A Houston doctor, plastic surgeon specializing in peripheral nerve surgery shared his experience with a patient who faced pain in the lateral femoral cutaneous and lateral femoral nerves. In writing about his experience with patients, he shared how to describe nerve impingement effectively with lay patients, so they can better understand how that affects body health. Having an explanation with something a patient can visualize, is always an effective way to enhance understanding of chiropractic healing.

“When nerves which he describes as soft and squishy like gummy worms are compressed, it can reduce blood flow and even damage the nerve fibers, hindering the flow of signals between the brain and body. I use the analogy of a garden hose, he said. Water is going thru the hose, but if you step on it, only a limited amount will go through. When you take your foot off the hose, the full flow returns. From a rudimentary standpoint, its like the nerves when they are kinked because of pressure from fascia or surrounding tissues (or scar tissue), then the signals are not going to go back and forth as they should, and it will manifest as weakness, pain or paralysis.”

An estimated 10% of adults experience some type of neuropathic pain. So many, suffer from unexplained pain and loss of muscle function and sadly, after visiting doctors and specialists, they may never get correctly diagnosed with a peripheral nerve problem. There is low awareness from doctors in the US of nerve compression issues. Nerve compression is difficult to diagnose, since there are no numerical tests that can measure the amount of pain a patent experiences. So many times, compressed nerves are misdiagnosed or overlooked.

Searching for answers to their conditions, patients seem to seek out chiropractic care as a last resort, and that is unfortunate for our profession. Even without a correct diagnosis of nerve compression, a routine of regular examinations and corrections is proven to keep patients healthy overall. Our messaging to patients and the general public should be focused more broadly than just to those patients that seek us out for treatment.

Don’t you agree?