We all know that your joints move and your muscles contract and stretch. But did you know that your nerve tissue also needs to move freely and unimpeded?
If your neural tissue is impeded then pain or restriction of movement is a common result.
The good news is that you can quite quickly regain full neural tissue extensibility with an accurate assessment and treatment to the impeding structure, which is not usually the nerve but an interface that it the nerve should normally pass through.
Common examples of structures that can impede a nerve's movement include: a swollen joint or spinal disc bulge, muscle tightness or spasm squeezing a nerve, or a swollen compartment eg carpal tunnel syndrome.
Interestingly, neural mobilisation as a treatment doesn't actually involve stretching the nerve itself. Excessive nerve stretching can actually damage your nerves!
Rather than stretch your restricted nerve, your physiotherapist will assess you to discover any potential structures that are causing your nerves to be impeded. They will then treat that structure and retest your nerve mobility until your full neural mobility is restored.
The upside is that not only will your nerve move freely, but your pain will also disappear!
Research Support for the Neurodynamics Concept
The concept of neurodynamics or neuro mobilisation is originally based on the research by physiotherapists, Michael Shacklock and David Butler.
Over the past 20 years, further researchers such as Dr Michel Coppieters and Dr Alf Brief have added to the volume of scientific research supporting the hypothesis that your nerve tissue also requires full movement to remain for full pain-free function.
"Essentially the entire nervous system is a continuous structure and it moves and slides in the body as we move and the movement is related to critical physiological processes such as blood flow to neurones. This movement is quite dramatic and it is not hard to imagine that fluid such as blood in the nerve bed, a constricting scar, inflammation around the nerve or a nerve having to contend with arthritic changes or proximity to an unstable joint could have damaging effects, some of which could lead to pain."
"Neurodynamics is an innovative management tools involve conservative decompression of nerves, various neural mobilising techniques and patient education techniques. Neurodynamics offers a fresh understanding and management strategies for common syndromes such as plantar fasciitis, tennis elbow, nerve root disorders, carpal tunnel syndromes and spinal pain."
"Neuro mobilisation is a method of conservative treatment of disorders of neural tissue. The rationale for using neuro mobilisation in the treatment of musculoskeletal conditions is based on in vivo and in vitro studies which point to a high efficacy of neuro mobilization procedures. Appropriate use of neuro mobilization procedures depends on excellent knowledge of normal and pathological anatomy, differences between individual etiological factors, development of disease and symptom variability."
More information about Neurodynamics can be found here or ask your Physiotherapist.
Shacklock M 1995 Neurodynamics. Physiotherapy 81: 9-16. 2. Shacklock M 2005 Clinical Neurodynamics: a new system of musculoskeletal treatment, Elsevier, Oxford, UK.
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