Ever Suffered A Pinched Nerve Before? What Was Your Experience?

Welcome back to yet another post! Hope you guys and gals are doing well and staying healthy. It’s been a while since I last posted so today I wanted to touch on a highly requested topic:

Can massage help provide relief to pinched nerves? Or is this just another myth circulating online?

We’ll get into the details in a bit here, but before we do….have you experienced a pinched nerve before? What was it like in terms of pain intensity? I’ve never experienced one myself and have heard a variety of things from different people, so I’m a little curious. Leave a comment down below and share your story with me!

 

What Is A Pinched Nerve?

A pinched nerve is essentially a nerve that’s over pressured or compressed. It becomes pinched when it is subjected to this additional pressure. Essentially, it’s considered to be a form of injury to a nerve or many nerves (Source: WebMD).

If you want to know more about the medical aspect of pinched nerves and why this happens, you should check out both Mayo Clinic and WebMD, they have some really good information!

Before we even start talking about massage and pinched nerves, I think it’s important to understand right from the get-go that a pinched nerve(s) is very much a medical condition, and should be treated as such.

What does this mean? First and foremost, it means you should seek medical advice. While I do appreciate you checking out this post and visiting my blog, you should know that I am not a qualified medical professional.

I’m an avid blogger with a keen interest in massage, and so I love exploring all the good things massage can do for the human body!

But that doesn’t make it a substitute for medical treatment! Your number one line of defense should always always be to seek medical advice from a trained professional. It doesn’t matter what you read on the internet. That goes without saying, but saying it anyways!

 

What Role Does Massage Play In Treating A Pinched Nerve(s)?

Can massage treat a pinched nerve entirely, or is it able to provide some form of relief, or none at all?

My opinion is that massage cannot heal a pinched nerve, but it might be able to provide some pain relief (if done properly, of course!).

I think if a nerve(s) is already damaged, there’s not much massage can do in terms of restoring or fixing the damage. Where massage is really useful is when it comes to dealing with many of the symptoms/side effects of pinched nerves. Pain is of course a popular one amongst most people.

But….while massage can also help relieve pain from a pinched nerve, there’s always the situation where things could go from bad to worse!

This is exactly why it becomes so important to consult with a trained medical professional (AKA your physician/family doctor). If he/she are okay and agree with using massage as a means of treatment, then and only then should you proceed.

Of course the next step is to find a massage therapist who knows exactly how to deliver a massage to treat pinched nerves. It should be effective, while at the same time applied with enough sensitivity and the right kind of intensity to not cause more damage.

Deep tissue massage is something I’d avoid altogether. For one, this is an area which is already in pain so we don’t want to make things more uncomfortable, and two, there’s an inherent need to proceed cautiously.

Your best bet is to make some phone calls, pay a few visits so you can gauge who might be best to work on your condition. It might be that you have a preferred therapist who you love going to in your area, but you may want to reconsider going there if the therapist you normally see doesn’t know how to deal with this condition.

Your health is 100% responsibility, so you owe it to yourself to do a little bit of legwork to find the right therapist!

 

Don’t Believe Everything You Read Online!

A lot of people will say a lot of things, especially when it comes to treating ailments. Exercise some judgement and caution when you read what is being presented online.

Yes there’s a lot of things massage can help with, but don’t expect to miraculously have your condition cured just because some article said so!

It might be that your specific situation requires a multi-pronged approach i.e. both massage, medication, and some other form of therapy. Be open to different forms of treatment, and continue with what works. It’s really as simple as that! If something doesn’t work, no point continuing on with it.

For one, it’s gonna put a hole in your wallet, and two, it’s not gonna help you feel better!

At the end of the day, if you can nail down the cause of the pinched nerve, it’ll be a lot easier to address the effect! For example, it might mean that all you need is just some good ol R&R, or maybe just some exercise in your daily routine.

In that sense, the pinched nerve is the body’s way of telling you “hey something needs to change, fix it!”.

 

I Hope You Got Some Value From This!

I do realize that a lot of this post was mostly advice and not so much the technical details about massage and pinched nerves. I purposely wrote it this way, because I do think the advice is much more important than anything else. I hope you can appreciate that!

If you got some value from this post, please consider sharing on the social platforms. I look forward to seeing your questions and comments down below.

Also, if you’ve managed to find a way to deal with your pinched nerve (massage or otherwise), please drop a comment and let us know! Alright, till next time, have a fantastic week ahead!