Sciatica

Cause

Sciatica usually only affects one side of the body.  Sciatica can happen anytime the sciatic nerve is under pressure.  The cause can be as simple as low back and hip fatigue. Other common causes include bone spurs, damaged discs, pregnancy and misalignment of surrounding fascia. Spasms may accompany sciatic pain.  Other contributors to sciatica include being overweight, infrequent movement(exercise), wearing high heels and sleeping on mattresses that are either extremely firm or way too soft.

Effects

Sciatica affects the whole body even though you might only experience pain when sitting and walking.  At first sciatica may present itself as a dull ache in the lower back but as our body starts to compensate for the imbalance in the system. This leads to a favored leg when standing or walking.  Shifting weight while sitting or driving. The longer we let the problem fester the more pain could be experienced when one day it hurts to sit or put weight on one leg.

Treatment

Test it.  

The first step to any treatment plan is confirming the origin of your pain.  Is it really sciatica or just generic low back pain? We would run through a series of tests, paying very close attention to pain levels and movements that replicate symptoms.  Tests will include squats, toe touch, child’s pose and runner’s stretch to name a few. Once we know for sure that you have sciatica we can start building a treatment plan to alleviate the pain and keep it away as long as possible.

Manual Therapy.

  The first treatment will focus on the low back, hips and thighs.  Starting with the client on their side we will sink into the lower back just above the pelvis pulling the fascia tissue back towards the spine.  Some superficial abdominal work will also be used to balance the front to back. Then we will sink into the hip muscles paying close attention to trigger points that replicate symptoms. After the hip we will move down into the thighs. Follow up treatments will follow similar patterns with client lying supine or prone depending on the area of focus for that treatment.

At home care.  

A packet of at home exercises will be made available to help assist the treatments provided by your therapist.  Exercises for the low back include the static back, airbench and groin stretches to name a few. These exercises, when performed regularly, help re pattern the fascia tissue in the area to its original alignment which will decrease both pain and likely recurrence of symptoms in the future.

Is that all?  

Even with our detailed treatments and at home exercises, it will come down to correcting daily habits that pull the fascia out of alignment in the first place.  Keep in mind that it will take at least three to five sessions to notice a significant change or even elimination of symptoms. Once the pain is gone we do recommend coming in for our Structural Integration therapy sessions to help align other areas of the body.