Read on: danhwilliams.com

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Amanda’s pain was coming from 3x places: 

• A Trapped nerve in her back radiating right down the back of her leg,
• The Muscle plugging into the outside of her hip,
• Her Hip joint radiating to her knee.

 
In clinic, our job is to work out which pain is coming from where
.. help people understand what they can do about each


Is it pain from a trapped nerve, the muscle (or tendon) or the joint itself?

Each body part has its own set of nerve, muscle (or tendon), joint or referred pain problems.

Amanda was suffering from what's commonly called trochanteric bursitis
..more accurately, gluteal tendonitis on the outside of her hip
(we hardly ever see an inflamed bursa at operation).

Jumpers’ knee affects the patellar tendon

Achilles’ tendonitis is painful behind the ankle

Supraspinatus or bicipital tendonitis are common around the shoulder

Golfers’ elbow  and tennis elbow affects the tendons on the inside + outside of the elbow. 

Any one of the 6 tendons that move the wrist and 18 tendons that cross it can become painful. Some more often than others.

Let's not go deep on treatment today, other than to write..

Tendon + muscle need to be loaded, like this..

Pain from each joint can be felt in or beyond that joint.
Referring its pain further down the body.


What causes referred pain?

Well, the nerve supplying the joint capsule will often supply a strip of skin lower down the arm or leg.

Inflammation in the joint pings its nerve.
Brain interprets that 'ping' coming from anywhere along the supply of that nerve.

Inflammation of Amanda’s hip capsule stimulated pain fibres of her femoral nerve.

Femoral nerve also supplies the skin down the front of the thigh as far as the knee.

So Amanda’s brain ‘thinks’ the signal is coming from anywhere above the knee.. as well as from the hip. 


In clinic, we work out what is what by carefully moving Amanda's hip
Amanda tells me where exactly she feels the pain. 


Move Hip = Same pain to knee = Pain coming from the hip.
 

Signals firing off from a trapped nerve are similarly interpreted by the brain.

Amanda feels pain shooting from her buttock down the back of her knee into her ankle and foot.

That's from the inflammation around the nerve in her back.
A 'trapped nerve' for short hand.

Similarly inflammation around a 'trapped nerve' in the neck shoots pain down the arm in a similar way.

Any one of five trapped nerves from C5 (C for cervical or neck) to T1 (T for thoracic or chest) can cause pain and numbness

Pain and numbness along its strip of skin down the arm, sometimes with weakness of the muscles it also supplies. 

Trapped nerves can literally be..

A real pain in the neck.
A real pain in the bum. 

That's the anatomy of pain checked off.

Next week..

🔥 INFLAMMATION 🔥

That'll be the 2nd Newsletter in this short autumn series.
Over the series, I plan to bottom out what really causes pain.

Perhaps get to how our massive human brain has inadvertently evolved to cause hip pain, particularly in females.

Anyone you know who wants a deeper understanding of their pain can subscribe for FREE at www.danhwilliams.com/#subscribe

..or hit the button at the bottom of this page.

AND, they'll also get a FREE copy of the key schematic that unlocks hip + knee pain.