burning pain pins and needles in legs
If you are one of those people who have pain and tingling in your legs. If your foot is constantly tingling, and the pain and burning of your foot is a cause for concern. If you want to know what is the cause of these needle-like and unpleasant pains in your feet, read on.
We remind you that in most cases, tingling in the feet will not be a cause for concern, but if you are constantly experiencing these manifestations, it is recommended that you see a doctor for a thorough examination.
In this article, we intend to examine some of the more common causes that cause pain and tingling in the feet.
Tingling in the hands and feet is a relatively common complaint of people going to medical clinics. People are usually told that the pain and tingling will be temporary. In most cases, the inappropriate position of the body while sitting or sleeping will cause this unpleasant experience.
People who sits cross-legged, or for example sit on a chair for a long time with the back of their knee pressed against the front edge of the chair, may experience a tingling pain in the lower knee when getting up, which will be transient despite the pain and discomfort.
This is often due to the fact that in inappropriate positions, a lot of pressure is applied to the nerve behind the knee and other nerves that are responsible for the nerve in the legs, do not worry, as the pressure is removed from the nerve, your condition will gradually return to normal.
Tingling, numbness and needle-like pain in the legs are the most common causes of this pressure on the nerve fibers, which is a safe and non-harmful subject.
But if you are constantly experiencing tingling, numbness, and needle-like pain in your foot, the best and first step is to see a doctor to investigate the underlying cause.
A number of causes of acupuncture, numbness, and tingling in the legs are more serious and require more careful examination and treatment.
Doctors sometimes use the term tingling as a term for paresthesia.
In the following, you will read more about the causes of paresthesia in the foot.
Why do we suffer from needle-like pain, tingling and numbness of the feet?
The reasons that may cause paresthesia of the foot are as follows:
Physicians use the term peripheral neuropathy to describe the above conditions when nerves outside the spine are damaged and inflamed for any reason.
Neuropathy is composed of a combination of the two words neuro meaning nerve and pathy meaning disorder and injury, so neuropathy is used in the sense of nerve fiber damage, why peripheral neuropathy?
Doctors call the nerve fibers that are outside the spine and skull peripheral nerves.
Peripheral neuropathy is therefore equivalent to any type of injury or functional disorder in scattered nerve fibers outside the spine and skull.
Causes and conditions that will lead to peripheral nerves or peripheral neuropathy?
There are many different disorders and complications that can lead to peripheral nerve damage or peripheral neuropathy. In the following, we intend to introduce a number of these causes.
- Acupuncture and tingling pain in the foot due to pressure on the nerve or pinched nerve:
If there is swelling around the path of your nerve fiber or, for example, those areas are damaged and hematoma or bleeding occurs, the swelling and hematoma (which is actually the accumulation of blood) will put pressure on the adjacent nerve fiber and your nerve will be pinched.
All of them items below are causes of pinched nerves:
Hematoma of the tissue around the nerve fiber.
Tumor in the tissue around the nerve fiber
Swelling of the tissue around the nerve fibers
for example, the inflamed tendon, which is located next to the nerve fiber, swells during inflammation, and this swelling narrows the space for the nerve fibers to move, and will cause nerve fibers to be compressed.
Needle-like pain
Tingling
Pain in area
Movement restrictions
What treatment can be done to improve the pinched nerve?
In most cases, the pain and discomfort are reduced and eliminated by the following measures.
- Rest
- Anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs such as ibuprofen, naproxen
- Initiation of joint and muscle movements with reduction of pain and passing of acute phase
- In persistent and recurrent cases, it is necessary to consult a doctor.
- Poisoning and peripheral nerve damage:
Peripheral neuropathies following poisoning due to inhalation of toxic substances
Sometimes the cause of nerve tissue damage is damage due to toxins entering the body.
For example, swallowing a toxic substance or absorbing some toxins through the skin, or transmitting environmental toxins by inhalation.
Doctors consider the following substances to be a cause of peripheral neuropathies that can be associated with needle-like pain in the foot.
Arsenic poisoning
Thallium poisoning
Mercury poisoning
Antifreeze poisoning
It is emphasized that in case of exposure and poisoning with any of the above toxins, you should immediately go to an equipped medical center.
- Peripheral nerve neuropathy and alcohol:
We must say that alcohol is a toxin in itself, doctors say alcohol can have toxic effects on the nerves, in other words, alcohol is a powerful neurotoxin. Chronic consumption or excessive drinking of alcohol will lead to a complication called alcoholic neuropathy. Alcoholic neuropathy is one of the most common neurological complications in people with alcohol addiction.
Studies and statistics show that twenty-five to sixty-six percent of people who have been drinking continuously for many years develop alcoholic neuropathy.
Alcohol severely damages nerve fibers.
Needle-like pain and tingling and numbness of the hands and feet are possible in alcoholic neuropathy.
For the treatment and management of alcoholic neuropathy, the best action is to stop or limit alcohol consumption.
The process of quitting alcohol consumption should be done under the supervision of a physician.
- Diabetes and peripheral neuropathy:
Diabetes and needle-like pain and tingling in the legs.
Diabetics will be exposed to high levels of glucose in their bloodstream because they cannot get the sugar in their bloodstream into their cells. High blood sugar can damage the walls of arteries and cause inflammation. Over time, diabetic arteries will have many problems, and with the involvement of thinner arteries, which occur more rapidly, the nutrition of nerve fibers is disrupted, so nerve damage also occurs.
Diabetics develop peripheral neuropathy, which often first causes numbness and tingling in the hands and feet.
Diabetic neuropathy is sometimes referred to as glove and socks syndrome.
In other words, the most common form of nerve fiber involvement in diabetes will be peripheral neuropathy of the hands and feet or glove and sock syndrome.
Symptoms include:
Loss of sensation in the extremities of the arms and legs )the areas covered by gloves and socks(
Tingling in the extremities of the arms and legs
In people with uncontrolled and prolonged diabetes, burning in the legs can occur even at night while sleeping. These pains can be very annoying.
People with diabetes, if they smoke, develop peripheral neuropathy sooner and more severely.
Obesity increases the risk of developing peripheral neuropathy in diabetics.
Smoking a diabetic will increase the risk of developing peripheral neuropathy.
Hypertension of a diabetic person will also accelerate and intensify the onset and manifestations of peripheral neuropathy.
Diabetic neuropathy will not be easy to treat. Items below can be helpful:
Blood sugar control
Blood pressure control
Control of blood lipids
Quit smoking and alcohol
To relieve diabetic pain neuropathy, some of the following drugs are sometimes prescribed according to the patient's condition.
Carbamazepine
Lamotrigine
Gabapentin
Amitriptyline
In diabetic people, unfortunately, peripheral neuropathy, in addition to causing numbness and tingling in the feet, is accompanied by a lack of understanding of the position of the feet. This condition causes the feet of diabetic people to be very exposed to all kinds of injuries.
Signs and symptoms of diabetes
Get acquainted with some symptoms of Diabetes.
- Severe thirst
- Drinking and urination
- Excessive hunger
- Disorders and slowness of wound healing
- Vision problems
- Unreasonable weight loss
- Fatigue
Dietary modification in addition to physical activity along with injectable insulin or oral medications is necessary to control their blood sugar.
Repetitive strain injuries or RSI
When you do an activity for a long time or stay in a position. Of course, repetitive strain injuries are generally applied to the hands and upper limbs.
But it can also occur following bad and incorrect body positions when standing or sitting on the legs.
Symptoms of RSI:
- the pain
- Inflammation
- Muscle stiffness
- Muscle weakness
- Muscle spasm
- Tingling
- Needle-like pain
What can we do to help relieve pain and discomfort?
You can use the following to relieve pain and discomfort.
- Analgesics and anti-inflammatory drugs
- Cold compress
- bandage
What is associated with tingling in the legs?
- Anxiety and stress and tingling in the legs and pain in the legs:
When a person has an anxiety attack or a person experiencing a panic attack, they will develop hyperventilation.
Hyperventilation is very common in people with anxiety. The anxious person breathes fast.
Hyperventilation can completely disrupt the balance of gas, oxygen and Carbone dioxide flowing in the bloodstream. Following this imbalance of blood gases, tingling in the hands and feet will occur.
Doctors say that the anxiety and disturbance of the stressed person's mind may directly cause tingling and needle-like pain in the foot, and that the anxious person is more aware of his senses. In panic attacks, the person will suffer from acupuncture and tingling in the legs, mainly due to hyperventilation.
- Vitamins and tingling and needle-like pain in the legs:
Deficiency of the following vitamins is associated with acupuncture and warts and cramps in the hands.
Deficiency of the following vitamins is an important cause of paresthesia in the feet and hands.
Symptoms of deficiency of the above vitamins are:
- Vitamin 12 or Cobalamin
- Vitamin B6
- Vitamin B3 or Niacin
- Vitamin E.
- Vitamin B12 deficiency can lead to peripheral neuropathy.
- Fatigue
- Headache
- Short breath
- Vertigo
- Gastrointestinal problems
- Enlargement of the liver
Deficiency of anemia and psychiatric problems will also be evident. Dietary modification can correct the problem of vitamin deficiency. In cases of malnutrition or in the elderly, the injectable form of vitamin B12 can be used.
Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune and inflammatory disorder in which the membranes covering the nerves are damaged. The first manifestation of MS in many people can be numbness and tingling in the legs.
Other manifestations of multiple sclerosis include:
- Balance disorder
- Fatigue
- Body aches
- Sudden vision problems
- Continuous involuntary muscle spasm
- Urinary and bladder problems
- Cognitive impairment
- Sexual dysfunction
- Pregnancy and tingling in the hands and feet:
Pregnant women will often complain of numbness and tingling in the legs. The growth of the fetus and the increase in the size of the uterus cause pressure on the nerves that go down from the pelvis and innervate the legs, causing tingling in the legs.
It is better to improve these conditions:
Drink enough water
Change your sleeping and sitting positions regularly.
Keep your feet up.
In what cases should we see a doctor?
In the following cases, you must consult your doctor. Items below can be manifestations of kidney failure:
- Swelling of the legs
- Weakness of legs
- Weakness of the whole body
- Persistence and worsening of tingling in the legs.
- Kidney failure and tingling in the legs
- Muscle cramps
- Muscle weakness
- Tingling for hands and feet
People with diabetes and people with hypertension and some autoimmune disorders are at risk for renal failure.
- Arterial disorders, tingling and needle-like pain in the legs
As the arteries that supply our heart become narrowed and blocked, the arteries in the legs may become narrowed and blocked due to stiffness of the wall and the deposition of inflammatory substances in their wall (atherosclerosis).
Atherosclerotic stenosis of the extraocardial arteries is called peripheral arterial disease, or PAD.
Risk factors of the PAD:
- Diabetes
- Obesity
- Hypertension
- History of myocardial infarction
- History of cardiovascular accidents
- Family history
- Being a smoker
In arterial disorders of the legs, such as circulatory disorders, needles, numbness, numbness and tingling.
Turmeric is common.
- Strokes and paresthesia of the foot:
Paresthesia is a tingling or tingling sensation in the hands or feet that can be a manifestation of a stroke.
Other symptoms of a stroke include:
- Sudden imbalance
- Vertigo
- Sudden vision problems
- Sudden and acute speech problem
- Sudden Perception Problem
- Walking disorders
- Confusion
If you have one or more of the above with paresthesia of the foot or hand, call the emergency room immediately or preferably go to the nearest hospital immediately.
- Autoimmune disorders and foot paresthesia:
When a person's immune system mistakenly attacks the cells of a person's own body, we say there is an autoimmune disorder. Because this wrong activity of the immune system is associated with damage and inflammation and destruction of tissues in the body.
The following autoimmune disorders may be associated with tingling and numbness in the legs or arms.
Rheumatoid arthritis RA
Systemic Lupus Erythematosus SLE
Coelacanth disease
- Genetic diseases of peripheral nerves associated with foot tingling:
Charcot Marie Tooth (CMT) is a genetic disease that is associated with damage to the body's peripheral nerves. Peripheral neuropathy will cause clinical manifestations in the lower limbs.
Ten to thirty out of a hundred thousand people in the community suffer from this common inherited disorder.
Sometimes a genetic mutation occurs and a person with Charcot-Marie-Tooth neuropathy develops who has no family history. Boys five to ten years old are the most common. They are a group that shows the onset of symptoms.
Charcot-Marie-Tooth will show a calm and gradual demonstration.
It usually starts with thinning and weakness of the internal muscles of the sole of the foot.
Gradually, thinness and weakness reach the leg muscles.
The sensory disturbance first begins on the inside of the sole of the foot and gradually spreads to the leg.
The palms and forearms may also have the same symptoms.
In these people, in addition to peripheral neuropathy, which will be accompanied by acupuncture and tingling in the foot, the following manifestations and deformities may occur.
Increased arch of the foot
Creating hematoma on the toes
Bending the ankle down or drooping the ankle or equinus
Rotate the ankle inward
Lateral deviation of the spine
Claw hand
Affected people suffer from multiple falls while walking.
Shaking hands
Bruising of the fingertips
Sometimes the nerve fiber becomes so thick that it touches like a rope.
Sensory disturbance can lead to impaired sense of touch and burns and sores on the toes and fingers.
Laryngeal paralysis occurs in these rare cases, resulting in respiratory infections and aspiration pneumonia.