What is sciatica and what can you do to relieve the pain?

Sciatica is an umbrella term for any pain symptoms involving any part of the sciatic (main leg) nerve. Most common symptoms are extreme pain radiating down the back or side of the leg, numbness and/or tingling in any part of the leg.

There are two main causes for sciatic pain. If you have bulging or herniated discs your doctor will likely diagnose you with sciatica deriving from nerve irritation or compression in the spinal column. But more common is a compression of the nerve by means of a tight muscle pressing on the nerve which shows the same symptoms as the nerve compression in the spine. The most common muscle to do so is called Piriformis muscle and the resulting pain is called Piriformis Syndrome. Now Piriformis Syndrome is very common and very much under-diagnosed by the medical profession. In most cases Piriformis Syndrome can be alleviated by medical massage after only a few sessions whereas true sciatica could be more tricky.

In the less common case of “true sciatica”, most commonly referred to if the nerve pain is caused by compression in the spinal column responds in many cases very well to chiropractic and massage treatments. Even though a massage therapist cannot affect the injured nerve directly, by relaxing the muscles around the spine that are compressing the vertebrae, the pressure on the nerve can be released indirectly with great success. Unfortunately most orthopedic doctors know only symptomatic pain management in the form of pills or cortisone injections until the degeneration has progressed to a point that only surgery might alleviate the pain. Yet, I see a lot of clients in my practice that had horrible experiences with back surgery. Many times surgery is recommended when it is not yet necessary especially given the high risk that these surgeries carry. Once the vertebrae have been artificially fused (cemented) or screwed together during surgery, the possibility for alternative rehab is forever gone. 

I do not condemn spine surgery, I just believe that often the right alternative treatments have not been recommended or due to our health insurance system are unattainable for many clients because of the cost of treatment.

The most effective treatment for sciatica that I observe in my practice on a daily basis is as follows. The client starts with medical massage for pain relief and to get the muscles in a healthy state for treatments by other professions. As soon as the worst pain is managed I recommend adding chiropractic care by a chiropractor I endorse. Too many chiropractors don’t get the correction done that is needed and I cannot vouch for chiropractors I have not met.

Once massage and chiropractic have done most of their job, I recommend my clients to go to a good physical therapist or personal trainer to strengthen the muscles to prevent reoccurrence of their condition.