What Can Cause Paresthesia?

You may be familiar with the medical word: paresthesia. It isn't actually a condition or a disease, but essentially a symptom that appears in a wide range of medical conditions. If you're not yet sure what it is, the sensation is one of numbness, pins and needles, tingling, etc. Sometimes it is described as a crawling feeling on the skin.

Before we begin the part related to some potential medical causes of paresthesia, let's get one point out of the way. Please do not take what you read on this page in the way that you would information from a doctor. I'm not able to give you advice or assistance on the level of a medical professional. What you find here is merely intended to be general in nature, not to be used as a substitute for a doctor's advice. Don't go out and try to treat a supposed condition or make a diagnosis based on anything you read here. Don't miss out on seeking assistance from someone with qualifications due to reading this page, either.

As for possible medical reasons for paresthesia, one of them is multiple sclerosis (MS). There is no cure for this disease, however, it can be treated and managed. It involves something known as demyelination, in which the myelin sheaths found in the spinal cord and brain are damaged. The possible causes of multiple sclerosis are unknown, although some factors that are thought to contribute have been noted.

Fibromyalgia, which is known as FMS, is another potential medical reason for paresthesia. As with MS, there is no particular cause that has been identified, nor is there a known cure for the condition.