Nerve Pain

Many clients have found it difficult when attempting to treat nerve pain. Rather than muscle or bone pain, their pain is caused by the nerves themselves which may have been damaged by a certain condition or injury, or may have no known cause. Beacause the pain can feel like a stabbing sensation, burning, or itching sensation in many parts of the body, and range from being debilitating to very uncomfortable.

There are many medications they can help control or reduce nerve pain. However, medication may have a very limited effect or patients may be reluctant to use medication to control this pain long term. Therefore many clients turn to us for physiotherapy techniques for the relief and long-term control of the pain.

Causes of Nerve Pain

There are a wide range of causes that may be the culprit of your nerve pain:

Injury to the neck, back, spinal cord, or other nerves
Stroke
Certain surgeries
Diabetes
Multiple Sclerosis
HIV
Toxins
Nutritional deficiencies
Cancer or cancer treatment
Metabolic conditions
Autoimmune conditions

Consequentially, if you experience pain from any of these causes, resolving the initial injury or condition may not relieve the pain. After the damage has been done to nerves, they struggle to heal themselves. Recovery is often possible in some cases, but most nerve pain will need long-term management. Sometimes, the pain will become recurring, where the pain is reduced for periods of time and then you experience a flare-up.

Physiotherapy for Nerve Pain

Once a physician has diagnosed the underlying cause of your neuropathic pain, they will therefore pursue treatment. Research suggests that the best treatment for neuropathic pain in general is multi-modal, or a treatment plan that takes advantages of many different strategies. Medication may only be one part of the larger plan.

Physiotherapy techniques that can reduce neuropathic pain include:

TENS: A TENS machine is used to stimulate different nerves in the body. Certain TENS methods have been shown to help alleviate neuropathic pain. Although, you will need a physiotherapist to perform this treatment, as only specific TENS therapies have been shown to help.

Manual therapy: Manual therapy can increase flexibility and stability in the joints that are affected by the nerves.

Clinical Exercise: The muscle strength developed in yoga and pilates type exercises can help take pressure off your nerves. It can also help improve posture, as poor posture can make pain worse.

Other techniques focus on gentle, targeted exercise that can help treat the pain. Just as other forms of chronic pain do, neuropathic pain responds to 30-minute intervals of exercise, repeated regularly throughout the week. Your physiotherapist can show you which movements and exercises are best to target your nerve pain.

Treatment at Blackwood Physiotherapy

If you suffer from nerve pain, physiotherapy can certainly help. Our physiotherapists can to develop a treatment plan to decrease your pain, with or without pain medication.