Complex Regional Pain Syndrome?
Complex regional pain syndrome formally know as reflex sympathetic dystrophy is a poorly understood often under diagnosed condition. Some patients are told they have neuralgia after an injury. I have seen cases after surgery a limb getting rigid and immobile. My first case I encountered the patient has leg pain, atrophy, and loss of toenail and hair growth. This disorder is characterized by decreased blood flow and nerve innervation to a part of the body following a trauma.
When our body sustains an injury it reacts with a division of the nervous system called the sympathetic nervous system. This system commonly referred to as the fight or flight nervous system acts to ready our body to fight or run. The sympathetic system causes our heart to beat faster, our lungs to take in more oxygen and blood is shunted away from the skin, intestines, and nervous system to our muscular system. This response is normally a temporary event, but in complex regional pain syndrome our sympathetic system doesn’t turn off. This causes long term depletion of blood supply to the area of the body affected. We start to have symptoms related to decreased blood flow to the nerves, skin, bones, and joints. The muscles exhibit either weakness or tightness due to nerve and joint damage. The major symptom is extreme burning pain in the skin with hypersensitivity to touch. Over time patients start to exhibit skin changes such as swelling and redness of the skin. Many times Chiropractic can reverse this process by resetting the sympathetic nervous system. Results are seen very quickly as blood returns to the depleted areas of the body.
I have found Chiropractic to be a great option to reverse Complex Regional Pain Syndrome . Chiropractic manipulations will send a large amount of sensory input to the spinal chord. This large burst of incoming information can reset the autonomic nervous system. With repetition of treatments I have found many cases can be corrected.