Sciatica Treatment
Sciatica symptoms generally include dull, aching, shooting or "burning" pain that starts in your lower back and/or buttock and radiates down one of your legs. The pain usually worsens with long periods of sitting or standing and extended bed rest. Other common symptoms of sciatica include numbness in the leg along the nerve and a tingling sensation (pins and needles) in the feet and toes. Like a large river created by smaller streams, five pairs of nerves exit the spine in the lower back to form the two sciatic nerves. While spinal discs can’t “slip,” they can bulge or herniate, putting direct pressure on the nearby nerves and resulting in sciatica. The pain from sciatica can become exacerbated with coughing and sneezing which confirms the problem is disc related.
Pain pills, muscle relaxers, epidurals, PT, and Surgery
Pain pills, muscle relaxers, and epidural injections may offer temporary relief. Still they cannot correct the nerve compression caused by bulging discs and vertebral subluxations, which is typically the cause of your sciatic pain. Physical therapy commonly treats the muscle without addressing the underlying cause of the pain. Surgery often involves cutting away disc tissue or removing bone to decompress the nerve, but it will not correct the subluxations that led to the problem in the first place. All of the options mentioned above generally address the symptom and not the cause of the problem. Fortunately, sciatica often responds to safe, natural chiropractic care. Restoring normal articular function and spinal biomechanics with chiropractic adjustments has produced positive results for millions. Many patients report that they can resume their normal activities of daily living and that their symptoms disappear without resorting to drugs or surgery.
How do you get Sciatica?
Tracing spinal problems to an event like a car accident is easy. Yet, sciatica is often the result of cumulative damage from chronic, uncorrected vertebral subluxations. Years of bad posture, poor muscle tone and excess weight can be contributing factors. In some cases, sciatica symptoms can get better over time without a chiropractor's help. However, it's best to seek chiropractic treatment to determine the underlying cause of your sciatica pain. Sciatica pain may be intermittent. You may think your condition is resolving itself, only to be unpleasantly surprised when the pain returns. Appropriate chiropractic intervention will correct the underlying problem and prevent it from recurring.
