Misaligned nerves can be painful enough to interfere with your daily life. Aligning those nerves requires adjusting them so that surrounding tissue does not pinch them or cause pain. Certain exercises may help relieve nerve pain and align your nerves, but you may need additional treatment together with the exercises. Consult a doctor if you have symptoms of nerve pain to get a proper diagnosis and advice for staying healthy.
Nervous System and Nerve Pain
Nerves in your central nervous system send signals between your brain and spinal cord. Peripheral nerves transmit signals between the spinal cord and the rest of your body. Nerve pain can be the result of severed nerves due to an injury or accident. Pain also can be the caused by nerves being pinched between bones, such as vertebrates or bones in your hands. Exercises to align the nerves depend on the location and cause of the nerve dislocation.
Exercises for Sciatica
Stretching exercises may help align your sciatic nerve, which is the peripheral nerve that begins at your spine and continues down the back of your leg, according to MayoClinic.com. Sciatica, or the pain from your lower back down through your buttocks and leg, may result from a pinched nerve. Slow and controlled stretches for your lower back may relieve pain. Heat packs, ice treatments and doctor-approved regular aerobic exercise, such as swimming and bicycling, also may reduce pain.
Carpal Tunnel Exercises
Carpal tunnel exercises, such as nerve-gliding exercises, may help align your nerves and reduce wrist and hand pain from carpal tunnel syndrome, according to MayoClinic.com. In most cases, exercises are not effective on their own for treating carpal tunnel syndrome. You may need to supplement your physical therapy with a supportive brace or anti-inflammatory medications. Exercises may be part of post-surgery rehabilitation to maintain your functionality. Perform nerve-gliding exercises only under medical supervision, since these exercises may increase pain from carpal tunnel syndrome.
Considerations
Even when exercise does not align your nerves, it can reduce nerve pain because physical activity stimulates your body’s production of natural painkillers, called endorphins, according to MayoClinic.com. Still, exercises and other self-treatments are not always effective enough to prevent the need for surgery. Severed nerves, carpal tunnel syndrome and sciatica all may require surgery. Anti-seizure medication may reduce nerve pain, but it does not realign nerves. Conditions such as trigeminal neuralgia, or nerve pain in your face, may not be treatable, according to MedlinePlus.
References
- MayoClinic.com: Anti-Seizure Medications: Relief from Nerve Pain
- MayoClinic.com: Sciata
- MayoClinic.com: Carpal Tunnel Exercises: Can They Relieve Symptoms?
- MedlinePlus: Trigeminal Neuralgia
- Idea Health and Fitness Association: Help for Low-Back Pain
- MedlinePlus: Ganglineuroma
- MayoClinic.com: Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
