Sciatica is a painful condition caused by pressure, irritation, or compression of the sciatic nerve
1. What is sciatica and is it dangerous?
Sciatica is known as pain that refers down the leg in the path of the sciatic nerve. This path is from the buttocks, down the back of the leg and to the foot. Usually, the pain is sharp shooting and can come with pins and needles and/or numbness. The reason behind this is due to irritation or compression of the nerve from a structure in your lower back or pelvis, whether it is a spinal, pelvic or muscular cause depends on the reason behind the issue.
Most of the time, sciatica is caused by something relatively minor. However, you should always look out for the following as it could mean it is serious:
- Have sciatica down both legs
- Have weakness or numbness in both legs that is severe or getting worse
- Have numbness around your private parts
- Difficulty when urinating or controlling urine, and abnormal for you.
- Difficulty pooing or controlling your bowels, and abnormal for you.
2. What causes sciatica to flare up?
This depends on the cause of your sciatica. If it is caused by a disc herniation, then most likely this has been building up for a while. Discs can take a lot of pressure when healthy, that is their job. But after years of minor traumas their injury threshold gets smaller until a small movement that you have done many times before causes the disc to herniate. It is like bending a credit card forward and backwards, after a while the credit card will break even with the littlest force. Slouching in a chair and lifting a box are both examples of microtraumas if done for prologues periods of time and done incorrectly.
3. Can you cure sciatica permanently?
The only way to cure sciatica permanently is to find the cause and remove it. For example, if the reason is that a muscle is compressing the sciatic nerve in the buttock then reducing the tension on that muscle will get rid of the symptoms of sciatica. But, the cause of that muscle tension must be addressed, otherwise it will come back. That may be numerous causes such as work postures, an orthotic need or an underlying issue that is truly causing the muscle to compensate in the first place. The best thing to do is ask a professional.
We use an innovative therapy known as IDD (Intervertebral Differential Dynamics) It is a non-invasive treatment which works on spinal decompression, targeting spinal discs. Common lower back issues can be treated using IDD Therapy. These can include, disc injuries, facet irritation, or nerve impingement.
Alongside physical therapy IDD treatment has been shown to work well on the sciatic nerve.
IDD machine in action.
