Back Pain Articles

What is Sciatica? Sciatica is a constant pain that is felt along the sciatic nerve; it runs from the lower back down to the feet. It controls the muscles to the legs and provides feeling to the thighs, legs and bottoms of the feet. Sciatica occurs most often in people between the ages thirty through fifty. It usually is caused by repetitive use type of conditions, such as sitting for long periods of time, or normal wear and tear. It is rarely caused by an acute or traumatic event.

The pain from sciatica can be sometimes debilitating and it can get so bad it can be difficult for one to sit, walk or even sleep. Some people experience tingling, while for others it is just a dull pain. Occasionally it can be a burning type of feeling. Pain from the sciatic nerve is usually caused by the nerve being pinched or irritated in the lower back or lumbar spine. The nerve then gets inflamed and causes a variation of symptoms that can wreak havoc with one’s lifestyle.

The most conservative type of treatment for sciatica is the application of ice. I recommend to my patients to lay flat with two pillows under the knees and apply ice to the lower back on the side of involvement for fifteen minutes. This can be repeated up to every hour if necessary. It is important not to apply the ice for more than twenty minutes at a time because this can aggravate the condition. Applying ice to the source of the problem will decrease the inflammation of the nerve and subsequently decrease pain. Although this may be a temporary solution, it does offer some relief.

Manipulation of the spine to relieve the pressure on the nerve has been demonstrated in studies to be one of the most affective treatments for sciatic pain. Manipulation is the best place to start when someone has sciatic nerve pain. It is a non-invasive, drug-free treatment option. The goal of manipulation is to realign the spinal bones taking the pressure off the nerve. When the nerve pressure is alleviated one often finds great improvement with decreased pain and inflammation.

Other very effective, conservative option is a good exercise program. There are many exercises available, but these are the ones I have used in my clinical experience to be most effective. The first exercise is laying flat on your back with your knees bent. Squeeze or flex you buttocks pressing toward the ceiling. Hold this position for a count of ten and slowly return to the neutral position. Repeat this four times. Starting at the neutral position, bring each leg to your chest with both hands one at a time. Follow this by bringing both knees to the chest, bringing your head up again holding for a count of ten and returning slowly to the neutral position and do this four times. A third exercise is laying on your stomach and arching backwards with your elbows on the floor moving from a neutral position to a comfortable flexed position arching backwards as much as you can but stopping if back or leg pain worsens. The fourth exercise is on your hands and knees, pushing your back up toward the ceiling then pushing it to the floor, (this is often called the cat stretch). These exercises should be initiated slowly and if there is any pain or discomfort, to stop before you have pain. I would recommend doing these exercises two to three times a day.

There are many nutritional aspects to sciatic nerve pain you may not be aware. A diet that is pro-inflammatory i.e., one that is rich in meat, dairy and shellfish, will give more inflammation to all nerves. An anti-inflammatory diet consists of fruits, vegetables and fish. This is one of the most powerful ways to treat the symptoms of inflammation and stop pain.

The nutritional protocol that I found to be most effective in treating sciatic nerve pain are turmeric, tulsi and rosemary. These powerful herbs have been studied and found to greatly lower inflammation. Boswellia is an herb that is a specific anti-inflammatory. This is especially helpful for arthritic patients. Bromelein is a plant enzyme found in pineapples and has powerful natural anti-inflammatory effects. I prefer to take this with papain as well, it is essential that you take it on an empty stomach to really get the benefits of the anti-inflammatory nature. Ginger is a wonderful herb that offers pain relief. You can steep fresh ginger in boiling water and use it as a tea or make a juice with it. Evening primrose oil, black currant oil, or borage oils contain the essential fatty acids Gammalinolenic acid. These omegas will powerfully reduce the inflammatory process and take down the inflammation on the sciatic nerve.

There are many ergonomically beneficial positions that will improve sciatic nerve pain no matter the cause. It is an important part of your treatment to improve your posture and use your body correctly. Good posture allows the use of the body without strain on muscles, joints, ligaments, and internal organs. Good posture must be considered in all activities: sitting, standing, resting, working, playing and exercising. It is simply not a matter of “standing tall”.

In the resting position, it is beneficial to lay flat on your back with two pillows under your knees or lay on your side with a pillow in between your knees. Avoid positions like sleeping flat with no pillow, on your stomach or lying on your stomach with one knee bent up. This will result in a ’swayback’ condition. Some simple things, such as getting up and down from bed, to get into bed it is best that you sit on the side of the bed bring both arms to one side, lower your side to the bed keeping your knees bent at forty five degrees, then pull your feet into bed. Remain on one side or roll on the back. Getting up from the bed it is best to roll on your side push with the hands to the sitting position keeping knees bent and swinging legs over the edge of the bed. When sitting, stay away from a chair that is too high, as this will increase swayback. When sitting, the knees should be higher than the hips as this will flatten the lumbar curvature. Avoid slouching on a chair with feet on an ottoman because this can strain the lower back. When traveling in a car the seat should be close to the steering wheel and use a small pillow for proper lumbar support. When standing, it is recommended to place one foot on a stool or shelf and after a short time switch to the other foot, this will cause the lumbar curve to flatten and ease the pressure off the lumbar spine. When lifting, do not bend at the waist. Bend the knees and carry the object close to the body. When bending, bend at the knees and push your buttocks out rather then flexing at the waist.

My final tip on stopping sciatic nerve pain is to drink plenty of water. A dehydrated body is one that will struggle to heal. It is important to drink at least six to eight glasses of water per day to keep the body well hydrated and to flush toxins built up from resulting muscle spasms of the pain and inflammation. Water will also hydrate the disc. Between your spinal bones are intervetebral discs that dry out as we age the more we can keep them hydrated, the less degenerative arthritis will occur in the spine. This is also the reason we get shorter as we age is each little disc between the vertebrae dry out, or desiccate then subsequent height loss will occur.

If you follow these simple steps for stopping sciatic nerve pain, you will go a long way in preventing any pain in the future and avoid any harmful pharmaceutical side effects or painful surgical intervention. Remember, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

discover the waysto stopping sciatic nerve pain. Through years of clinical treatments, Dr. Gendron has helped thousands of patients prevent and relief the pain of sciatica. Go to his blog, www.doctorgendron.com today, to discover natural solutions and stop the pain.

For hundreds of years, the ancient remedy of acupuncture has been used to treat a variety of ailments. Today, this ancient Chinese practice continues to help thousands and thousands of people in many ways. People who have allergies, asthma, sinus conditions, headaches, and even back and arthritic joint pain have sought the help of someone who is trained to perform acupuncture treatments and have found a great deal of relief and success in managing chronic health problems.

Even though acupuncture is a derivative of Eastern medical practices, it can be found today in much of the western world, and is increasing in popularity in America for a number of reasons. More and more people continue to seek out the help of acupuncture specialists and reap the physical rewards of acupuncture treatments. Even if you are one who may be scared of needles, acupuncture can relieve pain and other symptoms by using pins inserted into the body at specific targeted pressure points. It may be a relief to some to know that acupuncture needles are in fact very small and do not cause any pain or discomfort when inserted.

Since practitioners have been studying acupuncture for many, many years, a large number of these pressure points in the body have been identified, and have been deemed accurate when it comes to correlating body parts and organ functions involved. Due to the fact that acupuncture has virtually no side effects when compared to other conventional treatments in modern medicine, and is an all natural approach to healing, favorability among many in the US has greatly increased.

Throughout many centuries, acupuncture has provided healing and a more comfortable way of life for many around the world, and has alleviated a number of conditions that continue to plague people of today. Anyone who has had persistent back pain or a recent back injury or surgery, may find that acupuncture for back pain can alleviate a great deal of pain and discomfort without the cost or side effects associated with other treatments.

Acupuncture can help save consumers hundreds of thousands of dollars over other forms of medicine, and has been found to be much more effective at treating some conditions than others. For those battling today’s rising health care costs, acupuncture can not only be a relief, but can eliminate the need for expensive prescriptions and other procedures. When it comes to managing pain, acupuncture is much safer than the use of dangerous, habit-forming prescription narcotics.

While some people rely on acupuncture to treat their health conditions, it is still more widely used as a form of prevention, with the overall goal of acupuncture treatments being restoration of balance within the body. Because of this, acupuncture is beneficial in today’s world at helping to reverse the numerous effects of stress and environmental toxins on the body, which promotes a greater overall sense of well being and improved health for all kinds of people.

To make sure you find out everything you can regarding spinal treatments, first check out this blog Acupuncture for Back Pain. There are wonderful resources to assist you avoid costly drugs and surgery. Dr. Gendron has the right stragedy at www.acupuncture.southwestfloridachiropractor.com.

Have you ever wondered why so many golfers have bad spines? Golf is one of America’s favorite pastimes. Many find the game relaxing and therapeutic, to others is the source of there never ending pain. The twisting and bending movements of the typical golf swing impact the spine in ways that most chiropractors cringe about. If you look at the typical golf book, they will say that the perfect form is a reverse C. Having your spine arched backwards to get the full back swing may look good in print, but it puts a tremendous amount of force on your lower back and posterior joints. This is the most frequent injury that we see related to golf lower back pain and result in sciatic pain.

I would like to share a story with you about a patient who visited my office with a rather typical problem that might sound familiar to most of you. Mr. Jones is about 72 years old, he is retired salesman and his general state of health is fair. He is slightly overweight; he is also suffering from mild arthritis. When Mr. Jones first entered our office he stated that he typically gravitated toward traditional western medicine and stated that his wife made him come to our office for an exam.

When he first arrived in our office, he stated that he couldn’t play golf because of his back pain and sciatica. He wasn’t able to swing the club and even walking from the golf cart to the green, he had to use his golf club as a cane! By the way, this typically is what motivates most golfers to seek treatment-when they can’t play golf anymore. Mr. Jones further stated that he could not sleep at night because of the pain and it was impacting his life where he couldn’t go to the mall with his wife and walk around due to the extreme pain and it was getting very frustrating for him. He stated “he had went to his medical doctor who gave him muscle relaxants and pain pills and he stated that the pain pills temporarily helped, but when they wore off, he was in more pain than ever”. Mr. Jones further stated that he had not been to a chiropractor before. When he first came to our office, he had mixed reviews from some of his friends, some got excellent results and some other people mildly positive results. He also stated that his medical doctor referred him to a neurologist who performed many tests and told him to do physical therapy, which he did, with no benefits. The neurologist was also talking about surgery and he was not thrilled with that recommendation so he and his wife decided to seek a different avenue of care.

He stated that he expected chiropractic care to help him to play golf again. We evaluated Mr. Jones and after a complete neurological and orthopedic evaluation, determined that he had a pinched nerve that was causing his pain. He would require a series of conservative treatments consisting of spinal manipulative therapy together with Class IV laser therapy. He was also advised to use ice at home. Initially his treatment program was three time a week for approximately four weeks.

After the first visit Mr. Jones stated that he did feel somewhat better and after his fifth or sixth visit he had almost no pain. He stated that at that point he was able to get off all his pain killers and muscle relaxants. After his first week of care, when the pain was more manageable, we began a light stretching exercise routine followed by isometric exercises and then progressed to resistance training, specifically geared toward golf. During Mr. Jones second week of treatment, we agreed that that he could begin to swing his club slowly in the yard and if that felt comfortable he could go to the driving range and hit some balls. He felt great about this as he was anxious to get back on the course. After three weeks Mr. Jones was able to play golf without pain and his sleeping pattern was back to normal and he was able to go for that walk in the mall with his wife, which made her happy.

One of the most common things I hear from patients is “why did I wait so long?” Mr. Jones was surprised and questioned why his medical doctor didn’t refer him here quicker. I told Mr. Jones that some allopaths are more supportive than others in referring to chiropractic physicians. I explained to him that chiropractic was the best place to start with an injury such as his as it is the most conservative treatment and there is no side effects to it and if the person doesn’t get the proper results to try more aggressive treatment such as pharmaceuticals, injections or as a last resort, surgery. Mr. Jones is now a raving fan and he said “I can’t believe I feel so good! I have more range of motion in my back which allows me to have a fuller back swing and follow through. It has even taken a few strokes off my game!”

Mr. Jones is a typical patient. When a patient truly understands their condition and what caused it, they can take steps to correct their injuyr and prevent any further aggravations in the future. Mr. Jones is now on an active exercise regime. He is eating better and he’s lost some weight. He stated that he has felt better than he has in years.

Play intelligently and prevent a golf injury, go to my blog for cutting edge sports injury prevention news at www.healsportsinjury.southwestfloridachiropractor.com now!