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Numbness and Tingling

Numbness and Tingling

Imagine a four-year-old girl who’s sound asleep. Her left arm is contorted behind her neck. Her right hand is twisted into the small of her back. Her head is pinched up against her right shoulder, and her legs are crossed at the ankles.

Yet when she awakens, she won’t feel numb. She’ll have none of the tingling pins-and-needles sensations that many adults would experience. But give her time—say, 60 years—and her mangled nerves probably won’t be so forgiving.

Numbness and tingling become more common as you get older for at least a couple of reasons, says Mark E. Williams, M.D., author of The American Geriatrics Society’s Complete Guide to Aging and Health and director of the program on aging at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. First, your body’s nerves are an intricate road map comprised of superhighways, side roads, and a maze of intricate paths. These tortured and tangled avenues lead through tiny tunnels between muscles, tendons, and microscopic holes in bone. As you age, many of these spaces shrink, compressing the nerves and making you more susceptible to numbness and tingling. In addition, many seniors tend to develop bone spurs (tiny, hard outgrowths on their bones) that press on nerves and aggravate them, says Dr. Williams.

If a minor problem like pressure on nerves is clearly causing your arm or leg to fall asleep, here’s what you can do to wake it up and prevent it from happening again.

Try This First

Fidget. Okay, so you don’t have to be a Rhodes scholar to figure out that if a body part falls asleep, you need to reposition yourself so there is less pressure on the pinched nerve. But what you may not know is how to prevent it from happening in the first place.

The key? Don’t allow your arms, legs, and other vulnerable body parts to remain in one position for too long, says Linda Morrow, M.D., medical director of Alexian Brothers Senior Health Center in San Jose, California.

If you’re watching television, for instance, take a few moments during each commercial break to uncross your legs, curl your toes, stretch your arms over your head, twirl your wrists, and slowly bend and unbend your fingers into your palms. This routine can prevent compressed nerves and lower your risk of numbness and tingling.

Other Wise Ways

Move the wallet. If you have numbness in a leg, maybe you’ve been carrying a thick wallet in your back pocket and its bulk is contributing to the problem, Dr. Williams says. Every time you sit down, that lump in your back pocket puts pressure on the sciatic nerve that runs along your buttocks and continues down the back of your leg. The solution? Find another way to carry your cash and credit cards.

Pop a multivitamin. A variety of vitamin and mineral deficiencies can cause nerve damage in older adults, Dr. Williams says. Take a multivitamin daily that includes zinc, chromium, folic acid, and 12 to help make up for any subtle deficiencies in your diet that may leave you vulnerable to numbness and tingling.

Quit smoking. Smoking reduces blood flow to your extremities and increases the likelihood that you’ll feel numbness and tingling in your arms, hands, legs, and feet, Dr. Williams says.