Nerve damage is not always irreparable; peripheral nerves (outside the brain/spine) have a capacity to heal and regenerate, though recovery is slow and depends on the injury's severity, location, and promptness of treatment, while severe spinal cord damage (Central Nervous System or CNS) is often permanent, with treatments focusing on managing symptoms and preventing further harm. Early intervention is crucial, as completely severed peripheral nerves are harder to treat, but surgeries and new technologies offer hope for significant functional recovery, even if complete reversal isn't guaranteed.
Nerve cells can regenerate and grow back at a rate of about an inch a month, but recovery is typically incomplete and slow. This is a complete nerve injury, where the nerve sheath and underlying neurons are severed. If there is an open cut, a neurosurgeon can see the cut nerve ends at surgery and repair this.
But it's also important to know there's often a ticking clock with nerve injuries. When a patient loses mobility in an arm or leg, you often can't get nerve function back if you wait too long. After 12 to 18 months, the connection between the nerve and muscle dies off and can no longer be restored.
Diarrhea can occur when the nerves that control the small intestine are damaged. The diarrhea occurs most often at night. Constipation is another common result of damage to nerves in the intestines.
Some types of headache can happen from neuropathy, which is damage to the nerves. One example is trigeminal neuralgia, a condition with sudden attacks of severe facial pain. Trigeminal neuralgia affects the trigeminal nerves.
Occipital neuralgia can feel like a sharp, shooting pain in the back of the head, usually on one side. It might be described as a throbbing or burning sensation. It can also cause sensitivity to light, scalp tenderness and pain behind the eye on the affected side.
EMG and nerve conduction studies are used to help check for many kinds of muscle and nerve disorders. An EMG test helps find out if muscles are responding the right way to nerve signals. Nerve conduction studies help to check for nerve damage or disease.
Common nerve healing signs include
Nerves control the muscles of the rectum. They signal when the rectum is full. Damage to these nerves can interfere with bowel control. The damage may reduce the peristalsis in the muscles around the colon.
Health conditions that can cause peripheral neuropathy include: Autoimmune diseases. These include Sjogren's syndrome, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, Guillain-Barre syndrome, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy and vasculitis. Also, some cancers related to the body's immune system can cause polyneuropathy.
The signs of nerve damage
Numbness or tingling in the hands and feet. Feeling like you're wearing a tight glove or sock. Muscle weakness, especially in your arms or legs. Regularly dropping objects that you're holding.
There are many different ways that peripheral neuropathy can happen, so this condition is common. For some people, peripheral neuropathy is temporary, treatable or both. For others, it's permanent and incurable.
Nerve damage: Injury, disease, or a problem with your central nervous system can also cause tremors. Your doctor will call this peripheral neuropathy. It can affect your hands and feet.
Damaged nerves take a long time to regrow (an inch a month or millimeter per day). And, in the process, you can lose muscle. A peripheral nerve neurosurgeon works to restore nerves (reinnervate) before this happens. They'll also focus on helping you improve your movement (motor function) and sensation.
Symptoms of nervous system disorders
Persistent or sudden onset of a headache. A headache that changes or is different. Loss of feeling or tingling. Weakness or loss of muscle strength.
“If a person is evaluated two years after an injury, we can't fix the nerve directly because the muscles will no longer be functional. They have already died,” she says, adding that there may still be other options for these patients to improve pain and function.
Muscles in your bowels (intestines) depend on nerve signals to tell them when to move — or not to move. If those nerve signals aren't working right, you may have trouble moving or controlling your bowels. This is how nervous system diseases and injuries can lead to constipation and fecal incontinence.
The gut-brain reset is a month long program of caring for the gut-brain axis. This one month reset gives you 1kg of No More Nerves and 2kg of B-Complete gut supplement so you can tackle both sides of the gut-brain axis to achieve total harmony. We also now offer 2 month and 3 month resets.
Tingling or a pins-and-needles sensation is a common early sign. These sensations indicate that nerve pathways are starting to regenerate. It can be an encouraging indication of the body's healing capacity. Muscle twitching or spasms may also occur, revealing the re-establishment of nerve-muscle connections.
One promising strategy to accelerate peripheral nerve regeneration is the application of electrical stimulation directly on the injured nerve. Immediately following nerve injury, electrical stimulation has been shown to enhance early regenerative stages, including neuronal survival and axonal sprout formation [20].
You begin to notice when you're activated, and you have tools to return to balance. Healing often feels like: Crying without knowing why — the body's way of releasing stored emotion. Trembling, yawning, or shaking — natural ways the body resets after stress.
A blood test can detect conditions that may be causing peripheral neuropathy, such as diabetes, nutrient deficiencies, liver or kidney dysfunction, and abnormal immune system activity.
The rule of 3's for nerve injury: Sharp, clean nerve injuries should be explored and repaired within 3 hours. Ragged, contusion injuries should have the ragged ends bound to a nearby anatomical structure immediately, then be repaired within three weeks. Closed injuries should be repaired within three months.
To find out, conclusively, if your nerves are damaged, you need to see a neurologist. He or she will perform tests to determine the health of your muscles and nerves. If there is a problem, the doctor will explain the reason for the damage and its extent. They will follow up by devising a treatment plan.