Last Updated on April 4, 2024

Having a pinched nerve can make everyday living difficult. Even worse is that it can cause unpredictable pain and limit the range of motion. It’s not a type of pain that you can just learn to live with either. Every movement is a jolting reminder that you have a pinched nerve.

But you don’t have to live like that. Chiropractic treatments can help reduce the pain of pinched nerves and help to eliminate the root cause. Any nerve in the body can become a pinched nerve.

A chiropractor can help change your life after you pinch a nerve. Here’s everything you need to know.

Table of Contents

What Is A Pinched Nerve?

Your entire body is made up of nerves, from your brain to the tips of your fingers and toes. However, when these nerves sustain damage from compression, it causes a lot of pain. But what actually causes a nerve to become pinched?

Many things can contribute to a nerve being damaged or pinched, and more often than not, repetitive motions are a leading cause. Because repetitive motions strain the joints, those areas that are not as protected tend to become compressed. Another factor in damaged joints is when your repetitive movements put pressure on the discs in your spine.

This can cause a pinch, bulging, or even a herniated disc along your back. A trained chiropractor can help determine the problem and what treatments would be best suited for each individual case.

Are you ready to get back to a normal life? Ready to rid yourself of the pain from a pinched nerve? Inner Gate is Portlands leading chiropractic medicine to help you get back to doing the things you love. Make an appointment with them today.

Some of the Symptoms of Pinched Nerves.

It can be hard to tell for sure if a nerve is pinched, strained, or other damage to the area, but here are just a few symptoms to be aware of.

Pain throughout the length of the spine
Intense headaches or migraines that happen often
Pain going down the arm or leg
Numbness, tingling, or burning sensation in limbs, or even the fingers and toes
Neck Pain
Lower Back Pain

Having a pinched nerve can cause restricted mobility and cause discomfort during day-to-day activities such as sitting or standing. Because an irritated nerve can also cause muscle spasms, this can become even more problematic when people bend or move a certain way. Even sleeping can cause problems on top of the pain.

The body is constantly sending signals through the nerves to internal organs and muscles. When a nerve becomes pinched, those signals cannot transmit or heal themselves. That lack of communication can lead to further health problems.

Related: Chiropractor for TMJ

How did I get a pinched nerve?

Here are a few different ways that you can pinch a nerve.

Misalignment can cause a Pinched Nerve.

A subluxation is a type of misalignment. This is where the vertebra doesn’t line up correctly and compress a nerve. Once the nerve is pinched at a vertebra, many more problems arise. This not only blocks the communication process within the nerves but can also cause other health problems.

Disc Degeneration can cause a Pinched Nerve.

Between each vertebra, there is a piece of cartilage. That cartilage is referred to as a disc, and once they begin to degenerate, it cannot be rebuilt. Stress, overuse, and illness can be all factor into damage for these small bits of cartilage.

Sometimes, when these discs degenerate, the space between the vertebrae exposes a nerve. When the disks move, this pinches the nerve, resulting in damage.

Osteoarthritis can cause a Pinched Nerve.

More commonly known as degenerative joint disease. Osteoarthritis causes bone spurs to grow. These bone spurs can cause pain to joints. However, sometimes these spurs block the path of nerves and cause the nerve to become pinched.

Spine diagram with labels. — Spine conditions. Degenerative disc. Bulging disc. Herniated disc. Thinning disc. Disc degeneration with osteophyte formation

A Herniated Disc can Cause Pinched Nerves.

A herniated disk can cause numbness, tingling, sharp or shooting pain, often down the arm or leg. When the fibrous outer portion of the disc ruptures. Herniated discs will pinch a nerve when the exposed cartilage pushes against the nerve.

These are the four most common ways that people pinch nerves. However, these are not the only way, and you should visit your doctor or a chiropractor regularly for optimal sprint health.

How Chiropractic Care Can Help Pinched Nerves

No matter how the injury happens, having a chiropractic expert can help treat the symptoms that come with the pain and damage to the nerve. Inner Gate has Portland chiropractors offer personalized wellness programs to help treat:

Back pain
Neck pain
Headaches

How Pinched Nerves are Treated

Taking over-the-counter drugs can help reduce inflammation and pain, but they don’t fix the underlying damage. Having a chiropractor can help to eliminate the cause of the damage and return you to full health. These treatments can be paired with other therapy treatments.

Why Use Chiropractic Therapy for Pinched Nerves?

Having chiropractic care offers a natural, healthy, and conservative way to heal your pinched nerve. Because chiropractic therapy isn’t invasive, it can help you avoid unnecessary surgeries and avoid excessive medications that can lead to addictions.

Utilizing expert knowledge of the body, a chiropractor can help your body naturally adjust and recover.

What About Drugs for Pinched Nerve Pain?

Taking drugs, prescription or over-the-counter can help in some ways, but it shouldn’t be used as a long-term treatment for your pinched nerve. This temporary treatment can lead to further injury and other medical problems.

Here are a few reasons you shouldn’t rely on drugs to treat a pinched nerve:

Drugs only mask the pain
You could become addicted to the medication
Pharmaceutical medication cannot heal the core problem
Many drugs cause serious side effects

What You Should Do If You Suffer

A pinched nerve can be painful, but it doesn’t have to lead to surgery. It also doesn’t mean that you should be taking pain medication because that won’t solve the problem at its root.

The real solution to recovering from nerve pain is to have chiropractic care. This natural solution can help relieve your pinched nerve.

Help reduce your nerve pain by calling Inner Gate and scheduling an appointment to begin your chiropractic care in Portland.

Katherine V.

March 9, 2023.

While recovering from injuries sustained from a car accident, I have seen a few different acupuncturists as well as a chiropractor and masseuse at Inner Gate, and I have appreciated them all. The care I've received has been stellar - compassionate, personable, considerate, and soothing. Truly, Inner Gate practitioners have greatly helped me in my healing process. Thank you!

Abbie W.

July 26, 2022.

I have been seeing Nick Maxwell for Craniosacral massage for the last several months after a car accident left me with whiplash, nagging low back pain, a mild concussion, and stress and anxiety. He is an incredibly gifted healer that has helped me immensely! I have had a plethora of bodywork over the years, and I can undoubtedly say that his massages are the best. He has also helped with digestive issues/SIBO/nervous system recovery. I would never see anyone else again after finding him. I am much calmer, happier, and healing well thanks in big part to his care.

Elizabeth M.

February 10, 2022.

Well, I will start by saying that Nicholas Maxwell is my favorite massage therapist. I went to him after 1 year of shoulder pain. Before going to him, I was waiting for the pain to just go away; it didn't. He was the first person I sought any help from. I'm sorry to say, I didn't expect that much relief from a massage but after about 3 sessions I felt close to cured of 1 whole year of pain! He recommended a great physical therapist to solve my shoulder stiffness and pain. My pt said that Nick did a great job of loosening up the muscles for a quicker recovery. Nick seemed to wipe out all the surface pain and extraneous tenderness so that my pt could pinpoint my injury which turned out to be shoulder tendonitis. Now I see both of them concurrently. They both gave the same estimate for recovery, which was shorter than I thought it would be. I've had more that 50 massages in my lifetime (CA, NY, NV), Nick is the only massage therapist I have been to that leaves me feeling better for days and days after the actual massage. If I could describe what Nick's massages feel like, it would be like this: If the ocean waves had massaging hands, they would be Nick's. Before going to Nick, I am a chuck steak. After my massage, I am filet mignon. What can I say, Nick Is Awesome!!

Julian J.

November 4, 2021.

My physical therapist suggested acupuncture for my chronic knee injury in July 2021. I'm going to explain my story, but I want to say at the beginning that Emma Ellsworth at Inner Gate Health & Wellness saved me from a life of chronic pain. It's really difficult and frustrating to find good care anywhere these days, so trust me when I tell you that you can end your search now. Just call Inner Gate and ask for Emma. I always find it helpful to read health care reviews from folks who suffer from the same issues as me, so here's a bit about my medical history: My orthopedic physician diagnosed me with IT band syndrome in my right knee in January 2021. I began a course of physical therapy, but not only did the IT band syndrome not get better, I actually developed IT band syndrome in my left leg due to overcompensation. I pushed myself a little too hard and started noticing that even very light exercise would cause my symptoms to flare up (inflammation, pain, swelling, etc.). By May 2021, I could not walk more than 3 blocks at a time without my knees flaring up. Keep in mind that I'm an otherwise healthy person in my mid-30s. I then developed hamstring tendinopathy in both legs, I assume to disuse. Along with preexisting patellofemoral pain syndrome issues, suffice to say that my knees were totally busted, okay. After all that, my physical therapist and orthopedic physician basically threw their hands up and suggested either cortisone shots for the rest of my life, acupuncture, or prescription pain medication that I really shouldn't be taking due to family history of hypertension. In comes Emma. I'm a huge believer in modern Western medicine and everything, but Emma succeeded where two physical therapists, a physiatrist, my orthopedic physician, and my primary care doctor all failed. Emma succeeded not only because she did something they did not - acupuncture - but she succeeded because she was more effective and patient at taking time to find the actual root cause of my issues. She is super methodical about interviewing me at the beginning of every session, evaluating what worked / didn't work from last time, trying out new areas for acupuncture, and over the course of 4 weeks eventually found an acupuncture solution that reduced my pain. I remember when it happened - I had an acupuncture session one Friday in October, and two days later I was going for a walk and ended up walking like 3 times further than I had walked in the past 6 months. I stopped and was like, "Wow my legs don't hurt at all." The pain literally vanished, went from a 5-6/10 on the pain scale all day every day down to 0-1. The massive pain reduction has allowed me to resume my physical therapy exercises with less pain and start rebuilding my knee strength. I still go to acupuncture to deal with some knee meniscus issues and overall wellness / mental health issues. Honestly, I feel such a tremendous sense of wellness after every acupuncture session that I kind of don't ever want to stop going. Anyway, if you made it this far, thanks for reading and hopefully my story is helpful. Seriously, go see the folks at Inner Gate. You won't regret it!!

Mitchell P.

October 19, 2021.

Inner Gate Health & Wellness provides exceptional care! Their staff, specifically Emma Ellsworth, is skillful, compassionate, and effective at providing holistic healing services, including acupuncture. I highly recommend treatment with Inner Gate and Emma Ellsworth for symptoms including depression, anxiety, pelvic floor pain, back pain, and digestion issues.

Ruben S.

April 15, 2021.

This is a long overdue, rave review for Terry. I've been to many acupuncturists over the last decade and she is hands down the most helpful and accommodating. I came in with a very unsolvable problem (tinnitus) and had tried everything before coming to Terry. Terry has helped improve my symptoms with Tinnitus and a number of other issues. She's also extremely patient and takes time out of every session at the beginning to go over progress and how I'm feeling. She has a good understanding of my problems and is always ready with solutions to help. Acupuncture with Terry is one of the highlights of my week -- thank you for being so great!!

Dr. Kaley B.

November 28, 2020.

Very impressed! Great acupuncture, well organized front desk. Liz is fantastic, and I'm not a fan of needles. Finally got some relief from back and neck pain. Looking forward to a few more sessions!

Abbie W.

September 15, 2020.

I highly recommend Oliver Leonetti at Innergate Acupuncture! I have seen him for the last 12 years for various ailments - ranging from nagging sports injuries to digestive issues to insomnia/anxiety, and he always provides the highest level of care that truly lasts. Not only is he extremely knowledgeable and skilled, but he is super kind and caring and always take the time to truly listen. I always feel better after leaving my appointment. I honestly do not know what I would do without Oliver or Innergate Acupuncture! Also, I've seen several of the acupuncturists there, and they are all fantastic as well.

M W.

July 9, 2020.

I can't recommend these guys enough! I have a 10 yr old competitive skier who was having some knee pain & had never had acupuncture done before...not only did these guys gently ease him into the entire process - they also helped him get back on the ski hill after the first couple of treatments I was super impressed with their professionalism & how both Liz and Casey approached his injury - now my little guy looks forward to going to his acupuncture appointments! Yay! Thank you a zillion times over for taking such good care of my little guy.

Abby J.

January 9, 2020.

I used to think acupuncture was sort of hokey. Not total witchcraft, but definitely not the magic, cure-all that people said. Well, folks, a few months in and I can report that I'm a changed woman! Well, really, it only took one session. Terry took my whole health history into consideration and helped with everything. Anxiety, sleeplessness, colds, ankle injuries, back pain--you name it. I've come in with problems and always left improved. I'm sure all the acupuncturists are lovely, but I want to stress how awesome Terry is. She takes my concerns seriously without making me feel like I'm at a stuffy doctors office. She approaches her work with humor and friendliness and is spot on with her treatment. Terry has made me feel comfortable from the get-go and has made my weekly appointments something for me to look forward to. My friends all have heard me rave about her, so I'd say everyone I know should go see her, but then I may never be able to squeeze in my appointments again! Just kidding, of course. Also, big props to the front desk staff too. They have been super kind and helpful when guiding me through insurance issues or unexpected after work traffic. I'd highly recommend Inner Gate SE to anyone with any ailment!

Chiropractor for a Pinched Nerve: Things to Know