Neuropathy (also known as peripheral neuropathy) isn’t just one health condition, but rather a term used to describe a wide range of conditions involving disease and damage to peripheral nerves, and the symptoms that result from those conditions. The peripheral nervous system transmits messages between the central nervous system (your brain and spinal cord) and the rest of your body.
Sometimes an injury or swelling can damage or put pressure on one or more nerves, disrupting its functioning and leading to neuropathy. “If an individual, for instance, has some kind of trauma to the spine, then that can cause damage and injury to either peripheral nerves or the spinal cord and result in neuropathy,” explains Vernon Williams, MD, a sports neurologist who is director of the Center for Sports Neurology and Pain Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute in Los Angeles.