What are Pins & Needles?

Nerves are constantly firing throughout the day - this is how you can ‘feel’ that your arm is there. This constant firing of nerve signals requires a constant supply of nutrients from the blood, particularly oxygen and glucose. However, when you sit or lay down in a funny position, you can put pressure on a blood vessel which supplies a part of the body with these nutrients. This can cut off the supply of oxygen and glucose to nerves, which means they cannot fire. At this point, your arm will feel dead. The nerves still want to fire, but are unable to. You can think of it a bit like a traffic jam of nerve signals building up. When blood flow is restored to that part of the body, the nerves are hyperactive and irritable, and try and release the traffic jam of nerve signals, which causes them to fire spontaneously. It is this spontaneous firing of the nerves which causes the sensation of pins and needles. The longer your arm is dead, then the bigger the traffic jam, and so the more intense the sensation can be. In some circumstances, pins and needles can be quite painful. Generally, pins and needles is a good thing, and shows that blood flow to a part of the body is being restored. However, there are some circumstances where it can indicate an illness, the most common being diabetes. So if you experience prolonged pins and needles, or experience it at times you thing you shouldn’t, it might not be such a good thing. I hope you enjoyed this video, and if you did please give it a comment, thumbs up, and subscribe, and if you want more information on this topic you can read about it here: http://randomlyresearched.com/what-are-pins-and-needles/