Chiropractor for Sciatica
Chiropractors May Help with Sciatica
Author: Dr. Paula Basilio (Chiropractor) B.Chiro.Sci (Macq), M.Chiro (Macq)
Welcome to My Back Relief Clinic! Sciatica can cause debilitating pain, often making daily activities difficult. We focus on chiropractic care to help alleviate the pressure on the sciatic nerve, targeting the root cause of your discomfort. Let us assist you in managing your sciatic symptoms and enhancing your quality of life.
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What is Sciatica?
Sciatica is a painful condition that results when the sciatic nerve, which runs from your spine down your leg, becomes compressed or irritated. This causes pain, tingling, or numbness in the leg and foot.
Sciatic nerve pain can vary from mild to severe, and sitting or standing for long periods can exacerbate the pain.
Sciatica is a common condition that up to 40% of the population will suffer from at least once in their life.
What Are The Main Causes of Sciatica?
Sciatica is caused by pressure on the sciatic nerve, which runs from the lower back to the feet.
The most common causes of pressure on the sciatic nerve include:
- Herniated/bulging disc
- Degenerative disc disease
- Direct compression/irritation of the sciatic nerve
- Tissue degeneration
- Spinal stenosis (narrowing of the spinal canal)
- Spondylolisthesis (slippage of a vertebra)
- Injury, postural imbalances and related concerns.
Common Symptoms of Sciatica
If you have sciatica, the most common symptoms may include pain and discomfort, particularly starting in your buttocks and shooting down your leg.
People may also experience numbness, tingling, and weakness in one or both of their legs if they have sciatica.
Treatment For Sciatica
Treatment options for sciatica may sometimes include medication or surgery, however manual therapies may also help.
Can chiropractic help with sciatica?
Chiropractic care aims to identify and diagnose the root cause of your health concern before starting any treatment.
Chiropractors use their hands to perform chiropractic adjustments and soft tissue therapy. The goal is to improve joint movement, reduce pressure on the sciatic nerve, improve function and decrease pain.
Additionally, chiropractors may help you with stretches and exercises as part of your treatment. Applying ice or heat may also help reduce inflammation and pain.
According to a research paper published in StatPearls:
“The key to sciatica is patient education. There are many causes of sciatica, and the disorder is best managed with an interprofessional team of healthcare professionals that includes clinicians, mid-level practitioners, orthopedic surgeons, osteopaths and chiropractors, physical therapists, neurologists, rehabilitation nurses, and a pain specialist.”
Sciatica FAQs
Sciatica is likely to be caused by an irritation to the long sciatic nerve that runs down the back of the leg. It is often accompanied by a joint dysfunction in the low back and pelvis, along with tight muscles in the back of the leg.
To stop the sciatic nerve from getting irritated, it’s important to understand why you have the sciatica in the first place i.e is it from sitting all day, scoliosis etc. Chiropractic care can assist in decreasing the irritation to the sciatic nerve through adjustments in the low back, but many patients find it beneficial to learn sciatic nerve flossing stretches.
It depends on the patient, the factors that brought about the sciatica, age of patient and how long they have had the sciatica for.
For people that have had sciatica for over 3 months (chronic sciatica) it can take a year or more if the contributing factors that brought about the sciatica are still active in that person’s life.
If an individual has had sciatica for less than 3 months generally it can take anywhere between a few days to a few months to resolve the sciatica symptoms.
Chiropractic is very effective in addressing sciatica symptoms. Likely if sciatica has gotten worse under the care of Chiropractic, then there is part of a patient’s lifestyle that has yet to have been addressed. That is, the patient may still have bad habits such as lifting incorrectly or there are structural abnormalities that have yet to have been addressed such as a scoliosis.
Chiropractor for Sciatica
If you’re looking for advice from an experienced Sydney chiropractor, feel free to contact our clinic today.