Nerve Entrapment
“Any nerve anywhere can potentially become entrapped. When it does, patients will usually experience pain, numbness, and weakness, in that order, depending on the severity of the entrapment.” A quote from Aaron Filler, MD, PhD, a nurologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He continues to say, “The nerve becomes irritated – pinched, squeezed, narrowed, or stuck on something, a condition called an adhesion.” Dr. Allan Belzberg, MD, director of the Peripheral Nerve Center and associate professor of neurological surgery at John Hopkins in Baltimore, MD. also added, “When injured by trauma, repetitive motion, or a metabolic problem, the nerve may be more susceptible to another injury.”
Spaces – There are spaces in between muscles and there are also spaces in between muscles and bones. The nerves, blood vessels, and the lymphatic vessels all travel through these spaces which act like pipelines underneath roadways. Fascia, (a connective tissue, primarily collagen, that form sheets or bands beneath the skin to attach, stabilize, enclose, and separate muscles and other internal organs) compartmentalize muscles, groups of muscles, and organs. A fluid (called interstitial fluid,including ground substance) allows for smooth passageways within these spaces, similar to the lubricant in engines.
Injury – Any injury to the body will affect these “spaces” eventually. Most of the problems happen in these “spaces”, except tears and cuts. Whether the injury is acute, like a sprained ankle or car accident, or the injury occurs over a period of time, like repetitive motion or sitting at a desk all day, the body may start the first & initial step of healing through acute inflammation.
Inflammation – The true purpose of acute inflammation is to repair the injured body and to restore it’s function. If, however, that does not occur, then the compensatory process will begin to help the body to sustain the functionality at all costs, with symptoms of discomfort, uneasiness and pain. The body will continue this compensatory process until a dead-end is reached. If you know how to deal with the initial inflammation, you can help your body tremendously. If you are not able to completely heal within a short amount of time, the inflammation can become chronic and the cost to your body will be an endless fight against your own compensatory process.
Compensation – From sports injuries, car accidents, falls, sprains and strains, and repetitive use injuries, all these may cause sluggish or slowed down circulation of blood and interstitial/lymph fluid. These injuries may continue to make the fluid congested, which in turn makes the fluid “sticky” or glue-like in the spaces where nerves and blood vessels and lymphatic vessels reside. Depending on the duration and degree of the compensatory process, the fluid in the space becomes more and more “sticky”(called “adhesion”), eventually turning into “hard” layers which feel like hardened or calcified tissue. Toxins or waste products may also build up and be deposited in these spaces.These deposits can be felt in the tissues, the spaces and on the surface of the bones. They manifest as hard, round and sand or grain like. They can feel like thin or thick wires, and a lot of times, they can feel like lumps, nodes, or knots.
Symptoms – Symptoms are directly proportional to the degree of the compensatory process. Often, the compensatory process can affect the nerves, then you have nerve symptoms such as sharp pain, numbness, tingling or burning sensations. If it affects blood vessels, then a vast variety of problems can occur, from skin color changes to internal organ dysfunctions.
Therefore, nerve entrapment is mostly a direct result of your body’s prolonged compensatory process in these spaces.
Two Problems: Dysfunction or Pathological
There are two categories of problems from a clinical standpoint:
Dysfunctional problems (symptoms are apparent, yet the test results are negative) & pathological problems (symptoms are apparent and the test results are positive). It can take decades for dysfunctional problems to manifest into pathological problems. Of the two, most patients suffer from the former, dysfunctional problems.
Dysfunctional problems are due to a problem in the mechanisms of the body. The severity will be determined by the locations and layers in depth of the problem.
Acute & chronic inflammation
LOCATION & LAYER OF INFLAMMATION:
Injury to the knee can affect it’s function with simple symptoms initially. If left untreated or improperly treated, then it could result in arthritic problems in the knee decades later.
Injury to the lower back can cause digestive problems such as constipation, leaky gut, Crohn’s or Celiac disease as well as bladder issues involving frequent or difficult urination.
Injury to ribs can cause breathing problems or heart problems like palpitations and chest pain with negative on tests.
Injury to the neck can cause brain inflammation, food sensitivity, autoimmune issues, seizures, neurological issues, pain from the shoulders to the hand, low back pain, TMJ symptoms, Thyroid problems, headaches & migraines, vertigo, or dizziness and balance issues.
The most common cause for these injuries is being involved in a car accident. It may take more than 10 years for an injury to show up as serious problems after a car accident, if the injuries were not treated properly.
Amazingly, all these problems can start from these spaces in between muscles and bones, by affecting nerves, blood & lymph vessels.
The proper way to deal with inflammation
The key to dealing with inflammation is awareness. Do not ignore any kind of pain or symptom. Write down your pain or symptom in a journal as you notice them. Be specific with the date, time, and what you were doing when you noticed it. Try to think of what could be causing the pain or symptom. Equipped with this information, try to find a doctor who understands Dr. Kim’s Pain Theory and will perform testings and explain how their therapy will help your problems, before the use of medication and supplements for treatment. Additionally, it will be helpful to get second and third opinions from other doctors. This will save a lot of time and money in the long term. Once you determine your choice of doctors or therapies, then you should allow three to six months of treatment. If you do not see positive results, then find a new doctor.
Finally, try to find new meaning of life and health. Ask yourself, “What am I going to do with my renewed life and health?” Many people may go back to their old habits when they do not see a new purpose from their newfound health.
Order of Therapy
Treatment Options:
More important than the “right” therapy, is the “right order” of therapy. Most of the time, even though doctors are doing their best in trying to help their patients, the patient feels no better with no permanent solution. Not many doctors understand the importance of the order of therapies. There are many skillful doctors in their professions with dedicated desires to help your problems, but it is rare to meet a doctor willing to go beyond their training and think outside of the box. This is extremely difficult to do because there are so many other factors affecting their practices.
Acupuncture
Acupuncture is one of the best modalities when dealing with energy medicine. There is an abundance of clinical information about the benefits of acupuncture gathered through more than 5,000 years of accumulated skills and knowledge. Other techniques are used to enhance acupuncture therapy including herbal remedies, Chi exercises and physical therapy. However, when patients have more severe physical congestion or blockages, acupuncture’s ability to heal is limited.
Massage Therapy
Massage therapy is one of the more useful modalities with an excellent potential to help all people. Most massage therapists, however, lack the physical strength and training necessary to be effective. There are many excellent massage therapists, but I have not met or heard of any that possess the skill to break up thick, hard, calcified layers of tissue build-up.
Chiropractors
Chiropractors are one of the most important foundations to our health because without proper alignment of our spine and joints, there is a limited chance for complete healing. However, it is very difficult to find a chiropractor who acknowledges the need to understand the complete connection between bones and muscles, and how improper adjustment can cause even more soft tissue damage.
Physical Therapy
Physical therapy is the best way to help complete the healing process. After the soft tissue is ready, re-education and strengthening of soft tissue and muscles can be built on a proper foundation.
Naturopaths
There are many so called “green MD,” Naturopaths, who are equipped with excellent clinical skills in examinations and prescribing tests, supplements and herbs. However, the depth of their understanding and experience in pain is very limited.
Surgery / Medication
Surgery and medication may be extremely important to save lives and functionality from immediate dangers to our health. However, there is no surgery or medication to heal the functions or to cure the problems.
As you can see, there is no single proper therapy that do it all by itself. Without breaking off these layers, there may not be much hope for healing . There may be tools to help buy time or reduce suffering, but never to achieve the complete healing, where no therapy or medications are no longer needed.
Point:
There is a need to have doctors who can establish a set of right order of therapy for a patient’s healing.
There is a need to have many therapists who are willing to work together for a patient’s healing.
Most importantly, there is a need for patients to be willing to take charge in their own health.