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DiscussionUndiagnosed, numbness, tingling, Muscle weakness and more
Brain & Nervous System | Last Active: Mar 2, 2022 | Replies (19)Comment receiving replies
@jair19 Your doctors might not be thinking about physical issues such as tight fascia and muscles that create pressure on nerves and cause problems because it alters alignment of bone, muscle and joints. Some of those spaces where nerves pass are very small, and your muscle movement might be restricted. The fascia is a cob web net that holds all your organs, and it can cause irritation because of extra pressure from tight tissue, and if you have had an injury or surgery, that adds to the tightness and can cause scar tissue in the fascia. This is something I work on myself. I am a spine surgery patient, and I have thoracic outlet syndrome which is often missed and misdiagnosed. I've had Doppler image tests that show restricted blood with a change of arm position from TOS. TOS causes compression of nerves and blood vessels to my arms, and tightness through one side of my body from my neck and through my chest and hips. It's all connected and can pull my pelvis out of alignment. When that happens, my legs fatigue easily and I can have sciatic and low back pain on one side. I have also had sciatic pain and all over body pain that was caused by cervical spinal cord compression. I have experienced the burning nerve pain and electric bolts. The left sided tightness from TOS was also enough to rotate my C1 through C4 vertebrae and cause dizziness which was happening before my spine surgery. I am 3 years post op, and I can still have some cervical rotation if I overdo it and cause a muscle spasm, but everything calmed down after the spine problem was fixed. I know how to relieve the fascial tightness with stretches and I have been working with a physical therapist for a few years and doing a lot of myofascial release. This gets everything back in alignment and loosens up the pressure. Abnormal cervical rotation can change blood flow to the brain and cause dizziness and vertigo. When I get one side too tight between my neck and jaw, it causes fascial tinging by affecting the Trigeminal nerve. TOS causes the tightness between my neck and jaw. It has been enough to cause me to wear out dental fillings on that side of my mouth, and cause pain in my jaw and teeth from misalignment that is corrected with physical therapy. My therapist has taught me where to press to ease that tension. A good doctor who understands TOS is hard to find because it isn't covered in depth in medical school. Look for a specialist at a university or teaching hospital that treats TOS such as Mayo. Correct posture is important. Unfortunately, many of us have a forward head and shoulder position with a slouching posture and that can cause TOS as well as physical build or repetitive stress injuries or injuries such as a whiplash. Look on medical center websites for listings of conditions they treat to begin your search.
You also mentioned rapid weight loss without trying. That could be an overactive thyroid. I have had weight loss when my thyroid function changed, and then the prescription thyroid hormones I was taking became an overdose and I felt lousy. The overdose on thyroid hormones caused symptoms of anxiety, and rapid heart rate for me. I take desiccated pig thyroid which is identical to human hormones. In my experience, a functional medicine doctor has been the best at managing my thyroid. Thyroid function is complex, and what is considered normal on a blood test is just an average of the general population many of whom also have thyroid issues that are common, and not what is best for the body. If your doctor is going by the recommendation listed on blood test results, it may not be right for the patient, according to my functional medicine doctor.
The sore muscles your describe could be fascial pain. That is what you feel if you work out too hard or overstretch something. It is great that you can hike and it sounds like you are in good shape except for the tightness in your body. My suggestion would be to have an evaluation with a physical therapist who does the John Barnes methods of myofascial release. MFR therapy helps a lot of things and the therapist can feel the tight pathways through your body. Here are some links to the MFR discussion we have on Connect where I have collected a lot of information on MFR. There is a provider finder on the MFR website. Another good website to explore is Training and Rehabilitation. That is authored by a physical therapist for PT's and has detailed explanations of the issues. He doesn't focus on MFR, but he does explain alignment issues. You might also ask your doctors if you have any instability in your spine that could change spinal alignment in different positions. MRI's of a spine laying down might be different than standing or sitting and a physical therapist would need to know about that. That certainly could change things in ways the doctors may now be thinking about if your spine is not held in correct alignment by core strength.
Alignment can be corrected with MFR because it allows things to move back where they belong. It is a gentle stretching therapy, and there may be many layers to work through so patience with recovery is important and progress can be gradual. Core strength has helped me rehab and I started riding my horse at 7 months post spine surgery with good posture, and just walking did wonders for my strength. Without a horse, you could simulate that by sitting on a large therapy ball. I do have a bulging lumbar disc that clicks when it is rotated, and that can be enough to stop sciatic pain if it's rotated back in place. I'm sure my pelvis alignment is part of that too because putting it back in place with exercise and MFR stops any pain that I had in my legs, and building the core strength prevents it from happening.
Here are the links.
Myofascial Release therapy https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/myofascial-release-therapy-mfr-for-treating-compression-and-pain/
Myofascial Release therapy John Barnes methods websitehttps://myofascialrelease.com/
Jaw misalignment https://trainingandrehabilitation.com/true-cause-solution-temporomandibular-dysfunction-tmd/
Vestibular impairment and TMJ https://trainingandrehabilitation.com/vestibular-impairment-and-its-association-to-the-neck-and-tmj/
Thoracic Outlet Syndrome https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/thoracic-outlet-syndrome/symptoms-causes/syc-20353988
Thoracic Outlet Syndrome https://trainingandrehabilitation.com/how-truly-treat-thoracic-outlet-syndrome/
Cervical spine instability at C1 & C2 https://trainingandrehabilitation.com/atlas-joint-instability-causes-consequences-solutions/
Fixing shoulder pain with scapular stability https://trainingandrehabilitation.com/shoulder-pain-scapular-stability/
Lumbar plexus Compression https://trainingandrehabilitation.com/identify-treat-lumbar-plexus-compression-syndrome-lpcs/
Physical Causes of hip pain https://trainingandrehabilitation.com/causes-hip-pain-how-to-fix/
Replies to "@jair19 Your doctors might not be thinking about physical issues such as tight fascia and muscles..."
Wow - that is a lot of information! Thank you! I will look into those things. Thank you for all the links. I know they have tested my thyroid (in my blood) over several years, and the numbers are always around the same range, so right now they aren’t any different from my normal, but I could ask my doctor about different screenings.