Understanding and Relieving Sciatica: Your Guide to Sciatica Relief
Sciatica is a common condition that impacts approximately 10% of people with lower back pain and is more common among people 40 and older. Sciatica can be painful, frustrating and debilitating but the more someone can understand what is going on and what actions they can be doing to help ease the pain, we can start to move in the direction of recovery and getting you back to doing the things you love to do. This article will take you through the ins and outs of what sciatica is, what could be the cause, the symptoms but more importantly what you can be doing to get relief.
What is sciatica?
The sciatic nerve is the longest in the body, originating in the lowe back and running down the back of each leg. If this nerves gets compressed, injured or pinched, you could experience discomfort anywhere along the nerve or where it provides sensation, from the lower back all the way to the foot (it’s a big nerve). Typically you will only experience sciatica down one side of your body.
What causes sciatica?
There are lots of things that can contribute or lead to sciatica. It is important to know that it is a build up of actions and habits over time that often leads to the common sciatic symptoms, that one box you picked up isn’t to blame for all you may be experiencing right now.
Some things that can contribute to sciatica are:
- Disc Injuries: herniated discs in the lower spine can impact the sciatic nerve
- Spinal Stenosis: narrowing of the spine in the low back
- Piriformis Syndrome: A tight piriformis can irritate the sciatic nerve
- Degenerative Disc Disease (also known as arthritis): Breakdown of the discs which cushion the vertebrae
- Pregnancy
- Blunt force trauma: like a car accident
- Fractured Pelvis
Most commonly you can experience sciatica due to associated disc related changes. The good news is that nerves are resilient and they nearly always have wiggle room to accommodate for the age related changes that will occur inevitably be occurring in your spine. In some cases, nerves can be irritated by inflammation without any compression and this can be just as painful!
Common Symptoms of Sciatica
People with sciatica typically have pain down one side of the body, from lower back to the foot. Typically symptoms are more likely to affect the leg or bum rather than the back and often felt below the knee. They may include:
- Lower back pain
- Pain in the bum or leg that gets worse when sitting down
- Hip pain
- Burning or tingling down the leg
- Weakness, numbness or difficulty moving the leg or foot
- Constant pain on one side of the bum
You may also be experiencing more discomfort when you:
- Cough
- Sneeze
- Bend at the waist (tying shoe laces, putting on socks)
- Twist at the waist (getting out of bed)
- Climbing stairs
Sciatica Relief: What Can You Do at Home
There is always something that you can be doing at home to help ease any pain and discomfort you may be experiencing and our biggest general advice is to keep moving. But lets share some of our favourite stretches and other tips to ease the discomfort!
Our Favourite Stretches
- Piriformis Stretch
- Lie on your back with both knees bent
- Place right ankle over your left knee
- Pull your left thigh towards your chest and hold for 30s
- Repeat on the other side
- Seated Forward Bend
- Seated on the floor with your legs extended straight out in front of you
- Flex your toes towards your shins and bend at the hips to reach for the toes.
- Hold 30s
- NOTE: you can also use a band to help assist this movement, with the band around the soles of your feet
- Cat Camels
- On your hands and knees – 4 point kneeling
- Arch your back up (like a cat), eye gaze drops between your thighs, and then down (like a cow) in a slow controlled movement, lifting the eye gaze and dropping the tummy
- Repeat 10-15 times
- Banded Hamstring Stretch
- Lying on your back with a long resistance band handy.
- Wrap the resistance band around the base of your foot with your hands grabbing each end of the resistance band
- Trying to keep the leg as straight as possible, draw the leg/ toes towards your eyeline by pulling on the resistance band
- To intensify the stretch point the toes to the ceiling and then flex the toes towards the shins
- Hold for at least 30s
Other Tips
In addition to movement and stretching, there are a few other things you can be doing in between to get you through the day:
- Ice pack: Cold therapy can help with any inflammation that may be in the body and help calm any muscles or nerves that may be a bit angry and inflamed. We are talking ice pack, ice bath, frozen peas whatever works.
- Heat Pack: Heat is an analgesic, so it can really help calm down the pain and discomfort you may be experiencing, a good old wheat bag is great, you could also benefit from a sauna or some sort of heat cream like Dencorub.
- Anti-inflammatories: Although we do not want to be taking these for a long period of time and they are not the only thing you should be relying on – anti inflammatories like ibuprofen or anti-inflammatory gels can be great to help reduce inflammation and ease pain to allow us to keep moving.
- Magnesium: A great supplement to help reduce overall muscle soreness, tension and will help aid in sleep which is essential to allowing the body to heal. We often recommend a powdered version as it can be quickly absorbed by the body.
What we can do to help as chiropractors
Sciatica is something we commonly help manage with our patients through chiropractic care. It is important to look at the body as whole as there is likely to multiple contributing factors as to why someone may be experiencing sciatica. and in our opinion chiropractic care is more than just the adjustment.
How we often approach someone with sciatica or sciatic like symptoms:
- Full history and physical exam: this help us understand the person and what may be contributing to their pain experience. This also helps us get a baseline of where the body is currently at and gives us a much clearer idea of what we need to do.
- X-Ray: Depending on the patient and what we discover during the history and exam, we may find it necessary to get some imaging done to make sure you are in the right place and we have full understanding of the health of your spine.
- Adjustments: Our adjustments help allow the body move and function the way it needs to, to allow us to get back to our best
- Soft Tissue: This helps alleviate some pain and discomfort, promote blood flow and loosen those niggly muscles that are working harder than they need to be.
- Stretches: Sciatica can be a bit temperamental – so we want to take it slowly to reduce the risk of any further flare ups. Our aim is to arm you with a few gentle stretches to begin and build from there.
- Other advice: We are a wealth of knowledge, so we will tailor any further advice that you can be doing at home to help you get results faster, this could be anything from supplementation to ice baths and will depend on you and your situation.
In Summary
Sciatica can be super challenging and frustrating but with the right knowledge and guidance, you can manage and ease the symptoms and get back to doing what you love. There are many different approaches you can take with sciatica and each individual is going to be different, there is never one size fits all.
At Refined Chiropractic our aim is to help guide and optimise your results. If you are curious to see how we can help, get in touch!
