Symptoms & Causes of Nerve Pain

The symptoms of nerve pain are as diverse as the causes of it, and they run the gamut from slight sensitivity to touch to stabbing shooting pains in the body. Our body's central nervous system (basically understood to be controlled in the brain and spinal column), also consists of an additional component: the peripheral nervous system, which makes up all the nerves located elsewhere in our body. Therefore, almost every function in our body results in some type of nerve being used to accomplish it, making it important to understand symptoms and causes of nerve pain.

Nerve Functions and Uses

• Our body's peripheral nervous system basically controls three functions: sensory, motor and autonomic. Sensory nerves in our hands, feet and body allow us to feel things like cold, pleasure, heat and pain. Motor nerves assist us in moving our muscles in the body and enabling us to walk, pick up our glass of milk and swallow it. Autonomic nerves aid us in digesting our food and eliminating it through the bowels.

Causes Due to Trauma or Pressure

• Abnormal bone growths, odd sitting or standing positions for long periods of time (retail and factory workers especially), repetitive motions (typing and carrying or lifting of delivery boxes) and even tumors are some causes of nerve pain.

Causes Due to Diseases and Disorders

• Guillain-Barre syndrome, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis (autoimmune diseases), HIV, kidney and liver disease, diabetes, hypothyroidism and amyloid polyneuropathy (an inherited disorder) can also cause nerve pain.

Causes Due to Other Factors

• Our body can also experience nerve pain due to other factors like poison exposure, which can result from legitimate exposure (the medication you take could contain metal that affects your nerves, or you could be undergoing cancer treatment). In addition to poison exposure, another factor that can cause nerve pain is, surprisingly, vitamin B deficiency, as well as alcoholism.

Nerve pain symptoms

• When nerve pain affects the muscles, the individual can experience symptoms that can include muscle weakness, muscle coordination difficulties and even total muscle paralysis, which can include the process of swallowing food as well as using the bladder and the bowels. Since the feet and hands are generally the body parts that are touching--and being touched--most often throughout the day, it is those places that are most likely to experience these nerve pain symptoms: tingling, numbness, throbbing, sensitivity to temperature and touch and even burning sensations and sharp painful stabs.