Please explain what referred nerve irritation is and what can cause it.

Question

please explain what referred nerve irritation is and what can cause it.

Answer

Referred pain is an acute sensation felt at a body location other than the location of the diseased or injured part of the body actually causing the pain.

For example the pain of a heart attack is commonly felt in the left arm, left shoulder or in the jaw.

Another example is the pain of an inflamed gallbladder which is perceived as pain at the point of the right shoulder blade.

The reasoning for this phenomenon is based on our development from early life. While we develop as a fetus in the uterus, the nervous system organizes from one central area. As we continue to grow the nervous system slowly spreads out, the nerve endings far from the origin of the nervous system. The convergence of nerves from different organs and body areas at one site in the nervous system allows 'misperceptions' of where the pain actually is coming from. A condition of super-sensitivity very often occurs in the referred zone, so that pain due to only minor stimulation is felt there more readily.

In the case of the heart, the nerves that innervate the heart originated around the upper left side of our body, our neck and left shoulder. When the heart is made to hurt such as a heart attack, the pain is often perceived at the ends of other nerves arising from the same place in the nervous system.

With a good knowledge of embryonic development, physicians are usually able to trace a perceived pain back to its actual organ of origin.