Why it’s Important to Distinguish Between Numbness VS Tingling

29 Oct 2024

Have you ever experienced the sensation of numbness? Tingling? Pins and needles? These are complaints that many manual therapists hear when patients come into their office. But did you know there is a significant difference between feeling numbness and feeling tingling or pins and needles? In this blog I am going to explain the difference and why it’s important to communicate to your health care practitioners what sensations you are truly feeling. Here is why it’s important to distinguish between numbness VS tingling and pins and needles.

Tingling and Pins and Needles

It is important to distinguish what is numb and what you label as tingling or ‘pins & needles’ in parts of your body. In osteopathy and other forms of body work, it is common to assess and treat those tingling/pins & needles feelings that are coming from compressed areas in the body or nerve roots. For example, if you come in with neck tension and we find a rotated vertebrae, that could be causing tingling down into the hand or fingers. This usually involves a level of tension in local muscles and ligament as well.

What is Numb?

Numb … is numb. In distinguishing these feelings it is important to know that numb means you cannot feel your skin. You cannot feel pressure against your body. If you are feeling radiating symptoms like the tingling, then an osteopath can work on the areas causing the symptoms. If you have a part of your body that is truly numb, an osteopath may still try to help you but they may also send you to your medical doctor for further investigation. This is not necessarily a cause for alarm, but truly numb sensations should be thoroughly checked out with medical imaging to rule out any more serious possibilities.

Don’t trust Dr. Google

As a side note, it’s important to see a medical professional to determine what may be happening. Dr. Google is not advised and leads to all sorts of alarming and many times irrelevant possibilities. At minimum you can find out what it is not. Then you can proceed with your health practitioner depending on what you find.

Conclusion

So the next time you are calling around for health practitioners to describe what is going on in your body, take a moment to feel what you are feeling in your body. Is it ‘pins and needles’, is it fiery, is it cold, is it stabbing, is it tingly, does it feel like a hair brushing against your skin? These descriptions may not seem medical, but they will help you or help practitioners formulate ideas of what is going on in your body.


How you describe what is happening is quite helpful. You don’t need to describe it using medical terminology or using a medical doctor’s diagnosis. YOU are the expert on your body and how it feels. Leave out the labels. If you need to look up online helpful information, look up descriptions of how the body feels and make note of the ones that feel right for you. You will not believe how even the oddest feeling that you describe can be the most accurate of all!

If you are looking for an experienced and passionate Osteopath, Stewart Hope at Natural Choice Medical Clinic in Guelph is accepting new patients.