Meralgia Paresthetica – Could Skinny Jeans be the Culprit?
Recently, I had my first client with meralgia paresthetica. I hadn’t come across that before, so I googled it. I read that it occurs when the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve (a sensory nerve) becomes trapped. The pain can be intolerable, as those of us who have felt nerve pain — it can feel like fire ants crawling up and down your leg or red hot pokers jabbing you, very unpleasant. The causes listed online included tight clothing (I suspected that skinny jeans were bad for our health ), obesity, pregnancy, scar tissue, seat belt injury.
I’m often curious about the reasons given for ailments, conditions, itis’s, etc. What I’ve yet to see are tight muscles as the potential problem. Obesity? Really? Talk about making someone feel even worse about themselves! I see just as many thin people as not.
I always start my investigation with a mind toward where’s the lingering “background” muscle tension in the body (being held in the brain)? This tension typically “hides” in muscle after surgery, an accident or some physical trauma, or it could be usage-based such as long periods of sitting or intense cycling, but it’s definitely not something you consciously do with your body.
It’s my job to help shed the fear, and sometimes self-loathing that doesn’t help the situation, and teach the client what moves to do everyday to reset this tension level, lowering it until it fades away. First the pain subsides, then the tension, then full range of movement returns. It’s a process, but one that really works, assuming that muscles are the culprit. So don’t despair when you find yourself with a health problem that seems impossible to work with. Muscles are the most misunderstood topic in health care today. You do have the power to reset, and only you. You have to change your brain, no one can do it for you.
