5 Things to Know about Sciatica

1. How to Identify Sciatic Nerve Pain

One or more of the following symptoms indicate(s) you may have sciatica:

• Continual pain in one side of the leg or buttock (there are cases of it occurring in both legs)
• Pain worsens when sitting
• Burning or tingling down the leg(s)
• Numbness, weakness, or difficulty moving the foot or leg
• Difficulty walking or standing due to sudden sharp pain

Pain from sciatica ranges from infrequent and irritating to constant and almost incapacitating. The condition causing sciatica will determine the severity and location of the sciatic symptoms. While the symptoms can be painful and are potentially debilitating, it rarely results in permanent nerve damage.

2. The Sciatic Nerve and Sciatica

When the large sciatic nerve is compressed in the lumbar spine, regardless of the cause, sciatica type symptoms will appear. The largest single nerve in the body, the sciatic nerve is composed of nerve roots that branch out from the spine to the lower back.

Nerve roots exit from each level of the lower spine and then come together to make up the large sciatic nerve. The sciatic nerve runs from the lower back, down through the buttock, and branches off to run down the back of each leg to the thigh, calf, foot, and toes.

The location of the sciatic symptoms—pain, numbness, weakness, and tingling—depends on where the nerve is compressed. A lumbar segment L5 nerve impingement may cause weakness down to the big toe and even into the ankle.

Sciatica rarely occurs before the age of 20 and peaks in the 50s, and then declines, but this is not an absolute rule.

Simple sciatica can come from either a tight or a loose Piriformis Muscle which impinges on the sciatic nerve. So, resetting this muscle to its proper tone usually makes sciatica disappear rather quickly.

The more difficult cause can be because of your lower back disc(s) being damaged and exerting pressure on the spinal nerve that affects your leg(s) depending on the location of your disc damage.

Most people who experience sciatica get better within a matter of weeks or sometimes months and have good results with our nonsurgical sciatica treatment.

For others, however, the pain from a pinched nerve in the leg can be severe and debilitating. Those cases need our specialized non-surgical IDD Therapy® treatment protocol.

3. When Should You See a Doctor?

There are some potentially dangerous symptoms, to look out for when you are experiencing any kind of back pain.

If you experience the following, you may require immediate attention and possibly surgical intervention:

• Progressive neurological symptoms
• Loss of Bowel control
• Incontinence.

Also, if you feel sciatica pain for more than two weeks, you should also consider a coming in to see one of our trained non-surgical specialists.

4. Treatment for Sciatica

Since sciatica is a symptom of an underlying condition, the treatment for must completely address whatever underlying condition is identified as the source, such as herniated disc or spinal stenosis. If you also have pain upon coughing, sneezing or bearing down (especially when sitting on the toilet) this may be caused because of disc problems.

We have developed a simple test that over that last 5 years has proven to be 99.9% accurate in determining if a disc problem exists, we can follow that up with a few additional tests to determine exactly the extent of your condition.

This specific approach is the reason why patients and top athletes from around the world that want to avoid drugs, shots, and surgery fly into our office for our specific non-surgical treatment protocol!

5. We Offer The Best Non-Surgical Treatment Choice For Treating Simple or Difficult Sciatica

It usually involves properly identifying the exact problem to determine if your condition can be resolved without surgery, shots or drugs.

We can sit down one-on-one review your health history, and if you have any X-Rays or MRI to assess if our non-surgical approach may be the right answer for your problem.

If you have questions about whether our non-surgical approach may be most appropriate for your continuing sciatic pain – we invite you to call us at (305) 531-2933 or visit https://CoralWayDiscCenter.com for more information.