Sciatica - What is sciatica and how can we treat it?
Sciatica! A word we’ve all probably heard once or twice before but what is it really?
The sciatic nerve starts from your low back and travels down the hips and buttocks and down the leg. When this nerve becomes pinched, or impinged, this can cause weakness, numbness, shooting/stabbing pain or altered sensation down the legs. When this happens, THAT is sciatica. The origin of this is often somewhere in the low back or the glutes and travels all the way down the back of your leg.
What causes this to happen?
We’ll go into more detail in our next post, but it doesn’t have to be something crazy like a heavy squat at the gym. It can be things as simple as sitting on your wallet in your back pocket or just the normal aging process that can bring on some of these symptoms. This pain can be excruciating! It may even be serious enough to reach for various painkillers just to get through the day.
So where doe chiropractic as a whole come into this?
Chiropractors have spent many years studying the spine, its functions and specifically how to help assist recovery of issues such as sciatica. We have many different modalities or ways to help with sciatica and the pain it causes. Whether you like the big cracks or pops - there is always something we can do to try to help! Our goal with every patient is to not only treat their symptoms but also to fix underlying issues so that they may function at their best!
From your first visit, Chiropractors run through a thorough physical and neurological exam. What that means is, we look at your body, the muscles and skeleton, but we also look at the function of the nerves that run all throughout your body that originate from the spine. We can look at the muscles that are innervated by these nerves to see if this has caused weakness, at areas of your skin that are supplied by these nerves to see if they’re causing sensation changes, such as generalised numbness, or changes to feelings of things like heat or cold. If someone is suffering with sciatica this may occur all the way down the leg or just in certain areas.
So once we get to a diagnosis of sciatica, what happens then? What can we do to treat it?
Chiropractic Adjustments →
Adjustments to the spine can be extremely helpful in relieving some of the pressure that the spine or other structures are placing on this nerve to help relieve some symptoms. This is done to promote better movements through the joints to not only help with current symptoms but try and avoid these issues coming back in future. Chiropractic adjustments can help with reduction in pain, inflammation and other symptoms that may be directly related to your sciatica. This may be done by using the drop pieces on the table, through the activator clicker, or many other modalities our chiropractors have learnt over the years
Dry Needling →
What is Dry Needling? Dry Needling is similar to acupuncture, whereas the difference lies in the philosophy. Whilst acupuncture will focus on acupuncture points connected by meridian lines, dry needling focuses solely on trigger points (or “ knots”) in the muscles, with needles instead inserted directly into these trigger points to relieve symptoms caused by sciatica. These are often placed in tight muscles around the sciatic nerve in your back, your gluteal muscles and the piriformis muscle which is the next door neighbour of your glutes.
Muscle releases →
If needles aren’t quite your thing, our chiropractors are extremely experienced in other techniques of muscle release. These include massage, trigger point therapies, ART and PnF techniques that will help deliver similar results to the needles.
At home rehab exercises →
At home physical therapy works as a perfect addition to other treatments our chiropractors will use to treat your symptoms and the underlying causes. These exercises at home will look to strengthen the lower back, glutes and abdominal muscles as well as some aerobic exercises such as swimming. These will reinforce the positive effects of your chiropractic treatments and can aid in a swifter recovery and avoid relapses in future.
Whilst this may not always be possible straight away due to pain and stiffness, McKenzie extension stretches are always a good place to start to relieve pressure off the sciatic nerve being impinged.
Stay tuned for our next blog post where we discuss the underlying causes of sciatica. These exercises at home will look to strengthen the lower back, glutes and abdominal muscles as well as some aerobic exercises such as swimming. These will reinforce the positive effects of your chiropractic treatments and can aid in a swifter recovery and avoid relapses in future.
Whilst this may not always be possible straight away due to pain and stiffness, McKenzie extension stretches are always a good place to start to relieve pressure off the sciatic nerve being impinged.