I am confronted by people who explain to me that they are experiencing a burning sensation as the symptom they are concerned about. Inevitably they tell me they think it is a neurological symptom. Why? Because a diagnostic test found some type of structural variation at the spine namely stenosis, a herniated disc or a “pinched nerve”. Wallah! The powers that be state that since you are having a burning sensation and a structural variation is found on a diagnostic test, the structural variation must be creating the symptom. And since it happens to be that you were guided to see a neurologist, why of course the symptom must be from a nerve. This couldn’t be farther from the truth and is my primary contention why going to a specialist gives you somewhere around a 90% chance of being misdiagnosed. It is not to say that the specialist isn’t a nice person or a caring person. It is to say that their educational and clinical experience makes them completely incapable of identifying all possible causes of symptoms and can simply place your symptoms into one of the causes they are trained to find. So it can’t be shocking that any symptom described by a person followed by a diagnostic test being performed finding structural variations of the neurological system and interpreted by a neurologist designed to only identify neurological causes regardless of the described symptoms would lead to the finding that burning is neurological. I guess the case is closed. Let’s begin the epidural nerve blocks, a little Lyrica for good measure and finally a nice spinal fusion and your symptoms should be gone and you should be living a fully functional happy life. Unfortunately, my experience with thousands of patients indicates this scenario is far and very few apart.
Actually, I hear from people who have a burning sensation that has been treated to nauseum based on false diagnostic tests indicating that the cause is neurological. All the procedures and all the surgeries did nothing to offset the feeling of burning. There is a good reason for this. It is because the burning is actually being emitted from a muscle, not a nerve. Let’s all start to say this together. Burning is most cases is from a muscle. Now it is time to learn the logical reasoning for this sensation. Muscles when they contract, emit lactic acid as a by-product of contracting. If a muscle is efficient in it’s ability to contract along with all other muscles responsible to perform functional activities then the lactic acid development is reasonable and the ability to rid the lactic from the muscle is controlled and no sense of burning arises.
I need everybody to start thinking about burning just the same way I want you to think about pain. Both are indicators of muscle inefficiency. Whether pain or burning, the cause is the same. All the muscles required to perform functional activities are not strong enough or lacking balance which leads to a muscle straining or other muscles trying to compensate and eventually straining which leads to one of these symptoms. The strained muscle knots up binding the fiber together preventing the muscle from being able to reach its optimal length to create its optimal force. This makes the muscle very inefficient. As a result, the muscle begins to build up lactic acid excessively causing the muscle to emit a burning sensation. For most people experiencing a burning sensation I would assume that with rest and/or ice, the burning can be controlled until activity is performed requiring the strained muscle to have to work again and begin to elicit burning.
Another point to be made is where the burning is located and the extent of the area the burning is felt. I just had a conversion with a woman complaining of burning at the front of the shin to the lateral aspect of the shin bone, the tibia. Other’s have describe the burning at the lower back, between the shoulder blades, under the arm and so on. Look at this locations. You will see that the locations are associated with areas where muscles exist. Everybody has to start to learn that nerves run beyond joints. They are long and typically pass multiple joints. There is no nerve that provides sensory input just to between the shoulder blades or the front of the shin, or the lower back, etc. Also you can try to push on the tissue where you are experiencing the burning and I will bet you will be pushing on a muscle. I also would like somebody to explain to me what is causing the nerves that supposedly is responsible for these symptoms based on the medical establishment to elicit the burning. Are they simply going haywire arbitrarily? Is this a rationale you are willing to accept as a means of receiving treatment? Or does the idea that muscle straining due to an inability to perform daily activities make more sense. If it is muscle, then there should be physical indicators such as weakness of particular muscles, flexibility deficits, postural variations and functional testing limitations. The reality is that the body will be providing huge indicators what tissue is creating the symptom. You simply have to use and trust a method designed to interpret the body’s presentation of symptoms. This method must all be capable of identifying all potential causes of symptoms. This system is the Yass method and it is the only way to identify the true cause of your burning. If found to be muscular which is the case in the vast majority of cases, all that is needed to resolve the symptoms is targeted strength training.
It is your choice; the existing model with its long history of failure leaving millions stuck on pain medications, anti-convulsants and anti-depressants or the Yass method with an unparalleled history of success in identifying the true cause of symptoms and providing complete logic to its underpinnings. Remember, the system will not change for you. You will have to change the system. Share this will a friend or family member and save a life.