Numbness and Weakness
Key points
- Numbness is felt when nerve impulses aren't traveling properly from the skin to the brain.
- Weakness happens when signals don't travel properly from the brain to the muscles or from problems in the muscles themselves.
- As in dermatitis that affects the skin, and neuropathy that affects the nerves, myopathy is a systemic condition that attacks the muscle tissue, most of the time all over the body.
- Patients with myopathy will detect a weakness walking up stairs, their knees may involuntarily buckle and they may find it harder to do routine tasks such as opening jars.
Numbness
Numbness is felt when nerve impulses aren't traveling properly from the skin to the brain.
A patient with back problems may also experience numbness in other parts of the body, especially the legs and feet. This always indicates some kind of nerve damage in the peripheral nervous system or the central nervous system (i.e. the spine or the brain) and deserves prompt and serious attention.
Numbness can occur in the skin and the linings of body orifices such as the mouth or the vagina.
Common spinal causes of numbness include the following:
- Radiculopathy - A pinched nerve due to a herniated disc.
- Stenosis - A narrowing of the spinal canal, which can compress sensory nerve fibers causing loss of sensation.
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Stroke
- Common spinal causes of numbness include the following:
- Radiculopathy - A pinched nerve due to a herniated disc.
- Stenosis - A narrowing of the spinal canal, which can compress sensory nerve fibers causing loss of sensation.
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Stroke
Common cerebral causes of numbness include the following:
- Stroke
- Seizures
- Congenital abnormalities
- Concussion
- Other generalized conditions, such as psychological upsets
Common spinal causes of numbness include the following:
Weakness
Weakness happens when signals don't travel properly from the brain to the muscles or from problems in the muscles themselves.
If weakness cannot be traced to another systemic condition, such as diabetes, it can come from either a nerve or a muscle problem. Paralysis is the extreme manifestation of weakness.
There are many reasons people experience weakness related to low back pain, but the most common cause of overall systemic weakness is inactivity.
A person's posture, gait, step size and degree and amount of arm swing when walking all affect dozens of muscles in the middle and lower back. A minor injury that may have no symptoms can cause a person to compensate in different ways when walking, sometimes without even knowing it. Both large and small adjustments to these everyday activities can have a domino effect sometimes leading to back pain.
Causes of Muscle Weakness
Written and revised by
David Cohen, M.D.
Our doctors write and review articles for accuracy and keep them up to date.
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