What Are Pins and Needles? 📌

Morning pins and needles!

You know that weird tingling, stabbing sensation you get sometimes?

That feels a bit like this:

It’s commonly known as “pins and needles”, but scientifically known as Paresthesia.

But why does it happen?

Let's say you're just sitting cross legged… for whatever reason.

This will be putting a lot of pressure on the back of your thigh right here:

Where you’ve got these 3 hamstrings.

But in between these hamstrings you will find this little guy:

The sciatic nerve.

Think of nerves like the highways from your brain to the rest of your body.

And the traffic down these highways are nerve signals, or instructions from the brain telling you to: walk, wiggle your toes, breathe, or do anything!

But if you’re putting a little bit of pressure on this nerve by sitting cross legged for long enough.

This nerve kinda gets a traffic jam.

The brain signals can no longer be sent, so the nerve starts to shut down…

And THIS is why your leg starts going numb.

That's Paresthesia.

So you feel your leg going numb, and you’re like:

And then what do you do?

You get up!

But then… all of a sudden, as the pressure is released and the blood is able to flow…

The nerve highway starts moving again.

Sending signal after signal after signal.

It's suddenly rush hour!

But because your brain is kinda stupid it sees all these signals and interprets them as pain.

And you start getting these weird stabby feelings running all down your leg.

Aka pins and needles!!

Stay Cute,
Reece, Henry & Dylan 🌈

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