Sunday, December 25, 2011

What is Sciatica?And How To Deal With The Pain

Article Directory :: Health & Fitness Articles

Sciatica is a pain in the lumbar or lower back region. The cause of sciatica pain is irritation in the longest nerve of our body known as the sciatic nerve, after which this pain is named. Sciatic nerve begins from the nerve roots located in the lower back region branching off the end of the spine. It stretches all the way to the lower legs or calves, passing from the hind thighs and the back part of the knees on route. This is why the Sciatica pain starts from the lumbar region and seems to pass on like waves from the back of the thighs to behind the knees, exactly following the route of the sciatic nerve.

Symptoms of Sciatica
Sciatica symptoms include flowing pain starting from the lower back to the legs, feeling of burning or irritation in the lumbar, hips or legs, numbness of any of these regions or tingling sensation starting from the lower back and passing on to the buttocks, behind the thighs and then the lower legs. However, it may also result in isolated pains in the lower back, hips, thighs and/or behind the knees. Most of the times people associate sciatica with pain in the lower back but sometimes sciatica may happen without any pain in the lumbar or lower back region.

If you are experiencing sciatica pain, it is advisable for you not to walk during the fits of these sciatica pains. Sciatica pain may get worse or severe if you keep walking or if you bend your back. You will feel relief if you lay down flat on your back but do not lay down on a very hard or flat surfaces, make sure you lay down on some mattress, though be it thin. The relief in pain can also come by changing body positions like lying down on back for some time and then turning to right or left side. But this relief is only partial and for the time being. It is not a permanent solution.

Sciatica Pain Relief
Before we move on to see what can be done for sciatica pain we must stop and have a look at its causes first, for no remedy works if the cause is not diagnosed. So to start with, we will look at the most common cause of the sciatica pain which is known as lumbar disc herniation. This lumbar disc herniation presses directly on sciatic nerve and causes it to swell which sends waves of pain along it. Pretty much everything that can cause sciatic nerve to swell or irritate can cause sciatic pain.

The medical experts have categorized the main causes into four: vertebral displacement, sacroiliac joint dysfunction, disc degeneration and piriformis syndrome. These are strictly medical terms and you don't need to know their details but what you should know is how to get relief from sciatica pain.

Sciatica pain relief can come from various ways. In some cases, where your immobility or vertebral displacement is causing sciatic nerve to inflame or irritate, then it can be cured from simple exercises. In severe cases you may have to go for physiotherapies, chiropractic massages or even sciatica surgery if your doctor is of the view that it cannot be cured by medication.

Sciatica treatment can be as easy as performing some small exercises, of course you may need to take a form of medication to help with sciatica pain Bookmark this article using any bookmark manager! Subscribe to Michelle Hopkins's RSS feed using any feed reader!

EasyPublish™ this article - publishers click here

More articles by Michelle Hopkins


View the original article here

No comments:

Post a Comment