What's sciatica?
By Joshua Moffat
Sciatica usually means agony or altered sensation in the lower back that radiates into the leg, knee and foot, though each person's symptoms may differ quite a bit. There are several causes of sciatica:
*Irritation of the Sciatic Nerve (one of the thickest nerves in the body) by compression of surrounding muscles
*Compression of the nerves that supply the leg and lumbar region as they exit the spinal cord by disk bulges, bony growths or degenerated ligaments
*Damage of tissues like muscle, ligament, bones or tendons in the lumbar region which can then refer severe agony down into the leg
*Additional causes include problems with abdominal and pelvic organs and blood vessels but in comparison to the other causes these are extraordinarily rare
Because sciatica is nearly always accompanied by lumbar region pain there are similar risk indicators for both Back Agony and Sciatica:
An inactive lifestyle is a huge predisposing factor for a number of reasons, when a person is sitting for lengthy periods they are going to be supporting the weight of their trunk, shoulder and head typically on the low back and pelvis. This leads on to a scenario where a relatively small quantity of tendons, ligaments and muscles are supporting a significant component of your body weight. Because the body needs loads to be spread around so loads are shared, lengthened sitting can lead to over load of areas of tendon, ligaments and muscles which invariably means they get injured and are not as good at supporting you afterwards.
Smoking is a predisposing factor because of the damaging effect on arteries. This increases oedema in the body and over time can lower the quantity of blood sent to an injured area by reducing the flow through damaged vessels.
Folk working in jobs that call for frequent lifting who have not been taught (or do not use) correct method are also at bigger risk.
Treatments include Chiropractic, Osteopathy, Physiotherapy, Acupuncture & Massage.
Pain killers can be useful at relieving pain in a number of cases.
*Irritation of the Sciatic Nerve (one of the thickest nerves in the body) by compression of surrounding muscles
*Compression of the nerves that supply the leg and lumbar region as they exit the spinal cord by disk bulges, bony growths or degenerated ligaments
*Damage of tissues like muscle, ligament, bones or tendons in the lumbar region which can then refer severe agony down into the leg
*Additional causes include problems with abdominal and pelvic organs and blood vessels but in comparison to the other causes these are extraordinarily rare
Because sciatica is nearly always accompanied by lumbar region pain there are similar risk indicators for both Back Agony and Sciatica:
An inactive lifestyle is a huge predisposing factor for a number of reasons, when a person is sitting for lengthy periods they are going to be supporting the weight of their trunk, shoulder and head typically on the low back and pelvis. This leads on to a scenario where a relatively small quantity of tendons, ligaments and muscles are supporting a significant component of your body weight. Because the body needs loads to be spread around so loads are shared, lengthened sitting can lead to over load of areas of tendon, ligaments and muscles which invariably means they get injured and are not as good at supporting you afterwards.
Smoking is a predisposing factor because of the damaging effect on arteries. This increases oedema in the body and over time can lower the quantity of blood sent to an injured area by reducing the flow through damaged vessels.
Folk working in jobs that call for frequent lifting who have not been taught (or do not use) correct method are also at bigger risk.
Treatments include Chiropractic, Osteopathy, Physiotherapy, Acupuncture & Massage.
Pain killers can be useful at relieving pain in a number of cases.
About the Author:
Joshua Moffat is an Osteopath working in a specialist Sciatica centre in Bedford. He spends almost all of his working day precicely diagnosing the cause of a person's sciatica and then helping them to totally get over the problem.