Sometimes, you might experience that your foot or leg suddenly went numb or you feel tingling sensations on your feet. Sometimes the situations go so bad that you’re not even able to move your legs. Colloquially, we call this situation foot numbness but medically this condition is termed as Paraesthesia. If you’re also suffering from such a condition and want to know the reasons behind it, then this article can help you a great deal. Come let’s know what the reasons behind foot numbness or paraesthesia are.
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Whenever someone’s foot go numb, they feel tingling sensations, heaviness and needle pricking in their legs. But the real reason behind this situation is improper blood circulation to legs. Such situations arise when too much pressure is exerted on our nerves. These nerves are just like fine wires spread throughout our body. They work together to send signals from all over our body to our brain.
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When you sit with your leg rested on the other leg, it exerts pressure on our nerves. This ceases the blood circulation to our legs. It is not necessary that numbness can only be experienced in our legs. This can happen to any other part of our body as well. Hands and arms are usually numbed when we sleep on our sides. Our nerves are made up of cellular fibres. Each cellular fibre works to send different types of signals to our brain. The size of each fibre is also different from each other. The reason behind it is the Myelin, a membrane made of a white substance found in human body.
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If pressure is exerted on the nerves, enough amount of oxygen doesn’t reach the brain. Inadequate oxygen and blood supply to our legs cause the numbness. The numbness is often accompanied by needle pricking sensations and heaviness. Anybody can get affected by it. This is, though, not harmful for our health. But it does causes a mild discomfort for a short duration of time. As soon as the oxygen supply is restored, the numbness vanishes away.
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