Nerve Pain: Symptoms and Causes | Embody Health Chiropractic

Nerve pain feels different from muscle pain: burning, shooting, tingling, or electric, and often radiating along a nerve pathway. Common causes are a pinched nerve in the back, neck, or shoulder, radiation from a herniated disc, or a pinched nerve at the wrist. When the cause is musculoskeletal, chiropractic care can help. Your first visit at Embody Health costs €39 and requires no referral from your GP. Most Dutch health insurers (partially) reimburse chiropractic care from the supplementary package, without touching your deductible.

Dr. Stephen Malone (DC, DCF/SNRC) has treated people with nerve-related complaints for over 12 years, from three clinics in Alphen aan den Rijn, Amersfoort, and Rotterdam. Patients rate us on average 4.9 out of 5 stars on Google. During the first visit we carefully map which nerve pathway is irritated and why.

What does nerve pain feel like?

You recognise nerve pain by its character: burning, shooting, tingling, or like an electric shock. The pain often follows a nerve pathway, for example from the buttock to the leg, or from the neck to the hand. Sometimes a numb or prickling feeling is part of it. Muscle pain, by contrast, is dull, local, and feels like muscle soreness after exertion. That difference matters, because it says something about the cause and therefore about the approach.

Causes of nerve pain

• A pinched nerve in the back, neck, or shoulder: tension or blockages can put pressure on a nerve and cause tingling or radiating pain.
• Disc radiation: a bulging disc can irritate a nerve root, causing radiating pain in the leg or arm.
• Piriformis syndrome: a tight piriformis muscle in the buttock can compress the sciatic nerve and cause buttock pain radiating into the leg.
• Carpal tunnel syndrome: a pinched nerve at the wrist causes tingling hands, especially at night.
• Nerve inflammation: sometimes a nerve itself is inflamed; that usually requires an assessment by your GP.

What can you do yourself?

• Vary your posture and take regular breaks during long sitting.
• Mind your workstation: wrists and neck in a neutral position reduce pressure on nerves.
• Move at a relaxed pace; do not force painful movements.
• Painkillers can help temporarily, but always discuss use and dosage with your GP or pharmacist; nerve pain responds differently to painkillers than muscle pain.
• For tingling hands at night, letting the wrist rest in a neutral position can help.

When to see a GP

Most nerve pain is harmless and well treatable. A few signals we always discuss first — with your GP or with us:

How can a chiropractor help with nerve pain?

During your first visit you go through a fixed approach, so you know exactly where you stand:

1. Intake: your story — where the pain or tingling is, how it started, earlier complaints and lifestyle.
2. Physical examination: we look at your posture, the mobility of the back, neck, shoulder and hip, and map the radiation pattern of the nerve pathway with neurological tests (strength, sensation and reflexes).
3. What we look at: which nerve pathway is irritated and why — for example from a herniated disc, a trapped nerve or tense muscles — and whether chiropractic care is appropriate or your GP or neurologist is the better first step.
4. Treatment: targeted mobilisation of the involved joint and muscle relaxation, so the pressure on the nerve can decrease.
5. Treatment plan: what we do, how often, and which exercises you can do yourself.

For nerve pain from the back — radiating leg pain or sciatica — staying active remains the advice: a Cochrane review found an advantage for staying active over bed rest, also in sciatica. The NICE guideline for low back pain and sciatica advises a medical assessment for persistent or progressive complaints. There is also research that spinal manipulation can help some people with nerve pain from the back: a randomised study found that sixty percent of people with sciatica from a herniated disc improved to the same degree with spinal manipulation as with surgery, and a 2025 systematic review found that manipulation can reduce pain and disability in radiculopathy in the short and medium term.

When the cause is musculoskeletal, chiropractic care can help reduce the pressure on the nerve; we see many people with radiating nerve pain notice the pain decrease after a number of treatments. What the approach means for you, we determine honestly together during your first visit. For structural neurological causes we refer you on honestly; chiropractic does not replace neurological care. In Rotterdam, Alphen aan den Rijn, and Amersfoort we regularly treat nerve pain from neck and back complaints; plan your first visit at the clinic near you.