Commonly used, the term, "Pinched Nerve," it is a fact that nerves do get trapped in joints of the body; however, the idea that it is pinched is an oversimplification. Regardless of how it is described, nerves that are trapped between soft and hard tissue stimulate the millions of nerve fibers found within them. There are two types of nerves - the ones sending vital information to the brain from the perimeters and the ones sending instructions from the brain.

People commonly talk about having a “pinched nerve”, but what is a pinched nerve? Nerves are extensions from the brain that reach out into the arms or legs to go to the muscles or skin. A nerve is a cell which is microscopic in size, and its fibers may run several feet in length toward its destination. A nerve cell that lives in the brain or within the spinal cord is called a central nerve, and a nerve that leaves the spine to go into the arms or legs are called peripheral nerves. These peripheral nerves are actually bundles of millions of nerve fibers that leave the spinal cord and branch to their target muscles to make them move or go to the skin to provide feeling.

So, a peripheral nerve is really like a fiber-optic cable with many fibers encased in an outer sheath. You can think of each individual fiber as a microscopic garden hose. The green part of the hose is a fine membrane upon which a static electrical charge can travel from the brain or back to it. The inside of the hose transports fluid from the nerve cell body that helps nourish and replenish the ever changing components that make up the green part or membrane. If the nerve gets “pinched” the flow up and down the inside of the hose is reduced or blocked and the nutrients stop flowing. Eventually the membrane starts to loose its healthy ability to transmit the tiny electrical charges and the nerve fiber may eve eventually die. When enough fibers stop working, the skin may feel numbness or a muscle may not contract.

A nerve can be pinched as it leaves the spine by a herniated disc or by bone spurs that form from spinal arthritis. Another common place for nerves to get pinched is in the carpal tunnel. This is a bottle-neck area in the wrist through which all of the finger flexor tendons and the Median Nerve must pass to get to the hand. Regardless of where the nerve is pinched, in the neck or in the carpal tunnel, the owner of that nerve will often feel similar symptoms of numbness in the hand, because the brain does not know how to tell the difference between the beginning, middle or end of a nerve. It only knows that it isn’t receiving signals from the hand, so thus numbness noted.

When one has a pinched nerve in the low back, pain is usually perceived as radiating down the leg. Here again, the symptoms the person experiences seem to them to be traveling into the leg along the distribution that the nerve usually travels. This is the basis of “referred pain”. Muscle spasm in the back commonly accompanies pinched nerves and can be quite painful. Sometimes, nerves can be pinched and the only symptoms may be numbness and weakness in the arm or leg without any pain whatsoever.

Depending on where the nerves are trapped and irritated, different parts of a major nerve trunk and its branches carry different nerve types. If the nerve being irritated is not a sensory nerve, or a nerve that feels pain, or change in temperature, most likely you will not feel its effects. Nerves can become seriously damaged when you are unaware of it, and in most instances, the damage is long term and can affect your organs, systems, and your overall health.

Science has demonstrated that within minutes of a nerve being trapped, the irritation triggers an unraveling of the protective coverings of the individual nerve fibers and within a short period of time, they make direct contact with each other and the short-circuiting effect results can result in numbness, pain and other symptoms that produce concern.

The nerves exit out of holes on both sides of the spinal column at the level of the discs. When the soft discs are squeezed by the hard bones, like a heavy duty pair of scissors, the soft gel in the center of the disc bulges and can herniate towards the sides and into the openings where the nerves exit. Basically, there is only room for the nerves within these openings and canals, and the disc can reek a lot of havoc with the nerves they choke off.