Sciatica Treatment
Sciatica Treatment is aimed at achieving your goals. We want to get you moving, manage your pain and promote independence.
March 7, 2022
What Is Sciatica?
We’ve all heard the phrase, we all know it hurts, we know it can take a while and a load of people have it.
But the question is…
What Is Sciatica?
Anatomy of the sciatic nerve
Sciatica is, by definition, irritation or compression of the sciatic nerve.
The sciatic nerve is a nerve that exits the lower part of your spine, goes through the back of your pelvis and then runs down the back of your thigh, down below the knee to the lower leg and foot.
Nerves are our messengers between our brains and our bodies. The brain is the control centre and tells us what to do and when to move, and also takes all the information from sensors all over our body that give us all our sensations. Nerve issues can therefore give us a range of symptoms that may sound quite odd, but actually make sense when you learn what’s going on! Read on to find out what these symptoms can be.
The nerve takes branches from five different levels of your spine*. These branches leave the spinal chord between two vertebrae through little holes, then all join up to form the nerve. These are L4, L5, S1, S2 and S3**.
Because it runs down the BACK of your pelvis, symptoms are in the same area. The nerve supplies your muscles, skin and everything else in these areas!
*a ‘branch’ of a nerve is a little part of it; think of the nerve like a piece of rope containing lots of individual fibres…the fibres are the branches and the whole rope is the nerve).
**‘L’ stands for Lumbar spine, ‘S’ stands for sacrum, and the numbers correlate with the level of those spinal sections. Eg L4 is the fourth lumbar vertebra. These names help us know what part of the spine people are talking about!
Sciatica symptoms-not as odd as you think
Now you understand that sciatica means irritation of the nerve, and you know where the nerve goes, the symptoms actually make sense.
Remember that nerves are our communicators between our brains and bodies. If something obstructs one particular nerve, the communication malfunctions and the symptoms are a result of this miscommunication.
1) Pain down the back of your buttock/thigh or into your lower leg/foot
The first, and most common, symptom of sciatica is pain where the nerve supples. This can be in your buttock, back of your thigh or anywhere below your knee including lower leg and foot. This occurs because something is altering the communication between that area of your leg and your brain, so your brain interprets this as pain.
2) Pins and needles/numbness
Again, due to the altered connection between your lower limb and your brain, you can suffer with pins and needles, tingling or numbness in any of these selected areas.
3) Muscular weakness
The pain, pins and needles and numbness have all been issues with the SENSATION part of the nerve. This is the part that goes from your BODY to your BRAIN.
But sciatica can also disrupt the connection from your BRAIN to your BODY (the other way round). Our brains are what tell our muscles to contract and provide movement, so if that communication is disrupted you can suffer from muscular weakness at any point where the nerve is disrupted.
An example of this would be ‘foot drop,’ which is where the muscles of your shin that bring your foot up and point your toes to the sky aren’t told to contract due to the nerve irritation. This means your toes may not point upwards and your foot may drag along the floor when you try to walk.
4) Back pain
You can have sciatica WITHOUT back pain, but lower back pain is reported int he majority of sciatica cases. This is sometimes due to the nerve itself, but can be due to the issue that’s causing the nerve irritation in the first place.
IF you ONLY have back pain and none of the symptoms down the leg or pelvis, by definition you cannot have sciatica.
Read more about back pain without sciatica here:
What causes sciatica?
Here are the most common causes of sciatica that I see in clinic:
–Disc bulge/herniations to your lumber spine (The most common cause). This is where an injury to the shock absorbers (intervertebral discs) in between two vertebrae puts pressure on the nerve as it exits the spine.
–Spinal stenosis. This is a narrowing of the hole that the nerve goes through as it exits the spine.
–Deep gluteal pain syndrome. This is where excessive tightness in the muscles of the glutes/hips put pressure on the nerve as it passes through the back of your pelvis.
–Spinal injury. There are plenty more reasons why this can happen.
Is it a medical emergency?
Sciatica in one leg is not a medical emergency and very rarely requires medical or surgical intervention.
However, if you have any of the following symptoms you must call 999 or visit A/E emergency:
-Have sciatica on BOTH sides
-Have weakness, numbness or pins and needles on BOTH sides
-Have numbness on, under or around your genitals or around your anus.
-Find it hard to start urinating, cannot urinate or cannot control your urine (and this is not normal for you).
-Find it hard to start pooing, cannot poo or cannot control your poo (and this is not normal for you).
how do you you treat sciatica?
Sciatica is commonly treated conservatively (without surgery) very effectively.
My first piece of advice is to keep moving as much as you can within reason and without aggravating your pain.
-Carry on with your daily activities if you can.
-Start moving and exercising lightly as soon as you can.
-Apply ice or heat to the area if it helps.
-Speak to a pharmacist with regards to pain medication and anti-inflammatories.
I’m going to write another blog tomorrow on the specific treatments for sciatica.
But you’ll be very pleased to know that OSTEOPATHY is VERY EFFECTIVE at TREATING SCIATICA.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch via e-mail, message or WhatsApp. You can also book online for a consultation for your sciatica here:
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