There are billions of nerves in your body. Most of them, your peripheral nerves, are like branches of a tree that spread out all over and transmit messages dorsum to the trunk—your brain and spinal cord. When everything goes smoothly, your encephalon gets the info it needs so that you can move your muscles, recognize pain, and keep your internal organs working properly.
But when peripheral fretfulness go damaged, it'south another story: Walking could go challenging, you might experience unrelenting pain, or you could end up with a serious injury because yous had no idea how hot that stove was.
An estimated 20 1000000 Americans suffer from peripheral nervus damage, a.thousand.a. neuropathy, according to the National Plant of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. "Diabetes is the number one cause. Bad luck [pregnant you inherited an anatomical defect] is number ii. Repetitive motion and Lyme disease follow," says Andrew Elkwood, M.D., a surgeon who specializes in nerve reconstruction at The Establish for Advanced Reconstruction in New York and New Jersey.
Other causes include sudden trauma (like a motorcar accident), crumbling, vitamin deficiencies, heavy exposure to toxins (including booze, cancer medications, lead, mercury, and arsenic), and infections and autoimmune disorders similar hepatitis C, diphtheria, HIV, Epstein-Barr, rheumatoid arthritis, and Guillain-Barré Syndrome. In some cases, there's no known crusade.
The good news is that nerve damage more often than not develops slowly, says Isha Gupta, M.D., an assistant professor of neurology at Mountain Sinai'southward Icahn School of Medicine. That means yous might be able to treat information technology before it worsens—but getting the right diagnosis isn't e'er piece of cake. Your best shot? See a doctor correct abroad if you accept any of the following symptoms.
1You feel numbness, tingling, or burning.
This sensation is an early sign of nerve harm, and may radiate from your hands or feet into your arms or legs, per the U.S. National Library of Medicine. "Compression of sensory fretfulness (often while sleeping) is relatively mutual, and symptoms such as numbness or tingling tin be temporary," says Dr. Gupta. But if the pins-and-needles feeling doesn't get abroad, get it checked out.
2So you may become injured because you didn't feel something you should take.
Sensory nerves are supposed to tell your encephalon that a surface is dangerous in some fashion, and if they're not doing their job properly you could seem more accident-prone. If yous have burns, cuts, or other trauma because y'all didn't realize that y'all were touching something hot, sharp, or otherwise uncomfortable, see your physician, says R. Glenn Smith, M.D., Ph.D., a neurologist at Houston Methodist.
3It's difficult or impossible to motility part of your body.
If motor nerves are afflicted, and then muscle weakness or even paralysis may occur, says Dr. Smith. These same symptoms could also bespeak that in that location's an underlying issue that needs urgent attention, so it'due south best to caput to the ER.
For instance, if this weakness or numbness comes on suddenly (peculiarly on 1 side of the trunk)—and you too experience sudden confusion, trouble walking or seeing, and a severe headache—you may be having a stroke, and you'll need medical attending ASAP.
ivAt that place is pain running down only one leg.
A constant abrupt pain, burning, or tingling that starts in the lower back and travels down the back of your leg could mean that you lot have sciatica. This happens when the sciatic nerve—which runs from your lower back, to your hips, and down your legs—becomes compressed or damaged, either by a herniated disk in your spine or by a disease such as diabetes.
5You're fashion clumsier than usual.
Suddenly stumbling and falling a lot? "If large nerves affecting sensation are damaged, and then lack of coordination and failure to sense the position of the body tin lead to falls," says Dr. Smith. For instance, numbness in your feet tin can make it hard to tell where you're walking, leading to a stumble.
In sure cases, if y'all as well experience a tremor, rigid muscles, and speech changes, it might plow out that you have a condition like Parkinson's illness, in which the nervus cells in your brain have become damaged.
6...or you're running to the bathroom all the time.
Damaged nerves can send your bladder faulty messages, then y'all feel similar you have to pee a lot or have problem making it to the restroom in time. (You take a higher than average gamble of this problem if you gave birth to a child vaginally or have diabetes.) On the flip side, you may also have issues emptying your bladder or beingness able to tell when your bladder is full.
sevenYou lot get brief, intense headaches that feel like electric shocks.
Yous may accept something chosen occipital neuralgia, a condition that can occur when a nervus in your neck gets pinched. You lot may need a nervus block—an injection that temporarily blocks the troublesome nerve from transmitting pain signals.
viiiYou're sweating too much or likewise little.
It might be a sign that the fretfulness carrying info from your brain to your sweat glands have become compromised, then your body temperature may fluctuate more oftentimes. Your dr. might order tests to measure out your sweating and eye charge per unit.
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