Sciatica: What causes it and how to treat it.

Have you ever been haunted by a knife-like pain down your leg? Not just down your leg but in every aspect of your life. Making the simplest of tasks, like putting your socks on, impossible.
Imagine a pain that shadows you from the moment you get up and even haunts you at night, stopping you from sleeping.
You are not alone. Nearly half of us have suffered this at some time in our lives.

To learn more about sciatica and how to treat it, read on

It’s called sciatica and its root cause is a modern lifestyle of poor posture and weak muscles.
The videos explain what sciatic is and how the structure of the spine is vulnerable.
The sciatic nerve is a big nerve running from the back to the feet. Nerves, any nerves in your body in fact, don’t like to be squeezed and tell you quickly about this by causing pain. Typical causes of nerve compression are:

• Spinal discs act as cushions between the bony vertebrae, allowing movement and keeping the discs nicely spaced apart, allowing nerves to move freely and without pain. If those discs get compressed sufficiently, nerve compression and pain can result.
• Powerful back muscles can react to this nerve compression and go into spasm, increasing nerve compression and pain.
• Each pair of spinal vertebrae have joints between them to help control movement, called facet joints. These joints get worn with age and trauma and can eventually cause further nerve irritation.
• Our bodies are covered in a layer of connective tissue below the skin (imagine bubble wrap) and this tissue can become less flexible as we age, also leading to possible nerve irritation.

These underlying causes are nearly always quickly reversible with the correct lifestyle adjustments, adherence to exercise prescriptions and hands on physiotherapy. In more severe chronic cases, especially with locked in muscle spasm, specific dry needling may be required. There’s no one size fits all solution. A thorough assessment and treatment plan will be the most effective and fastest solution.

If your physiotherapist has any concerns, she or he can touch base with your doctor for bloods, x-rays or a scan.
Off the shelf pain meds, like anti-inflammatory with paracetamol can help. Your pharmacist can advise if its safe for you to take them with preexisting conditions or other meds.