Chiropractors are experts when it comes to aligning the spine and vertebral joints with the body and thus can help in treating restricted nerve function. In treating chronic Nerve Pain, I generally employ a combination of Chiropractic care and Craniosacral therapy to  relieve pain.

There are 3 types of nerves:

1. Autonomic Nerves: These control involuntary body functions, such as blood pressure, heart rate, breathing, and digestion.
2. Motor Nerves: Movements are controlled by these nerves sending signals from your brain and spinal cord to the muscles.
3. Sensory Nerves: Information is relayed from your muscles and skin back to your spinal cord and brain via sensory nerves, such as touch.

The symptoms that often take place with nerve pain depend on the type of nerve pain your body is experiencing. Common symptoms of Nerve Pain include the following:

• Muscle weakness
• Burning sensations
• Tingling
• Fibromyalgia
• Headaches and migraines 
• Stabbing pain
• Limited range of motion
• Depression 
• Anxiety
• Hyperhidrosis (too much sweating)
• Lightheadedness
• Inability to detect chest pain
• Fasciculation (twitching)
• Paralysis (either complete or partial, in extreme cases)

If you feel you have nerve pain and can check off some of the above symptoms, it’s helpful to have insight on what may be causing the nerve pain.  Typical causes of nerve pain include:

• Injury or trauma (physical): Car Accidents, Sports injuries, slip and falls, and more.
• Diabetes: High levels of glucose in the blood can cause nerve pain symptoms such as tingling, numbness, weakness, burning feet, and more.
• Vitamin or Nutritional Imbalances: The most common include excess vitamin B6 and a lack of vitamin B12.
• HIV: Up to 1/3 of individuals with HIV often experience nerve pain.
• Blood & Vascular Problems: Reduced oxygen supply in the blood can cause nerve pain. In addition to this smoking and the narrowing of arteries from high blood pressure can produce nerve pain. 

Chiropractic care is a type of healthcare that focuses on the spine and joints of the body and how they relate to the nervous system, and collectively can resolve various health issues experienced by the patient. 

Think of chiropractors as physicians who look at a pain symptom and then track it “upstream” or “downstream.”  Thus for example if you are suffering nerve pain in your knee pain, the chiropractor will look “upstream” to your quads and hips.  The reason is there is a very good chance that the origin of the symptom (knee pain) is in your quad muscles or hip, which is leading to pain in your knee. 

While not always the case the point here is to illustrate chiropractors are extremely skilled in understanding the inner workings of the body and how everything connects.   Chiropractors firmly believe the body is a self-healing organism, and chiropractic care naturally helps it on its way to smooth and efficient functioning. 

While there are always underlying issues with nerve pain (such as a herniated disc or lumbar spine subluxations in the case of sciatica), Chiropractors are able to help alleviate the pain.

Nerves that may have been restricted or pinched can be freed through a standard chiropractic adjustment.  This reduces nerve irritability which often leads to inflammation, pain, and muscle spasms. 

There are many situations in life where our bodies get misaligned. From car accidents, to slip and fall injuries, to just poor posture at work.  If your spine’s misalignment is causing a nerve to be restricted, chiropractic care can assist you to a full recovery.

Craniosacral Therapy can also be an ideal treatment to resolve any nerve pain you may be experiencing.  The 12 cranial nerves that are a key part of our nervous system and contribute greatly to our wellbeing. They oversee the five senses of smell, sight, hearing, touch, and taste. The 12 cranial nerves help in maintaining homeostasis and regulation of our heart rate, digestion, breathing, and blood pressure. They assist in maintaining our equilibrium and balance. 

The 12 Cranial Nerves:

• Abducens nerve: eye movement outward
• Facial nerve: muscles of facial expression, taste, salivary secretions
• Glossopharyngeal nerve: mouth & throat sensation, taste & salivary secretions
• Hypoglossal nerve: tongue movement
• Oculomotor nerve: most eye movements
• Olfactory nerve: sense of smell
• Optic nerve: sight
• Spinal accessory nerve: neck movement
• Trigeminal nerve: facial sensation and chewing muscles
• Trochlear nerve: eye movement down and inward
• Vagal nerve: swallowing, vocal cords, sensation & parasympathetic innervation of body organs
• Vestibulo-cochlear nerve: hearing and balance

Any pain or health condition you may be experiencing associated with any of the 12 cranial nerves can be treated with craniosacral therapy. 

New research shows the 12 cranial nerves also play an important role in social engagement, trauma recovery, and human survival in mammalian social groups. Like any other nerve or physiological structure in the body, cranial nerves can become dysfunctional due to a number of different reasons: osseous or membranous restrictions within the cranium or cervical region; inflammation; injury, disease, or trauma; demyelination; poor intracranial pressure; or poor vascularization and blood flow.  CranioSacral Therapists are uniquely positioned to directly affect the recovery and function of cranial nerves through their structural and energetic practices.  

Alex was born in March 1972. At the age of 7 he started to experience frequent headaches with all the conventional symptoms of a Migraine headache. His particular headache resulted in him experiencing auras, nausea and sensitivity to light with no particular trigger to the onset of the migraine.

After years of treatments, therapies and medications, his headaches were no better and Alex continued to experience them all throughout childhood and into young adulthood. Some years the headaches would come monthly, some years every two to three months and some years weekly. His headaches were incurable, there was nothing that could alleviate the symptoms and head pain. Until he experienced cranial manual therapy, which resulted in the complete eradication of his life-long Migraine Headaches.

At the age of 16 Alex noticed a mild deformity in the right side of his ribs, a slightly lower right shoulder and the experience of constant lower back pain. Although mild, a diagnosis of Idiopathic Adolescent Scoliosis had been labeled.

At the age of 18 he was involved in a serious car accident that exacerbated his lower back pain. Throughout the years Alex had tried a multitude of conventional treatments but continued to suffer on and off with lower back pain, even throughout Chiropractic school and beyond.

In 2015 and fifteen+ years out of Chiropractic school, Dr. Kaminsky participated in his first and life changing Craniosacral Therapy seminar and he was fascinated, intrigued and hooked. It all made sense, he was immediately astute to its methods and since that first seminar, and as a result of trading sessions of Craniosacral Therapy with his colleagues, his back pain subsided and till this day has never returned.

Dr. Kaminsky decided to enhance his skill-set to better serve his patients. He began reaching out to other craniosacral therapists, cranial osteopaths, and many types of leading practitioners from various fields for advise and consultations He also enrolled in Upledger continuing education seminars with a focus on mostly hands-on manual and alternative therapies.

And, as he gained knowledge with his own health issues, he has learned to help more and more patients achieve great health results.

Dr. Alex Kaminsky is headache free and low back pain free, and has committed himself to a life of learning, teaching and treating patients. His emphasis is on the patient’s stored patterns of the body and each individual healthcare needs.