reduce the pain but correct the problem is to Unload or decompress the area.

In our NYC Physical therapy clinic we utilize a multi pronged approach.
Our first treatment involves the Cox cervical flexion distraction technique.
This is a very gentle movement that allows the doctor to guide the patient’s neck into freeing restricted movement and reducing pressure on discs and spinal nerves.
We also use cervical spinal decompression to reduce intradiscal pressure and help to return disc material back. Cervical spinal decompression is fantastic for patients suffering with cervical herniated disc and arm pain.
The Graston technique is tremendously effective in dealing with “soft tissue” fascia and tight muscles that usually accompany a cervical disc herniation.
Putting together the most effective non-surgical methods to deal with pinched nerves and herniated discs allows us to get our NYC patients back to doing the things enjoy without pain.
Give us a call today if you are suffering with a pinched nerve or have a slipped disc in NYC @ (212)645-8151