16 Jan Sciatica Pain Treatment Options
Sciatica pain is characterized by pain in the lower back and gluteal region. This pain can radiate down one or both legs into the thigh, calf, ankle and foot. Genuine sciatica occurs when pain travels below the knee. If you are suffering from the pain and dysfunction that sciatica causes, there are non-surgical, conservative options that can help relieve your nerve-compression sciatica pain. Since the sciatic nerve is the longest one in the body, it can cause pain in a surprising range of locations. We can help you diagnose your pain and get you the treatment you need!
What Is Sciatica Pain?
You have millions of nerves that run all throughout your body. Your brain and spinal cord make up your central nervous system. The rest of your nerves throughout your body are contained within the peripheral nervous system, or the system that talks to your brain and spinal cord. If you compress one of those nerves that run all over your body, you will feel intense pain. If you compress a nerve that runs down your back, through your glutes and down your leg, then you have compressed your sciatic nerve. This compression makes it difficult to walk, run, exercise, and hurts even worse when you are sitting. Moving wrong or lifting something that is too heavy can compress this sciatic nerve.
If you are dealing with irritation in the back alone, you may or may not have sciatica. However, patients that do have problems with their sciatic nerve will experience symptoms such as:
- Lasting pain in the rear or hips
- Stabbing sensations that make it difficult to stand
- Leg pain that is worse when sitting
- Restriction in movement or reduced flexibility
- Irritation that extends from the hip to the foot
Why You Should Seek Treatment
If you have sciatica pain, you don’t want to simply live with the pain. Not seeking treatment could have you suffering from sciatica pain for many months, especially if one of your habits is causing the pain. For example, if you lift weights, you might not have a back that is strong enough to lift certain weights. This can pinch your sciatic nerve and cause you intense sciatica pain. If you keep lifting weights in that way, you can continually pinch that nerve and never find relief. That’s why it’s so important to seek treatment and find out what is causing your sciatica pain.
Risk Factors
While some patients develop severe sciatica pain unexpectedly one day, there are a range of behaviors and risk factors that increase your chances of this pain. We encourage our patients to eliminate risk factors such as:
- A sedentary lifestyle involving lots of sitting with little walking or standing. This can weaken muscles all over your body, making it very easy to pinch a nerve if you lift something heavy or turn the wrong way.
- Smoking and alcohol abuse. Both of these habits contribute to many nervous-system problems, especially if these have been habits for years.
- Obesity and excess weight. Carrying more weight around puts more pressure on your nerves, which could pinch and compress nerves, especially in your back and legs.
- Playing contact sports. Playing sports or participating in activities that require repetitive bending or twisting can pinch a nerve. There are specific ways you should move or train to avoid nerve compression.
- Traumatic injury to the hips, legs or back. Injuries can cause problems not only with the nerves, but also the muscles, bones and other tissues of the body. Injury can also lead to permanent nerve damage if you don’t seek proper treatment and rehabilitative therapy in some cases.
- Failing to stretch. Make sure you warm up and stretch properly before participating in sports and exercise. This will make sure you don’t injure your muscles or your nerves.
Finding Relief through Therapy
Sciatica pain is very painful for many patients. Thankfully, there are various therapies our patients use to help relieve their pain. To start you off, we might suggest that you receive an anti-inflammatory injection. Anesthetic injections relieve nerves that send out signals of pain due to nerve compression. The chemicals used in these injections are meant to relieve inflammation, which in turn reduces swelling, heat and pain. These injections are a great first step for finding relief from sciatica pain.
Patients also benefit from heat and cold therapies that relieve their inflammation and irritation. Exercising when you have sciatica pain is difficult, but exercise will actually help your nerve heal. We have exercise plans that help you to build muscle strength without further damage to your nerve. Chiropractic care and massage therapy will also help eliminate the compression on your sciatic nerve. Your sciatica pain may last for weeks or months, but we can reduce the time you are suffering with rehabilitative therapies.
Beat Your Sciatica Pain
If you have sciatica pain or have had it in the past, then you know how painful and debilitating it can be. You don’t want to spend one day with this pain, let alone weeks or months. With physical therapy services, you don’t have to! Mile High Spine & Pain Center provides patients specialized treatment plans for sciatica pain. We seek to find where your symptoms are coming from so we can treat them successfully. If you are in pain, don’t wait another day! Call our office today at (720) 507-0080 and get back to your life pain-free!