HOW DO I GET RID OF SCIATICA

What is sciatica?

Sciatica pain is typically felt like a constant burning sensation or a shooting pain starting in the lower back or buttock and radiating down the front or back of the thigh and leg and/or feet. These symptoms may be accompanied by numbness in the back of the leg.

Not all nerve pain is sciatica though! There are many, many causes of nerve pain. Some are more benign and some are more worrisome. This is something you need to trust your health professional in assessing.

Is sciatica caused by one thing?

In simplistic terms, no.

Sciatica is when the sciatic nerve becomes impinged, damaged or otherwise impacted; causing sciatic nerve distribution symptoms. The sciatic nerve has contributions from you lumbar and sacral vertebra (low back). Sciatica is thought to mainly occur from disc herniations, but this is not always the case.

The most common cause of sciatica…

The most common cause of sciatica is disc herniations or age-related degeneration, which is when your spine grows spurs and intrudes on the nerve roots coming out of the spinal column. Even though degeneration is inevitable throughout life, there are numerous modifiable risk factors that can lower the severity of it - for example; losing weight.

Most people know that muscle tightness can cause sciatica; the main culprit being the ‘piriformis’ muscle. For some, a tight piriformis will irritate the sciatic nerve, however, a small percentage of the population have their sciatic nerve pass through the muscle instead of underneath. These people are far more prone to these nerve symptoms and generally, muscle release and simple exercise give relief.

Other causes of sciatica or nerve pain include diabetic neuropathies, motor-vehicle accidents, tumours, spinal cord injuries, inflammatory conditions and numerous more.

Should I be worried about sciatica?

Generally, no. Unless you are experiencing leg weakness or other strange neurological signs, most forms of sciatica are treatable with conservative care – some of which make full recovery and could be 100% reversible.

How fast will your recover?

Some people feel immediate relief after soft tissue and chiropractic treatment. On the other hand, if the sciatica is chronic or caused by a long-term biomechanical dysfunction, rehab could take several weeks. One of our chiropractors will assess you and make a judgement call on what type of treatment you need, and for how long. Don’t be afraid to ask hard questions! If you’re worried about pain having a detriment on your work, financially or otherwise, talk with one of our chiropractors and we’ll go through the options; regardless of the injury you present with.

Some tips for everyone to try out!

If you have a foam roller or trigger point ball, try lying on an even surface and pressing your glute muscles onto the pressure. Try holding any stretch or trigger point for 30-60s, performing it several times over the day. It is a common misconception that exercise will make the low back and glutes tighter, but in fact, moving around and going for walks can reduced the stiffness and release the nearby structures!

If your sciatica is holding you back, contact DC Chiropractic and speak to Dr Dylan for an opinion!