Sciatica

First of all, what is sciatica? Your sciatic nerve is about the size of your thumb and runs all the way down the back of your leg. It begins by exiting out of your lumbar spine where it is called your lumbar plexus, the nerves of your lumbar plexus join together and travel along the back of your leg as your sciatic nerve and then branch as it travels past your knee.

How do you know if you have a problem with your sciatic nerve? Do you experience burning along the back of your thigh or cramping in the back of your leg? Commonly, people describe sciatic pain as a sharp, stabbing, or shocking feeling in the buttock or back of the leg that just won't stop. It is miserable and if you have had it, you would do anything to make it go away.

So, how do you know if chiropractic care is the right choice for your sciatica? Have you ever had lower back pain before the sciatica started? Have you had an injury to your back previously? Have you had chiropractic care for spinal stiffness before, even if it was another region of your spine? Is your back stiff on a regular basis? If you answered yes to any of these questions, your spine is probably the place your sciatica began and you should be checked by a chiropractor.

If your spine does not move the way it was designed to and different segments of your spine are locked together, it will irritate the nerves that exit from between those segments. Sciatica can be the result. Tiny misalignments of your spine or poor mobility patterns are exactly why chiropractors adjust the spine and have so much success with lower back pain as well as conditions such as sciatica and others that originate in your spine.

An aggressive case of sciatica will have you begging for relief. In our chiropractic office, we recommend a series of chiropractic adjustments, foam rolling and functional and core exercises to improve the health of your spine and lessen your sciatica symptoms.