Back pain is very common and usually manifests in different forms. It can vary from mild to severe and may become chronic.
While a bit of medication and some form of physical therapy (exercises) may remove short-term back pain, severe cases may require surgery or a high level of therapy.
One type of chronic back pain related condition is known as Sciatica. Sciatica affects the lower back half of the body and releases a shooting pain towards the legs. Fortunately, it’s easy to identify and can be treated with the help of a chiropractor.
Let’s take a dive into what this condition is and how a chiropractor can treat it.
What is Sciatica?
Sciatica is a radiating pain that runs through the sciatic nerve. The Sciatic nerve goes through the hips and down the leg. Each of these parts may be in pain from this condition. As a side note, Sciatica typically affects just one side of the body.
Here’s how the condition occurs:
Technically, Sciatica starts with a herniated disk in your lower spine. Usually, your Vertebrata (spine bones) comes with a flat, flexible round disk at the lower part. If this disk should wear out due to accidents and pressure, the soft connective tissue pushes out as a condition known as herniation.
This puts a lot of pressure on the nerves around it. These nerves are usually the sciatica nerves and breed a pain that radiates from your lower back into the back or side of your legs. The pain may range from mild to severe along with weakness in your leg or foot.
The same situation occurs with bone spurs and spinal stenosis (narrowing), putting pressure on the sciatic nerve in the lower back.
Signs and Symptoms
Common symptoms associated with Sciatica include:
- Lower back pain from the spine
- Pains around the hip region.
- Burning or tingling feeling around the legs.
- Weakness, numbness, or difficulty moving your leg or foot
Shooting pain in the neck that makes it difficult to stand or move around.
Note: Sciatica affects people in varying degrees. For some, it can be temporary and only manifests with mild symptoms. For others, it could be severe or chronic.
Common Treatments
Treating Sciatica comes in different forms, which are physical therapy, medications, or even surgery. If you are looking to cure Sciatica, you may look into the following treatment options.
- Exercise: While it may seem difficult to move during a state of Sciatica, the inflammation can only improve when you take regular walks or do small exercises. Not exercising would worsen your condition. You can consult with a physical therapist to take you through this process.
- Alternative therapies: Alternative therapies include, but are not limited to, yoga and massages go a long way in treating Sciatica.
- Medicines: With a sciatic condition, pain reliever drugs like Acetaminophen and NSAIDs (aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen) are beneficial, but you should limit their use.
- Chiropractic Care
How A Chiropractor Treats Sciatica
Since a sciatic condition involves back pain, there may a need for chiropractic treatment. That’s the line of focus for any chiropractor since they have expert training in relieving body pains. As for Sciatica, a chiropractor may find the spine manipulation technique effective in treating Sciatica.
This treatment method is very effective, and evidence-backed as over 60% of patients with this condition have gotten relief from this therapy. In fact, a study by McMorland GL reveals estimates spinal manipulative therapy is a sure way to save $3 billion spent on treating back pain in a year.
Spinal manipulation is totally safe provided a well-trained expert carries it out. With spinal adjustments, a chiropractor can effectively re-align the spine without any complications in most cases.
At first, a chiropractor seeks to examine the spot of pain and run some diagnostic tests. Then proceeds to lay you on a well-cushioned chiropractic table. A chiropractor then thrusts their hands on the spine with minimal pressure in re-aligning the spine. This process results in some clicking or popping sounds in response to the therapy.
Once that’s done, deep massages may be applied to that area to decrease the pain further. However, this therapy doesn’t end at this stage. One or two more consultations would help the health expert assess the condition whether it’s genuinely healed or needs further medical attention.
Conclusion
A Chiropractor can help with Sciatica. If you begin to experience the symptoms of Sciatica as mentioned above, then you should consider paying a visit to your Local Alamo Heights Chiropractor. Here, they effectively evaluate your condition and take the next steps to heal.