Sometimes, you may suddenly feel numbness in your left arm or shoulder. Some people will also feel tingling pain in left arm along with numbness. It can be indicative of nervous disorder or poor blood circulation or due to electrolyte imbalance. Certain strong medications taken for psychotic disorders will also produce left arm numbness. By simple stretching exercise and gentle massaging one can manage this numbness easily. But if the same numbness is felt regularly and in chronic conditions then you need to seek immediate medical advice.
Causes :
Left arm numbness alone is not the symptom of stroke or heart attack. Heart attack will have other symptoms like shortness of breath, choking, palpitation, confusion and sweating. Further there would be squeezing pain in the heart. Stroke is the condition wherein the blood supply to the brain is abruptly stopped due to blood clot in the arteries that transport blood to the brain. This may cause left arm numbness. However stroke will have certain other symptoms like headache (moderate to severe), problems in vision and difficulty in walking and even speaking.
Crutch palsy is a type of nerve dysfunction can produce left arm numbness. It occurs mostly in people who are using clutches for walking. Here they exert pressure on the armpits which would gradually put pressure on the radial nerve inducing abnormal sensation causing numbness. In addition crutch palsy will have other symptoms like difficulty in moving the arm, and extending the wrist and intense pain in the left arm.
Fracture in the elbow or arm or even in fingers may cause numbness in left arm. It can occur due to nerve compression, ganglion cysts that affect joint movements and also due to angina. Sometimes, it can be caused due to simple reason of vitamin deficiency or over drinking.
Another factor that causes numbness in left arm is Cubital tunnel syndrome. It is also described as Ulnar nerve entrapment in which the ulnar nerve gets compressed while passing through the cubital tunnel in the elbow. If you have deep pain in the elbow and decreased grip in the arm along with numbness in left arm it can be due to this syndrome.