

Diabetes is another risk factor, since diabetes-induced high levels of sugar and fat in your blood can damage your nerves and the blood vessels that nourish them, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Issues. Pregnancy can also raise your risk, since weight gain can swell nerve pathways, compressing your nerves in the process. Potential causes include having an injury, a health condition like arthritis, and physical stress in one part of your body from repetitive work, the Mayo Clinic says. There are plenty of reasons why you might get a pinched nerve, since basically anything that puts pressure on your nerves can cause one.

This interrupts your nerve’s ability to function, causing pain and a bunch of other not-fun symptoms that can feel totally mystifying (we’ll get to that in a second). What is a pinched nerve?Ī pinched nerve happens when something puts too much pressure on one of your nerves, be it surrounding bones, cartilage, muscles, or tendons, the Mayo Clinic explains. But what is a pinched nerve, and what causes it? And more important, how can we spot the signs of a pinched nerve, and how can we treat it? You’ll find the answers to all of those questions below. After all, when you were a kid, getting pinched was at best annoying and at worst, pretty painful, so having signs of a pinched nerve now is-you might imagine-unpleasant. Even if you’ve never had a pinched nerve, you probably know that, whatever it is, it’s not good.
