If Your Legs Go Numb When You Walk and You Keep Having to Stop

If you can't make it around the supermarket in one go

The supermarket isn't that far. But at some point, you stopped being able to get there in one go.

As you walk, your legs go numb and feel so heavy they could burst, so you stop and pretend to look at the shelves. After a short rest, you can walk again. So you wonder whether it's worth seeing a doctor, but you can feel the gaps between rests getting shorter.

What we often hear

• "My legs go numb when I walk, so I keep having to stop."
• "My back doesn't really hurt, but my legs go numb."
• "The gaps between rests seem to be getting shorter."

This pattern has a name

Neurogenic claudication. Your legs go numb when you walk, recover when you rest, and go numb again when you walk again.

It often shows up when the passage for the nerves running from the lower back to the legs has narrowed. The most common cause is spinal stenosis.

"But my back doesn't really hurt."

Many people say this. That's what's typical about this problem. It's a condition where the legs speak up before the back does, so it's easy to put it down to your legs, poor circulation or age and let it go for a long time.

Three clues you can check at home

One: does sitting make it better?

Bending forward widens the narrowed passage a little. That's why the numbness eases when you sit or squat.

Two: is going downhill harder than going uphill?

Going uphill, your body leans forward, so walking is actually easier. If it gets more numb going downhill, when your back straightens, that's a clue pointing to stenosis.

Three: can you walk longer pushing a stroller or shopping cart?

Holding a cart naturally bends your back forward. If walking gets easier in that position, it's the same principle.

If you find yourself nodding at all three, that's reason enough to get checked.

But these are only guesses, not a diagnosis. Where it's narrowed and by how much, and whether there's another cause, can only be known by looking at imaging. We decide on the direction of treatment after checking in partnership with the radiology clinic on the 2nd floor of the same building.

"If it's stenosis, does it end in surgery?"

This is the question people worry about most. Here's what research tells us.

In a study that followed people with stenosis for more than 11 years, similar proportions improved, stayed the same and got worse. That means it's not a condition that always gets worse if left alone.

There's also a study that followed 378 people with stenosis for about 3 years after they were admitted to a Korean medicine hospital and received integrated treatment with acupuncture, pharmacopuncture, Chuna and herbal medicine.

• More than half had already been advised to have surgery before being admitted
• But only 1 in 10 actually went on to have surgery
• The time they could walk without pain went from 19 minutes to 48 minutes, and stayed there

But sometimes surgery comes first

These three are signs you must not put off.

• Weakness that keeps you from lifting your toes or the top of your foot
• Changes in bladder or bowel control
• Abnormal sensation on the inner buttocks

If you have even one, close this article and go straight to a hospital that can do a surgical evaluation.

If you don't have those signs, here's the order we follow

First, we check with imaging. We start by confirming whether it really is stenosis, where it is and how severe, and whether there are any emergency signs.

Next, we treat to increase how long you can walk. We use acupuncture and pharmacopuncture to deal with pain and inflammation, and Chuna to correct a misaligned lower back. And we make walking part of the treatment. Together we work out how to rest before the numbness starts and then walk again, and even how to use a back brace. There's research suggesting a back brace can help increase walking distance in stenosis.

It's not treatment that tells you not to walk. It's treatment that gets you walking.

And we check by walking time. We don't judge whether stenosis treatment is working by whether your back hurts less. We judge it by how many minutes you can walk without stopping. We measure it on the first day and compare at every visit.

If this number doesn't increase, we don't repeat the same treatment. If needed, we'll recommend a surgical consultation first.

What we're aiming for

A walk where you set out without planning where to rest. A shopping trip where you get around the supermarket in one go.

What we're aiming for is those ordinary steps.

How much it improves varies from person to person depending on how narrowed it is, your age and muscle strength. But the starting point is always the same: finding out why your legs are going numb.

If the gaps between rests have been getting shorter lately, get it checked before putting it down to age.

For questions or appointments, message us in English through the messenger at the bottom right of the page, or call +82-53-716-1175.

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If you'd like to see the cited research along with the references, we've summarized it in the director's column Spinal stenosis: is surgery the only option?.