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The Fifth Principle5. Walter Cannon’s Law of Denervation Supersensitivity Walter Cannon was a professor of physiology who died before the release of his medical paper The Supersensitivity of Denervated Structures could become well known. His ground breaking paper came out with a whimper in 1949 and has almost died except for a small group of pain doctors who are trying to revive it. I will attempt to explain some of the implications of denervation supersensitivity. Cannon’s law basically asserts that tissues become "supersensitive" when their nerve supply is affected. My explanation is that all tissues crave nerve supply, as we are vertebrates by design. Without a normal, constant signal, our body's tissues become irritable or supersensitive. Therefore, if you pinch a nerve in your low back (a form of neuropathy), all the tissues in your leg and back will be affected in some abnormal way. The general response will be electrical supersensitivity. For example, skeletal muscle becomes persistently spastic or short when it’s nerve supply is interrupted or pinched. Therefore if you pinch a nerve in your low back, the muscles of the leg, calf and foot will shorten and they will stay that way until the nerve supply is returned to normal. Other tissues such as skin, blood vessels and even hair will respond to neuropathy or nerve damage in a typically unfavorable fashion. I want you to remember that muscles tighten when their nerve is interrupted and that these tight muscles will then be susceptible to scarring and even more injury.
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