The sciatic nerve is a thick chain of 5 nerve roots that join together to create a left and right sciatic nerve, each traveling down their respective leg. Someone experiencing sciatica endures nerve damage from this sensitive area.
Injuring the actual sciatic nerve is typically rare, but extreme pain in the lumbar region is sometimes also referred to as ‘sciatica.’
Many factors can cause sciatica, such as age, injury, or excessive strain. The pain is described as a dull ache, mild pain, or persistent burning sensation.
This discomfort can stop someone from going about their day with proper functioning ability. To combat pain from sciatica, the right pain-relief specialist can work with you to develop a productive action plan for your pain.
At Optimum Health Rehabilitation Center, we focus on understanding each patient’s unique needs to personalize sciatica treatment. Carrying the burden of sciatica quickly becomes exhausting, but our relief specialists can help lift some of that pressure off your back.
Stay in control of your health with the resources available from our local team of professionals. To speak with a trusted team member, contact us online or call (770)887-9443.
Why Seek Sciatica Treatment?
Sciatica is a type of nerve pain and is usually the result of long-term repetitive compression of the lower back. Sitting, slouching, walking, running, and swimming are all common activities that can cause sciatica because the motion leaves the sciatic nerve at risk of compression.
Once symptoms set in, patients experience severe drops in quality of life when performing these very basic activities.
Because sciatica is nerve pain, it is diagnosed and treated differently than muscle or joint pain. Attempting to address it the same way often fails to produce any positive results.
Image testing is generally unhelpful when it comes to diagnosing sciatica, so a care specialist will rely on testing your body’s response to certain actions like walking, running, kicking, squatting, and other agile movements.
The care specialists at Optimum Health can use therapeutic massages, regenerative therapy, and more to help promote the natural healing abilities within your body.
What Kind of Doctor Treats Sciatica?
Sciatica doesn’t have to be treated surgically, and in most cases, a chiropractor can utilize non-invasive treatment methods that are generally less harsh on the body.
To relieve the sciatic nerve of compression-related pain, a chiropractic care specialist can use manual manipulation therapy to adjust any misalignments and restore normalcy to the lumbar region.
If the specialist finds that the pain you are experiencing isn’t sciatica but muscle or joint pain in the lower back, your chiropractor can still help using similar methods.
Physical therapy can also be extremely beneficial. The right regimen of exercises can relax tension in the back and then strengthen stabilizing muscles to provide more “room” and support for the sciatic nerve, avoiding compression.
Risk Factors for Sciatica
People between the ages of 30 and 50 are at the highest risk for sciatica, but the condition can develop in all adults. Sciatica can develop because of wear and tear, an underlying condition, or injury.
In the long term, compression in the lumbar region can lead to a herniated or slipped disc that over-stimulates and irritates the base of the nerve. This is one of the most common causes of extreme nerve pain.
Even though some causes of sciatica can be genetic, there are other risk factors that may increase the likelihood of experiencing sciatic nerve damage, including but not limited to:
- Injury/previous injury: An injury to the lumbar region can leave a person with nerve damage and extreme pain from sciatica. Most commonly, sports and auto accidents result in nerve discomfort.
- Living a sedentary lifestyle: Sitting, reclining, and lying down can all put excessive pressure on the sciatic nerve. Sitting at a desk or on the couch for long periods of time can cause compression in your lower back, which may result in sciatica. Sleeping in the wrong positions can also be a dangerous habit, but special pillows are available to help prevent that problem.
- Obesity: Someone who is overweight has an increased risk of sciatica because any activity that compresses the muscles, joints, and nerves in the lumbar region has even more pressure than the body is prepared to handle. This means that all activities, from exercising to relaxing, can put additional wear and tear on the body.
- Physically demanding career field: Labor-intensive jobs that require reaching, lifting, leaning, or any other repetitive motion that relies on the spine and lower back can be dangerous for the sciatic nerve. In physically demanding careers, it is important to pace oneself on the job and invest time into rehabilitative care like physical therapy when off the job to preserve the functioning ability of the joints and muscles and prevent persistent aches from developing.
- Diabetes: People with diabetes can develop diabetic neuropathy, which attacks the nervous system, most commonly affecting the hands and feet. Because this condition affects the nervous system, the sciatic nerve is at risk, as well.
- Osteoarthritis: Known as the ‘wear and tear’ sub-category of arthritis, osteoarthritis can develop naturally over time simply by aging. The more we move, the more wear and tear we force our nerves and muscles to compress; these factors make older adults more likely to experience this condition.
- Smoking: Smoking affects many of the body’s major systems, including the nervous system. Nicotine acts as a stimulant and a depressant to the central nervous system (CNS), sending the system from a high to a low point in a short period of time. Over time, this can exhaust the nervous system. Alongside the attack on the nervous system, smoking causes a restriction of blood flow which can damage essential nerves like the sciatic nerve.
- Pregnancy: Pregnant women have an increased risk for sciatica, but it isn’t necessarily due to the extra weight of the baby. Certain hormones released during pregnancy can actually cause ligaments to loosen. Ligaments secure discs, vertebrae, and the whole spine, and said ligaments loosening can cause something as painful as a slipped disc. The position of the baby even makes pressure more intense for the mom’s sciatic nerve.
Can You Prevent Sciatica?
Nerve pain is described as a sharp, almost shocking sensation that takes over the entire body from the pain point.
Sciatica is known to be one of the most intensified versions of nerve pain because it involves a highly sensitive nerve network made up of multiple different branches interconnected by a thick stem. This means that the choir of multiple inflamed nerves can often intensify the pain.
While certain causes of sciatica may generally be unpreventable — like sciatica stemming from pregnancy, an underlying condition, or an injury — there may be lifestyle habits that a person can incorporate into their routine to preserve a healthy sciatic nerve.
Roughly 40% of adults will experience sciatica in their lives, but preventative care is a productive strategy to promote long-term wellness, including the following:
- Stop smoking: There are countless chemicals in cigarettes that have harmful effects on the body, but nicotine alone can speed up degenerative processes, weaken bones, and damage tissue around the spine. Many harmful repercussions come from smoking, but to dramatically decrease your chances of sciatica, stop smoking.
- Practice good posture: Slouching, hovering, or hunching can all negatively impact all parts of the spine and the sciatic nerve. Optimal posture includes sitting up straight with your shoulders back and relaxed. Imagine having a pail of water on either shoulder, and it’s your job to ensure that they don’t fall. That image should help you visualize a straight, even, and steady posture between both shoulders.
- Exercise regularly and cautiously: Making it a habit to do 30 minutes of low-impact exercise several times a week can help to improve weak muscles, increase mobility, and enrich the nervous system. All of these key benefits will play a huge role in preventing pain like sciatica. Consider speaking with a doctor or physical rehab expert prior to exercising with extreme sciatica conditions. While exercise is beneficial, it can have dangerously negative results if not done carefully, too.
- Stretch: Stretching is an essential part of a workout routine, regardless of what kind of exercise you do. A 5-minute warm-up and cool-down routine can make all the difference. Warm-ups prepare the body for the exercise to come and prevent shocking the joints, muscles, and tendons. Cool-down stretches help the muscles relax from their tight state and can prevent post-workout issues like aches and spasming muscles.
- Keep track of your weight: Excess weight can put more pressure on the lower back than your body is used to. This can make simple activities like sitting, lying down, and walking more strenuous on the body, which can lead to faster-developing pain like sciatica.
To prevent the intense pain from sciatica or to nip it in the bud when you feel lumbar pain begin to develop, preventative treatment could help you avoid those dreaded later stages of pain progression.
Services like therapeutic massages, regenerative therapy, and manual adjustments from Optimum Health can help your body through its natural healing processes and prevent worsening sciatica pain.
Optimum Health Rehabilitation Center Can Provide Pain-Relieving Care for Sciatica
Sciatica can be an extremely painful condition to live with, but help is out there. The pain relief specialists at Optimum Health in Cumming are standing by to help you.
When you work with our rehabilitation facility, we’ll personalize an action plan that targets, relieves, and prevents your ongoing shoulder pain.
Our staff is committed to providing aid for each patient that we see and is dedicated to their long-term wellness. To get in touch with a trusted team member, contact us online or call (770)887-9443.