Nerve Pain and Neuropathy: When the Nerve Is Injured

By Monica Williams Advanced FSM Practitioner | Naturopath | IICT Member | 30 years in clinical practice | Maroochydore, Sunshine Coast QLD

In short: Chronic nerve pain — burning, shooting, electric-shock sensations, numbness, or hypersensitivity along a nerve pathway — is driven by inflammation and immune activity in the nerve itself, not simply by prolonged injury. One particular pattern, the nerve traction injury, behaves so differently from other nerve pain that it is frequently missed or mismanaged in conventional care.

There is a lot to know when we are talking about Fibromyalgia, and this article is written from an FSM perspective. It covers what neuropathic pain actually is, why nerve traction injuries are so distinct and so difficult to treat, the other common causes of nerve pain, and how working with the underlying nerve inflammation and original injury may support recovery.

Key Takeaways

• Persistent neuropathic pain is immune-mediated — driven by inflammatory cytokines acting on the nerve — rather than simply being prolonged acute pain [1][2]

• Inflammation is a necessary, protective process, but it is meant to switch off once an injury has settled; in chronic nerve pain, the vagus nerve's natural anti-inflammatory signal is often suppressed, allowing inflammation in the nerve to continue [6]

• Nerve traction injuries (stretch injuries to a nerve) are a distinct clinical pattern: constant pain with no position of relief, abnormal sensation but normal reflexes, and poor response to narcotics

• Lyrica, gabapentin, opioids, and standard physical therapy are often only partially effective for neuropathic pain, because they don't address the underlying immune and tissue drivers

• Post-surgical nerve adhesions and scarring can produce chronic neuropathic pain years after the original procedure [3]

• FSM works to calm nerve pain while addressing the chronic drivers - In clinical practice, clients with chronic nerve pain — including traction injuries and post-surgical nerve pain — have experienced meaningful reductions in pain with FSM therapy addressing both the nerve inflammation and the original injury

1. What Nerve Pain (Neuropathic Pain) Actually Is

Neuropathic pain is pain that originates from injury or dysfunction in the nerve itself, rather than from the muscle, joint, or tissue the nerve travels through. It has a recognisable character that sets it apart from ordinary musculoskeletal pain:

• Burning, searing, or electric-shock sensations

• Shooting pain along a clear nerve pathway

• Numbness or tingling

• Hypersensitivity to light touch (a normally painless stimulus, such as clothing, becomes painful)

• Pain that doesn't track neatly with movement or load in the way muscular pain usually does

Standard management typically includes lyrica, gabapentin or pregabalin, opioid pain medication, and physical therapy. For many people these provide some relief — but for a large proportion, the relief is partial at best. Gabapentin's side effects often limit how much can be tolerated. Opioids are frequently disappointing for neuropathic pain specifically, because the mechanism driving it isn't the one opioids are designed to interrupt. Physical therapy can be limited simply by how much pain the person can tolerate during treatment.

Most available approaches manage the pain rather than addressing what is generating it.

2. The Immune System Connection: Why Nerve Pain Persists

Understanding why neuropathic pain becomes chronic starts with recognising that it isn't simply "acute pain that didn't go away." Persistent neuropathic pain is immune-mediated. [1]

When a nerve is injured — through trauma, mechanical stretch, disc irritation, viral insult, or vascular compromise — the area becomes inflamed, and that inflammation is what keeps generating pain signals long after the original injury.

In clinical terms: mast cells, neutrophils, and macrophages activate in and around the nerve, releasing inflammatory cytokines including interleukin-1, interleukin-6, and TNF-alpha, along with prostaglandins. [1][2] TNF-alpha in particular opens sodium and potassium voltage-gated ion channels in the nerve membrane, generating the abnormal nerve signals (nociceptive action potentials) that travel up to the spinal cord and brain as pain. [2] At the same time, this inflammation reduces ATP production within the nerve itself, impairing its capacity to function normally and repair.

In layman's terms: immune cells flood into the injured nerve and release chemical messengers that directly irritate its wiring, putting it into a state where it fires pain signals more easily and more often. The same chemical flood also drains the energy the nerve needs to calm itself down and heal — so the nerve ends up both irritated and under-resourced to recover.

Why doesn't the inflammation switch off?

Inflammation itself isn't the problem — it's the immune system's primary tool for healing a wound, fighting infection, and clearing damaged tissue. The issue is balance. Without enough inflammation, an injury can't heal properly. With too much, for too long, the same process that was meant to protect the nerve keeps it activated long after the original injury has settled.

Under normal circumstances, the body has a built-in mechanism for switching inflammation back off once it's no longer needed. The vagus nerve carries signals to the brain when injury or infection occurs, and once the threat has passed, sends signals back down to immune cells instructing them to stand down — reducing cytokine production and allowing inflammation to resolve. [6]

This is part of why chronic stress, and a nervous system that stays in a state of alert, are so closely linked to nerve pain that won't settle. When the body perceives ongoing threat — whether genuine or simply a nervous system stuck in high alert — that vagal "stand down" signal is suppressed. Inflammation that should have resolved within days or weeks instead persists, continuing to drive the nerve.

This is why neuropathic pain so often persists well beyond the point where tissue healing "should" have occurred. The original injury may have resolved structurally, but the immune activity and inflammation in the nerve — and the signal that's supposed to switch it off — has not.

Professional Insight — Monica Williams, Naturopath & Advanced FSM Practitioner (IICT): Clients are often told their imaging looks fine, or that enough time has passed that the pain "should" be gone. But neuropathic pain isn't really a healing timeline problem — it's an inflammation problem that hasn't received the signal to stand down. In my clinical experience, that's almost always tied to a nervous system that's still bracing, whether the person is consciously aware of it or not. Until both the nerve inflammation and that underlying signal are addressed, the nerve keeps firing regardless of how much time goes by. Once this happens, remarkable things typically follow.

3. Nerve Traction Injury: A Distinct and Often Misunderstood Pattern

A nerve traction injury is a stretch injury to a nerve — the nerve has been pulled or stretched beyond its normal range, rather than compressed or irritated by a disc. It's a mechanism that conventional medicine finds particularly difficult to treat, largely because it behaves quite differently from other forms of nerve pain.

Common causes include motor vehicle accidents, falls, sudden awkward movements, birth-related brachial plexus injury, and post-surgical positioning where a limb or nerve is held in a stretched position for an extended period.

Pain Pattern - The clinical pattern is recognisable once you know what to look for:

• Pain is generally constant, with no position that brings relief

• Pain is worse with any movement that stretches the affected nerve

• Sensory testing is abnormal — typically hyperaesthesia (heightened sensitivity) or numbness

• Reflexes, in contrast, are usually normal — distinguishing it from injuries involving nerve root compression

• The pain responds poorly to narcotics and may be only partially helped by gabapentin

• The nerve does tend to heal over time, but this can take years, and in some cases healing remains incomplete

Feature	Nerve Traction Injury	Disc-Related Nerve Pain
Mechanism	Stretch injury to the nerve	Mechanical and inflammatory irritation from a disc bulge
Pain pattern	Constant, worse with stretching movement	Often varies with position and load
Position of relief	None	Sometimes eased by flexion or extension, depending on level
Sensory exam	Abnormal (hyperaesthesia or numbness)	Abnormal, typically in a dermatomal pattern
Reflexes	Usually normal	Often reduced or absent
Typical course	Gradual; can take years; sometimes incomplete	Improves as disc-related inflammation resolves, often over weeks to months

In published case series of patients with chronic neuropathic pain, those with traction injuries as the underlying mechanism generally required fewer treatments to recover than those with disc-related injuries, which tend to need more time because the disc and surrounding ligaments need to heal as well. [1]

4. Other Common Causes of Neuropathic Pain

Nerve traction injury is one distinct pattern, but neuropathic pain has several other common origins:

• Discogenic — a disc bulge creates both mechanical pressure and inflammatory irritation of the nerve root.

• Post-herpetic / viral — pain that persists after shingles (post-herpetic neuralgia) or follows other viral insults to a nerve.

• Diabetic and vascular — ischaemia in the small blood vessels supplying peripheral nerves, driven by inflammation and poor circulation, leading to nerve damage and the burning, numb feet characteristic of diabetic peripheral neuropathy.

• Post-surgical adhesions and scarring — scar tissue forming around a nerve following surgery can tether and irritate it for years afterward. In one published case report, a patient with a ten-year history of pain and restricted movement following ulnar nerve transposition surgery — who had already completed eleven sessions of standard physical therapy without resolution — experienced complete resolution of pain and symptoms after three sessions of FSM, remaining symptom-free at one-year follow-up. [3]

• Autoimmune and inflammatory insults — where the body's own immune activity targets nerve tissue directly.

5. Why Standard Treatment Often Falls Short

The common thread across conventional neuropathic pain treatments is that most of them manage symptoms rather than addressing the underlying immune activation and original injury:

• Lyrica, gabapentin and pregabalin reduce nerve excitability, but side effects (sedation, dizziness, weight gain, cognitive fog) often limit the dose that can actually be tolerated

• Opioids work on a different pain pathway and are frequently disappointing specifically for neuropathic pain

• Physical therapy can be limited by how much movement and stretch the pain allows

None of these directly address the cytokine and immune activity driving the nerve inflammation, nor the original mechanical injury — the disc, the traction, the scar tissue — that started the process. This is part of why neuropathic pain has such a high rate of becoming chronic, and why so many people end up cycling through medications and therapies that provide partial, temporary relief.

6. When This May Be Relevant to You

This approach may be worth exploring if:

• You have chronic burning, shooting, or electric-shock nerve pain that hasn't responded fully to standard treatment

• Your pain began after a fall, motor vehicle accident, surgery, or other injury involving a stretch or pull on a limb or nerve

• You experience numbness, tingling, or hypersensitivity along a nerve pathway

• You have a diagnosed disc injury with ongoing nerve-type symptoms

• Gabapentin or pregabalin has provided only partial relief or unwanted side effects

• You have persistent pain or restricted movement following surgery, particularly where scar tissue or adhesions are suspected

• You have pain that has continued long after a shingles rash has cleared

7. How FSM Therapy May Support Recovery

Frequency Specific Microcurrent (FSM) therapy uses gentle, sub-sensory electrical currents paired with specific frequencies to support the body's own repair and regulatory processes. In the context of nerve pain, the approach is built around the mechanisms described above:

• Reducing nerve inflammation — specific frequency combinations target inflammation in and around the nerve itself, addressing the immune activity that keeps the nerve signalling pain.

• Supporting the nervous system's own switch-off signal — where chronic stress or a nervous system stuck in high alert is part of the picture, frequencies supporting vagal and nervous system regulation work to restore the body's natural capacity to stand inflammation down, rather than leaving it switched on indefinitely.

• Supporting nerve function — microcurrent has been shown to increase ATP production in tissue, supporting the nerve's own capacity to function and repair. [4]

• Addressing the original injury — rather than treating the nerve in isolation, treatment also addresses whatever started the process: the disc, the traction injury, the post-surgical scarring, or the inflamed tissue around an old injury site.

• Working with the specific pattern — because traction injuries, disc-related pain, post-surgical adhesions, and diabetic neuropathy all have different underlying mechanisms, the approach is tailored to which pattern is present.

In a published case series of patients with chronic neuropathic pain, pain scores were significantly reduced within the very first treatment session, with further reductions over subsequent visits. [1] In clinical practice, clients presenting with nerve traction injuries, post-surgical nerve adhesions, and disc-related nerve pain have experienced meaningful and often rapid reductions in pain using this approach, including in cases where standard physical therapy had already been tried without success. [3]

Sessions are typically 90-120 minutes and the work is gentle and non-invasive. For more on what to expect, the FSM FAQ is a useful starting point.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is FSM therapy for nerve pain available in Queensland, Australia?

Yes. Healthier by Choice is located in Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, and sees clients from across South East Queensland including Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast, and the Noosa region. A free 15-minute phone consultation is available to discuss your situation and whether this approach may be appropriate.

Do you see interstate clients for FSM?

Yes. Interstate clients often stay in Maroochydore, Cotton Tree, or Mooloolaba and combine treatments with a mini break on the Sunshine Coast. Treatments can be received daily or every second day as a treatment bundle. Because FSM works at the causative level, the effect of each treatment continues to unfold over the following weeks — improvements are felt both immediately after sessions and continue to develop over time.

What's the difference between nerve pain and a nerve traction injury?

Nerve pain (neuropathic pain) is a broad category that includes any pain originating from nerve injury or dysfunction — it can stem from a disc bulge, surgery, viral infection, diabetes, or other causes. A nerve traction injury is one specific mechanism within that category: a stretch injury to the nerve itself, typically from trauma, a fall, or an awkward pull on a limb. It tends to present as constant pain with no position of relief, alongside abnormal sensation but normal reflexes — a pattern that distinguishes it from disc-related or compressive nerve pain.

Can nerve traction injuries fully heal?

Often, yes — but it can take time, sometimes years, and conventional physical medicine has few effective tools for speeding the process. In clinical practice, traction injuries have generally responded more quickly to FSM therapy than disc-related neuropathic pain, though the timeline still depends on the severity and duration of the injury.

How many sessions would I need?

This depends on how long the nerve pain has been present, the underlying mechanism (traction injury, disc, post-surgical scarring, or other), and your general health. Many clients notice a reduction in pain within the first session or two, with further improvement over a course of treatment. Longstanding disc-related or post-surgical nerve pain generally requires more sessions than a more recent traction injury, as the surrounding tissue also needs time to heal.

Ready to Talk?

If nerve pain, numbness, or a previous injury has left you searching for answers beyond medication management, a conversation is a good place to start.

Email us to book your free 15-minute discovery call

A nerve that's still inflamed will keep talking until the why is addressed.

About the Author Monica Williams is a naturopath and Advanced FSM practitioner with over 30 years of clinical experience. A member of the International Institute for Complementary Therapists (IICT), Monica completed advanced training in Frequency Specific Microcurrent through the Frequency Specific Seminars programme founded by Dr Carolyn McMakin. She works with people navigating complex and chronic health conditions at her Maroochydore clinic on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland.

References

[1] McMakin C. Nonpharmacologic Treatment of Neuropathic Pain Using Frequency Specific Microcurrent. The Pain Practitioner. 2010;20(3):68-73. View article

[2] Bennett GJ. A neuroimmune interaction in painful peripheral neuropathy. Clinical Journal of Pain. 2000;16(3 Suppl):S139-143. View on PubMed

[3] Adams J, McMakin C. Frequency specific microcurrent resolves chronic pain and adhesions after ulnar transposition surgery. Journal of Novel Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation. 2017;1:099-103. View article

[4] Cheng N, Van Hoof H, Bockx E, et al. The effect of electric currents on ATP generation, protein synthesis, and membrane transport in rat skin. Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research. 1982;171:264-272. View article

[5] McMakin CR, Gregory WM, Phillips TM. Cytokine changes with microcurrent treatment of fibromyalgia associated with cervical spine trauma. Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies. 2005;9(3):169-176. View abstract

[6] Breit S, Kupferberg A, Rogler G, Hasler G. Vagus Nerve as Modulator of the Brain–Gut Axis in Psychiatric and Inflammatory Disorders. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 2018;9:44. View article

The content in this article is provided for general educational information and is not a substitute for personalised medical or mental health advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Please consult your healthcare provider regarding your individual health needs.