Sciatica and Chiropractic: Treatments to reduce symptoms
What is Sciatica?
Sciatica is an umbrella term used to describe pain that travels down the back of the buttock and leg, as low down as the feet and toes. Pain is usually caused by an irritation to the sciatic nerve (typically at the level of your buttock), or the nerve roots in your lower back which gives rise to the sciatic nerve. There can also be symptoms such as altered sensation, tingling and muscle weakness.
Despite popular opinion, you don’t necessarily need to have lower back pain in order to have sciatica. You can have symptoms and leg pain in your lower limb without having any back pain at all.
How long does Sciatica last?
Most cases of sciatica resolve within 4-8 weeks with appropriate chiropractic management. If symptoms are more severe and include numbness, tingling and associated muscle weakness, it may take longer.
Sciatica rarely requires surgery, however, in rare circumstances where there is severe nerve compromise, for example, altered sensation in the saddle region or altered bladder or bowel control, surgery may be indicated.
Sciatica common causes include:
1) Compression and irritation of the nerve roots close to your spine by issues like a herniated disc or inflammation causing increased pressure on the nerves. It can also be caused by other spine issues such as a spondlyolisthesis or spinal stenosis.
2) Compression and irritation of the sciatic nerve which passes through your buttocks and travels down your leg. This can be caused by a muscle irritating the sciatic nerve as passes through it.
How is Sciatica diagnosed?
Sciatica is diagnosed by a cluster of findings in your history and physical assessment by your chiropractor. Your health professional will carry out a number of physical assessments to determine the origin of your sciatic pain.
How can my Chiropractor help me?
1) Sciatica treatment in the early stages involves a strong focus on reducing your pain with manual therapy, dry needling, gentle nerve stretching, and spinal mobilisation to reduce the sensitivity of the irritated nerve. This usually yields great relief and a significant reduction in symptoms in 1-4 visits.
2) Ensuring long term results and minimising the chance of your symptoms returning by completing a personalised rehabilitation plan. Getting you pain-free is our first priority, but it’s our attention to detail in helping you rehabilitate through the entire journey that ensures our results are unrivalled and your symptoms don’t return.
This involves strengthening exercises that target the muscles that support your lower back and buttock. This is vitally important, as it will contribute to your body being able to cope with the demands placed on it day to day, as well as any recreational activities you love to do. A robust long term management plan also involves targeted nerve mobility exercises to improve the movement of your affected nerves, as well as spinal mobility exercises to improve the movement of your spine.
3) Ensuring you have no lingering weakness that will affect your function and quality of life moving forward. With moderate to severe sciatica symptoms, once your pain resolves sometimes there’s often some leftover weakness that makes your usual tasks harder than they’d normally be. To get back to your normal self, this needs to be addressed. A thorough Chiropractic assessment can help identify what’s lacking, and give you the knowledge to fix it.
4) Advice and education on positioning, posturing and the level of activity suitable for you to allow your symptoms to settle and keep you comfortable whilst our treatment is having the desired effect. We’ll also give you the advice you need to gradually build back up to the activity level you want in a safe and non-detrimental way.
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