Sciatica is a common and painful condition that many may not realize they are living with. Sciatic pain often begins in the lower back and travels down the back of the leg and into the foot. While this pain may be a lifelong issue, chiropractic care at FreeForm Chiropractic can help manage the pain and improve the quality of life.
Sciatica Treatment
Sciatica is a condition where the sciatic nerve, the longest nerve in the body, has become compressed. This sends pain along the length of the nerve. Typically, this pain will only affect one leg, though it could cause pain in both. This condition makes it difficult to stand or sit for a long period of time. It can be a very painful condition to live with and make daily tasks difficult. Pain isn’t the only symptom. Sciatica symptoms can include numbness or muscle weakness in the leg and/or foot, a burning sensation, or a pins and needles sensation.
Symptoms may be consistent but will often come and go over the period of someone’s life. It’s important to seek out treatment to help deal with the pain. It is also important because, when left untreated, further damage could happen to the nerve. By dealing with the compression, you can prevent the long-term worsening of symptoms.
You may be wondering how sciatica happens in the first place. This condition often starts with either a misalignment of the vertebrae (known as subluxations) or it begins with disc injuries and bulges. In the case of spinal misalignment, there are many different ways this can happen.
It could be a sudden event, like a car accident or other trauma to the body, which shifts the vertebrae out of place. Misalignment often occurs when repetitive stress has been placed on the body, like from poor posture. Whatever the cause, the vertebrae compress the sciatic nerve in the lower back, irritating the nerve and causing pain.
With disc injuries or bulges, the disc is pushing on the nerve. This can also happen suddenly, because of an accident, or through a repetitive injury. While patients may sometimes feel the pain come on suddenly, it’s often the cause that the injury had been happening for a while, but the pain started all at once.
