Causes of Your Pain

Causes of Your Pain – Pulled Muscle, Pinched Nerve, Or Pain Syndrome?

By Nina Schnipper Platinum Quality Author

Sometimes it’s tough to know what is causing your painful symptoms. This is especially true if your pain is persistent, despite your attempts to relieve it and prevent it. If your pain continues for several weeks, or several months, many roots may be possible.

Muscle Strains, Fascial Sprains.
You can perform a few simple tests to narrow your pain down to soft tissue injury. These may help you determine if your pain is related to muscles and connective tissue, as opposed to nerves or the neuromuscular system.

Maybe you pulled, or strained, a muscle. You might have sprained the connective tissue, or fascia. Ask yourself these questions:

*Does it hurt when I move in a certain direction?
*Does it hurt when I press a body part against something (resistance)?
*Does applying basic first aid provide relief?
*Is my pain a deep soreness, nagging ache, or intense pain?

If your pain feels like numbness, tingling, zapping, shooting pains, or weakness, then you should consider nerve injury.

Pinched nerves.
When you have pain associated with blocked nerve signals, it is called impingement. Nerve signs are different from muscular signs.

When a nerve is impinged, or pinched, you are more likely to feel it at an area where nerve bundles pass through, instead of muscle pain that is felt in the muscle itself. You are more likely to feel shooting pain, numbness, tingling or weakness when nerve restrictions are causing your pain.

Pain Syndromes.
There are several different types of pain syndromes, or symptom clusters, which may also cause your pain. Their symptoms might resemble those mentioned above, but they will require careful diagnosis and a different treatment plan.

Myofascial Pain Syndrome might first appear to be pain in one or more areas. It may be confused for muscle soreness from exertion. Or it might feel like a muscle strain or tension. But the pain will eventually be felt in different parts of the body. And sometimes the pain in those areas might not seem related.

Your pain might feel like a pinched nerve, or mixed nerve signals. But it might be related to a condition like a Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS). This kind of syndrome affects the nervous system and can be difficult to distinguish from common nerve impingements.

Perhaps you notice swelling, oversensitive skin or skin changes in the painful area, or circulation changes. If you feel these, alongside your muscular aches and/or nerve pains, especially if you have been experiencing a lot of stress in your life, then a CRPS should be considered.

If a pain syndrome is underlying your ongoing pain, then you need to take a different approach to relief and treatment.

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October 16, 2008