Category: Arm Arms

Many people experience numbness, tingling, or “pins and needles” sensations in their hands or arms — often brushed off as circulation issues or simple nerve irritation. But sometimes, these symptoms point to a deeper imbalance in the spine and nervous system. A case report published in the Annals of Vertebral Subluxation Research on October 20, 2025, shows how addressing this connection may restore comfort, movement, and quality of life.

A 34-year-old woman had been living with daily numbness and tingling in both arms and hands since childhood. The sensation was strongest in the mornings and often lasted for hours, making everyday activities — even holding a cup of coffee — difficult. She also noticed tightness in her upper back and neck, which worsened with long hours of studying at a computer. Despite years of coping, she had never found lasting relief.

A thorough examination revealed tension and reduced movement in her upper back, specifically around the middle of the thoracic spine. This area of the spine plays a key role in the body’s nerve pathways that control the arms and upper body. When motion in this region is restricted, nerve signals can become irritated or misdirected, leading to symptoms like tingling, numbness, or weakness — a condition known as vertebral subluxation.

The woman began a course of chiropractic care aimed at correcting subluxations and restoring proper movement and reducing stress on her nervous system. Over several months, she was evaluated regularly using thermal scans, posture assessments, and general health surveys to track progress. After just a few visits, she noticed that the morning tingling was shorter and less intense. Within three months, her symptoms had completely disappeared. Her overall energy and mental outlook also improved, suggesting that the benefits extended beyond her initial complaint.

Follow-up evaluations showed clear improvements in her spinal function and balance. Objective measures of nervous system activity — like thermal readings — normalized, indicating a more balanced state of nerve function. The patient reported feeling stronger, more mobile, and better able to manage daily tasks without discomfort. What began as a lifelong nuisance became an opportunity to restore health through gentle, consistent spinal care.

This case highlights an important message: symptoms like tingling or numbness shouldn’t be ignored. They may signal a deeper imbalance that, when corrected though chiropractic care, can lead to meaningful improvements in both physical and emotional well-being. Though this was just one individual’s story, it offers hope — and a reminder that the body has an incredible capacity to heal and adapt when given the right support.

The 2025 first-quarter issue of the Asian Pacific Chiropractic Journal published the results of a case series documenting the care of two patients who were helped by chiropractic who were suffering with severe pain as the result of having cervical disc herniations.

On their website, the Cleveland Clinic describes disc herniations as, “A herniated (slipped or bulging) disk occurs when the soft, jelly-like center of a disk in your spine pushes against and leaks out of its outer ring. This can lead to pain, numbness and weakness in your neck, back or legs.” They go on to further explain, “A herniated disk occurs when one of the disks in your spine (backbone) tears or leaks due to natural wear and tear or injury. This puts pressure on your spinal cord and irritates your spinal nerves, leading to pain, numbness and weakness.”

In this study, both these patients had confirmed cervical disc herniations. Both of the patients were suffering with severe pain that was interfering with their daily ability to function. Both had been told by their medical physicians that they should have spinal surgery. Specific chiropractic care was rendered to subluxations of each of these patients’ necks to see if there was a change in their symptoms.

The first patient was a 57-year-old woman who had disc herniations in her neck that had been confirmed by MRI. The woman was suffering with severe pain radiating from her neck into her shoulder and elbow, as well as weakness in her right hand. She experienced severe pain when she moved or when she was sitting in one place for more than 5 minutes.

The second patient was a 49-year-old man who was suffering with left sided body numbness and severe pain in the left shoulder that severely limited his ability to move his left arm. Additionally, he had pain and limited movement in the neck and was suffering with dizziness. His grip strength was weak in his left hand compared to the right, and he stated that his left arm felt heavy and numb. The man also had pain in the left pelvis area that radiating down his left leg along with leg numbness. These problems caused him to walk with an unsteady gait and a limp.

Both of these patients received specific forms of chiropractic care focused on removal of vertebral subluxation found in their necks. Both patients responded well to care and with a reduction and elimination of their symptoms.

The authors of this study summed up the results these two patients experienced and how it had a positive effect on their daily lives by stating, “Both patients are now off their medications and feeling much better, with no plans now to consider spinal surgery. Five visits and 5 weeks later both patients were back to full time work with a few cautionary restrictions. They are treated once or twice a month and have active lives again today, where interaction with their family and hobbies resumed to the full.”

The above title comes from the October 21, 2024, issue of the Annals of Vertebral Subluxation Research. The National Institutes of Health describe this condition by saying, “Fibromyalgia is a chronic (long-lasting) disorder that causes pain and tenderness throughout the body, as well as fatigue and trouble sleeping.”

The author of this study began by noting that “Fibromyalgia is a syndrome that presents with chronic widespread pain usually accompanied by stiffness, fatigue, headaches, poor sleep, paresthesia, anxiety, cognitive difficulties and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Fibromyalgia is one of the most common disorders seen by primary care physicians.”

The study reports that approximately 5 million adults are diagnosed with fibromyalgia in the United States. Although this condition can occur in children and adolescents, there is an increased prevalence of fibromyalgia with aging with the median age being 56 years old. Fibromyalgia is ten times more likely to be diagnosed in women than in men. When men are afflicted with fibromyalgia, the symptoms are more severe accompanied by higher depression levels, sleep apnea and worse overall health outcomes.

In this case, a 56-year-old man sought chiropractic care for his health concerns. At that time, the man was suffering from back pain and neck pain. He had been medically diagnosed one year previously with severe debilitating fibromyalgia. Additionally, he also complained of pain and tingling in his arms and forearms as well as a tingling sensation in his thighs that got worse with certain movements. His condition had an effect on his sleep and his daily activities. He would occasionally experience blackouts and, because of his pain, was unable to walk more than a few feet without having to stop and rest.

A chiropractic examination and spinal x-rays were taken. During the examination, the man was experiencing significant pain, and he exhibited a significant reduction in his ranges of motion. The conclusion of the examination was that the man had multiple vertebral subluxation complexes with a variety of additional components of subluxations. With this information, a series of specific chiropractic adjustments was started.

As his chiropractic care progressed, the man noticed ongoing improvement in all his symptoms. The study records that, eventually, he no longer needed his cane to get around and had an overall increased mobility. He stated that his adjustments “helped him function from day to day.” The study also documented that the man could stand upright without assistance, and he could now stand and sit for longer than thirty minutes at a time. His tingling stopped in his arms and significantly reduced in his thighs. He also no longer had the blackouts he was experiencing before starting chiropractic.

In summing up this case, the author wrote, “This paper describes improvement of function, mobility and decrease in pain in an adult male with fibromyalgia related symptoms that presented for chiropractic care. The findings presented in this case study suggest chiropractic adjustments may benefit patients who suffer from fibromyalgia syndrome.”

The Annals of Vertebral Subluxation Research published the results of a case study on May 16, 2023, documenting chiropractic helping a young girl who was suffering with Reactive Arthritis (ReA) and a host of associated pain issues.

According to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), “Reactive arthritis, as the name suggests, occurs in reaction to something—in this case, an infection. The condition is triggered by a bacterial infection in the digestive or urinary tract or the genitals, but arthritis symptoms typically do not set in until after you have recovered from the infection.” The NIAMS’s website continues by explaining that “The symptoms often clear up on their own within a few weeks or months, but they may become chronic (long-lasting) in some people.”

In this case, a 10-year-old girl was brought to the chiropractor to see if she could get help with her neck and upper back pain. The neck and back pain occurred in episodes and were very restrictive. When she was not in pain, the girl was very active and enjoyed rock climbing two days per week. The girl had been diagnosed with Reactive Arthritis (ReA) at three years old following a high fever due to an upper respiratory infection. After the infection, the girls started suffering with symptoms of chronic arthritis.

Since being diagnosed with ReA, the girls would experience recurring fatigue, neck, back, leg, arm, feet and hand pain, stiffness, and disability every three to four weeks. Occasionally, she would have a severe episode that would cause her to “freeze up” where she would be unable to move. One such severe episode while swimming almost resulted in the girl drowning. When in pain, she would have difficulty walking, putting on her clothes, playing, and would even be forced to crawl up stairs.

A chiropractic examination and x-rays revealed significant vertebral subluxations in the cervical and lumbar spine. With this information, a regime of specific chiropractic care was initiated to correct the subluxations.

The results of the chiropractic care for this girl were life changing. As care progressed, the girl became free of a her ReA symptoms and was able to resume a normal active life. In a follow-up three years later, the study reports that the girl was still free of her ReA pain and was “enjoying her life, able to perform activities of daily living without limitation, free of pain and disability.”

The authors of the study explained how correcting subluxation would help a case such as this as well as others with a wide variety of health issues. “Chiropractic vitalistic philosophy was born of the idea that a vertebral subluxation as a deviation of a vertebra from its normal position with respect to the adjacent vertebrae and that this vertebral misalignment can cause neurological interference, preventing the body from functioning optimally. The goal of chiropractic care is to correct vertebral subluxations, thereby removing neurological interference the allow the body to heal and function without impedance.”

A case study published on January 21, 2022, in the Journal of Pediatric, Maternal & Family Health documented the case of a baby who suffered with a rare form of seizures and was on multiple medications being help by chiropractic.

The National Library of Medicine’s MedlinePlus website describes a rare form of seizure and the medical inability to help. “Malignant migrating partial seizures of infancy (MMPSI) is a severe form of epilepsy that begins very early in life. Recurrent seizures begin before the age of 6 months but commonly start within a few weeks of birth. The seizures do not respond well to treatment. Although affected individuals may develop normally at first, progression stalls and skills decline when seizures begin; as a result, affected individuals have profound developmental delay.”

The study reports that the medical prognosis for infant with MMPSI is not good. “Long-term outcomes of individuals with MMPSI are poor, with infants who survive beyond 18 months having various levels of mental retardation and microcephaly. Only 83% of infants with MMPSI did survive beyond 18 months.”

In this case, a mother brought her 2-year-old son to a chiropractor to see if her son could be helped. At 6-weeks-old the infant started experiencing seizures that increased to about 20 episodes per day. The boy was suffering with severe developmental regression due to the seizures. It was not until he was 11 months old that the boy was medically diagnosed with MMPSI.

By the time the boy was brought to the chiropractor, he was having 15-20 seizures per day as well as very poor eye gaze/tracking, his arms were flailing, he was screaming and writhing with gross motor movements, and severe lack of muscle tone, which led to the inability of the boy to hold up his head, sit up, or speak. The boy was on multiple medications to try to help his situation.

A chiropractic examination including postural analysis, spinal palpation, and infrared thermography was performed. Spinal x-rays were also performed. The results of the tests revealed the presence of vertebral subluxation. With this information, and with the permission of the parent, age-appropriate specific forms of chiropractic adjustments were started.

As chiropractic care progressed, there was improvement in both the objective test as well as the quality of life as reported by the parents. After eight months of chiropractic care, the boy’s primary medical physician preformed a 24-hour EEG test which showed no seizures at all during that testing period. This was compared to the 15 to 20 seizures the boy was previously having prior to chiropractic. As a result, the primary medical physician took the boy off all medications.

In their conclusion, the study authors noted, “Chiropractic care that focuses on the reduction and correction of vertebral subluxation showed significant improvements in the function and quality of life of this child with MMPSI.”

The Annals of Vertebral Subluxation Research published the results of a case study in their journal on January 30, 2020, documenting the structural improvement of a woman’s spine who was suffering with arm pain, weakness, numbness, and tingling, known collectively as radiculopathy.

In most case studies, the focus of the researchers is the symptomatic resolution of the main complaints that the patient was suffering with when they first started chiropractic care. This published study focuses on the objective documented changes to the structure of this patient’s spine in addition to the symptomatic improvement the patient received.

According to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, “Cervical radiculopathy, commonly called a ‘pinched nerve’ occurs when a nerve in the neck is compressed or irritated where it branches away from the spinal cord. This may cause pain that radiates into the shoulder, as well as muscle weakness and numbness that travels down the arm and into the hand.” The study reports that cervical radiculopathy occurs in about 85 out of 100,000 people.

In this case, a woman was suffering with right arm numbness and pain, as well as tingling down into her fingers that started for two months prior to seeking chiropractic care. She went to her medical physician who took x-rays of her neck and prescribed anti-inflammatory medication, steroids, and performed an injection. She had also seen a physical therapist three times per week and had recently received an MRI.

A chiropractic examination was performed which included physical procedures as well as thermography of the spine and spinal x-rays. The results of these test along with the MRI that was previously done showed that there were degenerative changes with spinal cord narrowing in the woman’s neck. The chiropractic diagnosis was multiple areas of cervical subluxations. From this information, a course of specific chiropractic care was started to address the subluxations.

Inherent in the determination of a subluxation is the fact that vertebrae are out of their normal position and postural changes have often occurred. This case study specifically noted those changes and showed that in follow-up x-rays, there was a positive change in the physical positioning of vertebrae as well as the woman gaining symptomatic relief.

For the purpose of this study, the authors gave a definition of subluxation as the following; “A condition where a vertebra has lost normal juxtaposition with the one above or the one below or both, to the extent less than a luxation, occluding an opening, impinging nerves, and interfering with the normal flow of the mental impulses from the brain and tissue.”

In their conclusion, the authors noted that through specific correction of the subluxations found in this patient, there was improvement in both the patient’s subjective symptoms, as well as improved objective findings related to the structural spinal position as shown on follow-up x-ray studies.

On November 9, 2017, the Annals of Vertebral Subluxation Research journal published the results of a case study of a woman suffering with long-term multiple sclerosis (MS) being helped by chiropractic. Although rarely fatal, MS is an unpredictable disease of the central nervous system (CNS) that can range from a mild course of symptoms to steadily worsening or even disabling condition.

The study authors report that “Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is the most common disabling neurological disease of young adults.” Although there is no way to know what course this disease will take with any given individual, most patients seem to experience short periods of exacerbation of their symptoms followed by long periods of relief.

According to the study authors, there is a wide variety of possible symptoms associated with MS. These include numbness or weakness in one or more limbs that typically occur on one side of the body at a time, tingling or pain in parts of the body, electric-shock sensations that occur with certain neck movements especially bending the neck forward, tremors, lack of coordination or unsteady gait, slurred speech, fatigue, dizziness, partial or complete loss of vision often with pain during eye movement, prolonged double vision, and problems with bowel and bladder function.

In this case, a 39-year-old woman presented herself to a chiropractic office accompanied by her parents and an aide. Her first symptoms of MS began at age 19, when she first became partially blind in one eye. She was partially blind for several months and nearly lost her ability to see. She was then diagnosed with MS by a neurologist and confirmed by an MRI which showed active plaque formation. The woman was given prednisone which seemed to help for a while. One year later, the woman began to lose her ability to walk. Her legs continued to feel weak and she started feeling fewer sensations in the legs, upper body, hands and arms.

The woman’s condition continued to deteriorate to where she was in her apartment and her legs just gave way. She fell down and was stranded in her apartment for a couple of days until someone found her. From that point, forward she never regained the ability to walk, leaving her wheelchair bound without the ability to move her legs. Her condition continued to worsen, as she became unable to sit up in her wheelchair without assistance or hold her head up for more than a short period of time.

Chiropractic x-rays were taken specifically of her neck. Significant subluxations were noted and specific forms of chiropractic care were started multiple times per day along with physical rehabilitation. Over the course of a year of chiropractic care, the woman steadily showed improvement. Another MRI was performed that now showed no active plaques in the woman’s brain. The study also reports that her neurological signs also were improving.

Over the course of a year, the woman continued to show improvement and she began to regain sensations to her legs, which was followed with improvements in the movement of her toes and feet. Additionally she started to have control of her upper body where she was able to hold herself upright in her wheelchair, feed herself, comb her hair, put on make-up and put her own clothes on. She eventually improved to the point to where she was able to leave her wheelchair and walk using a walker.

Many of the woman’s other symptoms also improved including her partial blindness in one eye. Additionally, her abnormal skin sensations improved, she had no more migraine headaches, and she regained full function of her bladder and bowels.

In their conclusion, the authors summed up the success of this case by saying, “In this case study of a 39-year old female patient with a 20-year history of MS, subluxation-based chiropractic care decreased the neurological interference, which resulted in reduction of MS symptomatology and resolution of the active plaques and mass lesion in the post-MRI of the brain. Overall, the patient’s quality of life was improved based on the patient’s functional goals that were reached.”

The Journal of Pediatric, Maternal & Family Health published a case study on March 9, 2017, describing a patient who was having severe pain with no medical reason being found. The patient was referred to a psychiatrist but instead went to a chiropractor where she found relief.

The study begins by pointing out that throughout the history of chiropractic, many patients who found help under chiropractic were prior medical failures. The authors stated, “In more than a century of the chiropractic profession, anecdotes and testimonials are replete with describing the success of chiropractic care in patients with a history of non-responsiveness to medical care.”

In many cases where no medical reason for pain can be found, the patient is often sent for psychiatric evaluation and told they have conditions such as conversion disorder or hysteria, or simply told that their problem is “all in your head.” The patient in this case study fits this category.

In this case, a 16-year-old girl went to the chiropractor with her parents consent. Two days earlier, she had suffered an injury while throwing a discus. She reported that she heard and felt a “rip” upon release of the discus. She immediately felt a severe stabbing burning pain across her shoulders and lower neck. She rated the pain as a 10 out of 10 using a scale of 0 to 10 with 10 being the worst pain. Within 40 minutes, she reported that her left arm went numb and weak.

No chiropractic care was rendered at the time of her first visit and the girl went to an orthopedic specialist for further evaluation. She remained in a hospital for 8 days during which time an orthopedic evaluation was performed. This included an MRI which showed no findings. Because the the orthopedic tests did not find a reason for her pain, and because she had a past history of depression, the girl was discharged from the hospital and referred to a psychiatrist for evaluation. After 11 additional days, she returned to the chiropractor and chiropractic care was started.

Following her first chiropractic adjustment, the girl reported a 50% increased muscle strength within 1 hour of her visit. By her 4th visit, she reported that she had regained normal use of her left arm. However, she continued to experience neck pain and stiffness. By the sixth visit, her pain was gone and her full range of motion had returned.

Approximately 5 months later, the girl reported another injury after being hit on the head with a basketball. From this injury, she started to experience some of her initial symptoms, but not as severe. After one adjustment, the girl reported a complete recovery from her symptoms.

In their conclusion, the authors summed up this case by saying, “This case report described the successful chiropractic care of a teenager with vertebral subluxations and signs and symptoms not congruent with objective outcome measures. Such patients may benefit from chiropractic care despite the lack of positive medical testing to inform medical care.”