There can be many reasons to get a leg pain, starting from getting an unexpected pull, sleeping wrong, accidents or even due to internal diseases. While many might wait and let the pain pass away, that is not always a good idea, especially because they can be treated easily with chiropractic alignment. At the most severe form, leg pains can cause numbness, sharp pin-point points, or even develop major disease that can lead to inability to walk.
Grant Cooper shares some insights and expertise of his years of working with patients with leg pains. Check out his article to know more about the causes, signs, and the different types of leg pains that a person can experience:
Leg Pain and Numbness: What Might These Symptoms Mean?
Leg pain can range from a mild nuisance that comes and goes, to debilitating pain that makes it difficult to sleep, walk, or engage in simple everyday activities. The pain can take many different forms – some patients describe the pain as aching, searing, throbbing, or burning, and it can be accompanied by other symptoms, such as a pins-and-needles sensation, and/or leg or foot numbness or weakness.
Leg pain may be caused by a problem in the leg, but often it starts with a problem in the lower back, where the sciatic nerve originates, and then travels along the path of the nerve (called sciatica).
For this reason, diagnosis of anyone with leg pain, foot pain, and/or leg or ankle or foot weakness or numbness, should include an examination of the lower back.
Leg Pain Symptoms and Descriptions
Not all leg pain derived from low back problems presents the same way. Leg pain caused by a low back problem is often accompanied by additional symptoms, such as leg numbness or weakness, or foot pain, and the type of leg pain experienced may vary widely from patient to patient.
Some typical descriptions of leg pain and accompanying symptoms include:
- Burning pain. Some leg pain sufferers experience a searing pain that at times radiates from the low back or buttocks down the leg, while others complain of intermittent pain that shoots from the lower back down the leg and occasionally into the foot. Words that patients use to describe this type of burning leg pain include radiating, electric or shooting pain that literally feels like a jolt. Unlike many forms of low back pain that can often be a dull ache, for many, leg pain can be excruciating and nearly intolerable. This type of burning pain is fairly typical when a nerve root in the lower spine is irritated, and it is often referred to as sciatica.
- Leg numbness or tingling. Anyone who has had a leg or foot “fall asleep” and then gradually return to normal can imagine what numbness in a leg would feel like. Not being able to feel pressure, or hot or cold, is unnerving. Unlike the short-lived numbness of an asleep limb, numbness coming from a low back problem can be nearly continuous and can severely affect a person’s quality of life. For example, it can be difficult or almost impossible to walk or drive a car if one’s leg or foot is numb. Typical symptoms can range from a slight tingling sensation to complete numbness down the leg and into the foot.
- Weakness (foot drop) or heaviness. Here, the predominant complaint is that leg weakness or heaviness interferes significantly with movement. People have described a feeling of having to drag their lower leg and foot or being unable to move their leg as quickly and easily as needed while walking or climbing stairs, for example, because of perceived weakness or slow reaction. Patients with foot drop are unable to walk on their heels, flex their ankle, or walk with the usual heel-toe pattern.
Proper treatment and chiropractic adjustments can be great at dealing with leg pain. Now that you know more, the next you or someone you know faces any such issue, you can certainly provide some great advice.
There are some great stories out there that is inspiring as well educative to understand the success and concept of chiropractic treatments. Check out this article of how chiropractic care helps a man reduce reliance on opiates and gives him the ability to walk again.
One year ago, Troy Mazur of Warren couldn’t walk into chiropractor Dr. Michael Lyons’ office without a cane.
Troy had used the cane for years to get around. Back in the 80s, he was injured at work. He underwent six different hernia surgeries, which made it difficult to get around and had become reliant on opiates to control his pain.
“I thought, ‘Well this is what I got to do in order to deal with the pain,’ and it actually wasn’t working,” Mazur said.
