numbness in neck

Hello @gerrit1, and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. New symptoms such as the one you described are worrisome for sure. We would all question the reason for it, especially since it happened during exercise. You said that you are a healthy 79-year-old. Congratulations on that! It is great that you are also exercising.

Regarding this new symptom, I'm wondering if you have contacted your doctor about it? Have you recently had a work-up with a cardiologist? If not, that would be a good first step in determining if this numbness is something that needs treatment or not. It is always better to see a doctor and get good information so that you can put your mind at ease.

Have you experienced any other numbness or unusual symptoms during exercise?

I’ve been in two severe car accidents, one near fatal because of the lack of seat belts. Naturally I was violently thrown into the windshield of each vehicle smashing them with my forehead. Because it was so hard, my spinal column was compressed, causing misalignment in three disk. One in the neck, in between the shoulder blades and one in the lower lumbar area. The one in the neck causes me the most trouble because you move your head so much. I’ve lost feeling in my arms, legs and neck because the spinal cord goes threw them. The first accident happened in 1977, the other 1999 and my spine has been the cause of pain and numbness. I think your problem happened from the hard shock of your feet hitting the rotating thread and shooting up your spine and pinching the nerve in the neck, causing the numbness. Then when your neck disks realigned again, it stopped pinching the spinal cord and solved your problem. If it happens again, you should see your doctor or a chiropractor to make sure the disk that caused the pinch isn’t damaged like mine was and often cracked when turning my head a certain way.

I certainly wouldn't rely on a chiropractor for such an issue.

My first thought (wholly non-professional) would be to want my carotid arteries checked under care of a cardiologist

Not knowing your exact symptom, l was using my own personal experiences to tell you what I felt from having a pinched nerve in the area of C3 to C5 disks.

I can also give you some knowledge about the Carotid Artery and Jugular. My grandson started to learn martial arts. Since I was going to help him train, I had to learn the exact movements and the precise way to apply them. Then during his training at my home, he would practice them on me or I’d watch him do his kata’s, the combat form of training. For his black belt, he had to learn how to apply various chokes. The very first one he learned was the most dangerous one for it can kill a person in a matter of seconds. You get behind your opponent, put your arm around their neck, apply pressure and it stops the blood flow in the carotid artery. When you apply the pressure, the artery collapses and the person passes out in only seconds. The dangerous part of the choke is you need to release the pressure quickly, if not, the artery does not have enough force to re inflate the artery and the person dies. This choke was demonstrated in class and I let him practice it on me at home. That’s right, but the moment I’d feel the pressure, I raised my hand and he would release. My grandson training with me helped him get his adult green, then brown belts before he was even a teenager. He became the best young student the instructor ever taught.

Now from the knowledge you gained, any idea what happened to you? I definitely would go to the doctor because it could happen again. When my grandson did the chock on me, I could instantly feel a tingling in my neck, so he released. Good luck.

@becky1024 I wanted to respond to your post because I am a cervical spine surgery patient. I had a whiplash about 20 twenty years ago, that later down the road led to the C5/C6 disc rupturing into my spinal cord and also caused bone spurs to grow there along side it and all of it was compressing my spinal cord. The surprising thing, is it took very little to rupture a weakened disc after all those years. I was stretching my neck by turning my head and it popped with a sound, and suddenly my head turned a bit more. If a chiropractor makes a spinal adjustment to a person like this, there is a high risk of injury to the person. Injuries like this also cause instability that can cause the bones of the vertebrae to contact the spinal cord if there is a force applied to them, or even just by changing the position of the neck depending on how bad the instability is. That alone is a reason to really consider if a chiropractor is a good choice at all when a person has had spine injuries. Chiropractors can't fix a structural spine problem or a collapsed disc, and if a person's spinal discs are not strong enough or intact enough to hold the spine in place, a chiropractor's manipulations can cause an injury. Keep in mind that a severe spine injury can cause permanent paralysis and disabilities.

Have you sought medical care from a surgical spine specialist about your spine injuries? Things change over the years and a condition can become a lot worse. Are you still dealing with loss of feeling in your arms, legs and neck?

Thank you for the information, my initial injury to the neck happened in 1962. None of what you refer to was known back then, so a chiropractor was the first line of care treatment. My arms, hands, legs and feet pain are not an issue anymore since the nerve coating was destroyed by a blood disorder I have and the nerves involved are dead, so I feel no pain. It’s a dangerous situation I’m in, not knowing if I’ve injured myself or worse, if I get cut, I won’t know I’m bleeding till I spot the blood or someone else does. Any cut I do get, takes forever to heal because of the blood disorder, so all major surgeries are out and I’d never know if I’m making an injury worse. Thank you for your concern, as the saying goes, “l’m between a rock and a hard place!”