Nerve Pain

Nerve Pain, Neuralgia And Neuritis

Nerve pain is a common description for what medical professionals call neuralgia. Simply put, it means pain that follows the path of a nerve.

There is another type of nerve pain known as neuritis. Neuritis occurs there's an inflammation or degenerative lesion of a nerve, causing pain, sensory disturbances, and impaired or lost reflexes.

Nerve pain is not always easy to distinguish from other types of pain, but it does have some specific characteristics. Symptoms of neuralgia could include the following.

• The affected body part may not function normally.
• Muscles in the area may seem weak. There may be muscular pain.
• There may be a feeling of numbness in the skin of the area.

Neuralgia or neuritis pain might follow the path of a specific nerve. Sciatic pain, in which the pain follows the path of the sciatic nerve from the back down into the legs, would be a good example of this.

Other well known types of nerve pain include trigeminal neuralgia, carpal tunnel syndrome, shingles and porphyria.

The pain may cause a burning, stinging or tingling sensation. Moving the affected body part may cause discomfort. The area may be sensitive to touch.

Causes of neuralgia and neuritis could also include:

Kidney problems When the kidneys aren't properly clearing out toxins from the body, it can have a ripple effect on the nervous system.

Diabetes Diabetes can cause nerve damage throughout the body. Approximately 2 of every 3 diabetes sufferers have some form of neuralgia.

Infections Neuralgia can be caused by certain kinds of infections. Shingles, which causes a painful skin eruption, is an example.

Porphyria This is an umbrella term for a group of disorders affecting the nervous system. It's the inability of the body to make a sufficient amount of a certain enzyme.

Cancer Tumors sometimes cause pressure on nerves.

Inflammation Inflammation causes pressure on nerves, which results in pain.

Injury or Damage Neuralgia can also, of course, result from injury. Typically, this occurs due to overuse of a body part, poor or unchanging posture over long periods of time, a blow or trauma of some kind (like a fall or auto accident), or even surgery.

As with all medical conditions, treatment usually depends on the cause of the pain -which, unfortunately, can sometime be very difficult to identify.

Surgery is appropriate in cases where a tumor is present or there's some other obstruction affecting the nerve.

Diabetics need to strictly control their blood sugar. Medications may help in controlling pain. These could include

• Antidepressants
• Anti seizure medications
• Mild over-the-counter pain relievers
• Prescription painkillers like codeine.
• Topical creams.

Physical therapy is also a possibility for certain types of physical damage. But when dealing with neuralgia, recovery and freedom from pain can be a long and complicated process.