What is Sciatica?
Sciatica can be very frustrating & significantly decrease the quality of your life. But it is something that can be treated and eliminated from your life.
Your sciatica pain can affect the lower back, bottom, backs of legs, feet and toes.
Symptoms can vary from a stabbing, burning or shooting sensation. You may experience some pins and needles down your bottom, into the back of your legs or feet along with numbness and muscle weakness.
Sciatica is very common and seen in many people. Symptoms can come and go as they please, and pain may range in severity.
Aggravation can be caused by sitting for long periods of times, for example, if you drive long distances too and from work every day this may be irritating your sciatica.
In the next blog, we will explore why we get sciatica….
Why do we get it?
Sciatica is a symptom rather than a condition, this is because it is caused by the irritation of the sciatic nerve. The sciatic nerve begins in the lower back and runs through the bottom and down into the legs.
The reason the nerve becomes irritated maybe because of a number of reasons. A ‘slipped disc’, maybe one of these reasons, these disc bulges may not be causing you any problems but they may start to irritate the nearby nerve root and that’s when we get ‘sciatica’.
As we have used our body a lot over the years as we get older we may have what we call ‘degeneration’ within the spine which also may cause some compression onto the sciatica nerve.
It may be the fact you are a very active person and your muscles have been working very hard and have gone into spasm which can also cause sciatic symptoms.
These may develop over time or spontaneously due to trauma or physical stress injury.
All these reasons are all completely normal and are seen very commonly in our clinic so please do not worry. These can all be treated, we get you out of pain and back to how you were feeling before sciatica.
The One Thing You Must Do To Get Rid Of Sciatica
It is really important that we find the correct stressor of why you are experiencing sciatica, this is because where the is pain may not always be the true cause of the problem. I have seen many cases of this. Very recently I had a lady called Alice come in to see me complaining of numbness in her pain in lower back, numbness in the R calf, arch of the foot, legs feeling heavy and stiff in the right knee.
Within my assessment I found that Alice wasn’t using the muscles at the back the legs (hamstrings and calves) efficiently on the right side. The lower back muscles were then having to work a lot harder because the hamstrings and calves were not working hard enough.
Because the muscles which surround the lower back were working too hard, this then was causing a lot of compression on the sciatic nerve. Therefore that is why Alice felt numbness into the lower leg.
The reason why some muscle work harder than others is used to our behaviour habits.
When we start to feel pain our muscles start to work in different ways to compensate for each other.
Making sure our muscles are all working together & equally very important when getting our patients out of pain and making sure the pain does not return.
If the symptoms do not improve within a week or two, visiting a physiotherapist would be very beneficial.
4 Secret Ways To Getting Rid Of Sciatica
There are many ways to relieve the pressure off the sciatic nerve, through some simple exercises. My advice if you are complaining of sciatica type symptoms would be to make sure you don’t sit down for too long and to keep moving. Gentle exercise daily for example, walking and swimming. Have a warm bath which will relax and ease your muscles. When sleeping try and find a comfortable position this may be laying on your side.
Below are some exercises which will alleviate your sciatic symptoms:
Knees to chest – lying on your back bring both knees to towards your chest & give them a hug. 3 x 15 secs
Single to knee to chest – lying on your back, bring on knee towards your chest give it a hug. The leg still on the ground reach your leg further along on the floor, reaching toes away from you
Sciatica mobilisations stretch – lying on your back, bring one knee towards chest, holding the back of your upper leg with both hands. Slowly straighten the knees, toes towards the ceiling. 3 x 15 secs
Glute stretch – lying on your back, both knees bent flat on the ground. Lift one knee up to 90⁰, place that ankle on the opposite side. If you feel the stretch in your glute hold if there. If not, grab through the legs and pull the opposite hamstring through, the foot will come off the ground. 3 x 15secs
What Causes Sciatica?
The simple answer is anything that irritates the sciatic nerve. What actually causes them to become irritated is down to each individual.
Without knowing your story or your injury history it is very difficult to understand this. But here are a list of ways your sciatic nerve can become irritated:
1) Lumbar disc bulge/herniation – One of the most common causes of sciatica is a bulging or herniated disc. This occurs where one of the vertebral discs over time starts to protrude forward and pinches on one of the nerve roots. It’s important to know that this does not mean that your discs have ‘popped out’ or ‘slipped’ but rather over time begin to slowly bulge forward.
2) Stenosis – There are 2 types of stenosis:
- Foraminal stenosis – This is where there is a decrease in size of the hole where the lumbar nerve root exits, increasing the likelihood it will become compressed.
- Central stenosis – this is a narrowing of the central spinal canal, which places pressure on the spinal cord and cauda equina (collection of nerves at the end of the spinal cord).
Stenosis usually occurs as a result of a congenitally small spinal canal, coupled with degenerative changes. Symptoms often occur on both legs.
3) Spondylolisthesis – This is where one of the vertebrae slips forwards onto the vertebrae below it. This in turn may put pressure on the nerves. The most common types of spondylolisthesis are either:
- Congenital – Occurs at birth where the baby’s spine does not form as it should do. This can put the misaligned vertebrae at a higher chance of slippage later on in life.
- Degenerative – over time the discs between the vertebrae lose water and begin to thin, this in turn then can increase chances of slippage of the vertebrae above.
4) Muscular tightness – You may have heard of ‘piriformis syndrome’ before. This is referring to a particular muscle which is around the outside of the hip joint. This muscle, alongside others, is important in rotating the hip side to side. The sciatic nerve runs through these particular muscles before it reaches towards the hamstring. In some people these muscles around the hip can become very tight and put pressure on the sciatic nerve.
How Do You Treat Sciatica?
This depends on each individual. Not every case is the same so we’ll need to make sure the treatment plan is specific to you as an individual. At ProSport we’ll pay close attention to your specific story.
By understanding your history we can get a good understanding of which areas are working too hard and which ones aren’t doing enough.
Although we will treat the symptoms and aim to give you some strategies throughout the day to help this, we’ll want to spend the majority of the time treating the root cause of the problem.
This will not only help ease your pain but it will also help ensure this issue does not return in the future!
Don’t Suffer With Sciatica
Sciatica can be a painful and exhausting ordeal to manage which can significantly decrease your quality of life. Maybe the problem is affecting your work. Maybe you’re no longer able to sleep properly or enjoy your morning walk.
Whatever it is, you do not need to suffer. We want to help. All you have to do is click here, book your appointment, and start your journey back to a pain-free life today.
Click here or call 01484 443173 to book your 1-1 assessment right now.