Sciatica. It’s a term that gets thrown out a lot within healthcare. Signs of sciatica can show up in a number of ways. Yet, for as many times as I’ve heard patients use this term, I feel it’s a very misunderstood problem. And therefore, does not get handled appropriately. I’ll explain. Sciatica is the irritation or compression of a large nerve called the sciatic nerve. The Sciatic nerve is made up of several different spinal nerves that all come together to create one large nerve (think of multiple on-ramps that all join together to form a large 4-5 lane highway).
When you have compression or irritation of this nerve, you can have pain in the low back, pain in the buttock or even have pain that radiates down the leg. These are the usual signs of sciatica.
Ways To Relieve Signs of Sciatica
Herein lies the problem, but also the key to long term solutions. What I’ve heard many patients tell me in the past is that they were prescribed medications or given a steroid injection to help with this pain. In some cases, the pain improved, yet neither of these approaches actually corrects the underlying problem. Remember, the sciatic nerve is made up of several individual low back spinal nerves. These nerves come out of small holes of the last several bones in your low back. If one or more of those holes is smaller or reduced from poor alignment, arthritis or a disc bulge, then no injection or medication will EVER fix this problem long term. You must open the space for ALL of the nerves to exit the spine. Literally, you have to decrease these individual nerves form being choked. Once this is done, the collection of individual nerves can “breathe” (aka not be compressed) and they will begin to work appropriately and no longer be a source of pain.
A Holistic Approach
The first step in this process is properly evaluating and analyzing the spine through physical exam and culminating with very specific series of x-rays. These x-rays are used to determine if a lack of healthy normal alignment of the spine as well as any spinal degeneration are causing compression on any or all of the nerves that make up the “sciatic nerve”. After an exam and x-ray confirm that a person has findings that would contribute to compression on those nerves, the next step is to simply “unkink the nerves” and create more space for the nerves to exit the spine (stop choking the nerves). In order to unkink the nerves and open more space for the nerves to exit the spine, a person must improve alignment and maintain ideal posture through specific chiropractic corrective care and rehabilitation. We have personally helped thousands of patients with varying signs of sciatica over several decades using this approach. This approach has gotten results where other systems of healthcare have not. And in turn, helped patients reduce their pain, avoid unnecessary drugs, injections and surgeries. So if you are dealing with signs of sciatica, ask yourself these two questions:
- “How can I alleviate the pressure of ALL the nerves that make up the sciatic nerve”?
- “Will this medication or injection move my spinal bone so it stops pinching or choking these nerves?”
(Spoiler alert – the answer is NO). Once you come to that realization, find a chiropractor that specializes in corrective chiropractic care and rehabilitation to improve alignment and decrease compression on all the nerves in your low back.
Contact us at The Wellness Connection for more information!