Sciatica

Your sciatic nerve is the longest and largest nerve in your body. It begins in your lower back as five smaller nerves joining together and it is found in your pelvis, thigh, knee, calf, ankle, foot and toes. Sciatica (pronounced si'ad-a'ka), then, is when this large nerve becomes inflamed. The pain may follow the path of your nerve - down the back of your legs and thighs, down to your ankle, foot and toes - but it can also radiate to your back! Along with pain there may be burning, pins and needles, tingling, prickling, crawling sensations or tenderness. Ironically, the leg may also feel numb! To complicate matters, although sciatica pain is usually in the back of the legs or thighs, in some people it can be in the front or side of the legs or even in the hips. For some, the pain is in both legs: bilateral sciatica!
Causes Of Sciatica
Like most other conditions, sciatica has a wide variety of causes. An unhealthy spine with a protruded or ruptured disc that can irritate the sciatic nerve is one cause. Sciatica has been reported following accidents, injuries and even childbirth, usually due to spinal misalignment.(1) However advanced diabetes can also cause sciatic nerve irritation, as can arthritis, constipation, tumors and even vitamin deficiencies.
The Medical Approach
The medical approach to sciatica is usually treating symptoms with painkillers, muscle relaxants and orthopedic devices such as traction and physical therapy. Sciatica is particularly frustrating to treat with drugs because in many cases even strong painkillers bring little or no relief. However, relief may be obtained by injecting painkillers directly into the nerve roots! As with all painkillers, there is always a risk of drug dependency. In extreme cases orthopedic surgery may be resorted to.
The Chiropractic Approach
For over a hundred years the benefits the chiropractic spinal adjustment has on sciatica and leg pain have been reported. Many sciatica sufferers have experienced dramatic relief after chiropractic care. (3-4) Many sufferers of sciatica and leg pain have found that chiropractic was superior to traction and pain injections, often saving them from having spinal surgery. (5-7)
Chiropractic care appears to have the most effect on sciatica when used first. Unfortunately many people first submit to medical care. Even in this group excellent results may be obtained with subsequent chiropractic care. Three thousand, one hundred and thirty-six people with lumbosciatalgia (lower back and sciatica pain) with disc disease (protrusion) who had previously had medical treatments such as physiotherapy and drugs with no positive results were given chiropractic care.
A follow-up two years later showed that 50.4% had excellent results with no painful relapses, 34.4% had relapses but then responded favorably after further chiropractic care. 15.2% showed no significant improvement.(10)
Conclusion
For over a hundred years sciatica sufferers have praised the blessings of chiropractic. All sciatica sufferers should see a doctor of chiropractic to ensure they have spines free from the vertebral subluxation complex (subluxation). A subluxation causes poor spinal misalignment, disc and nerve pressure and may stress the entire body. Chiropractors correct or remove subluxations, which relieves stress on the spinal nerves, joints and discs.
Chiropractic is a procedure for the analysis and correction of a serious condition that can damage your joints, muscles and nerves: the vertebral subluxation complex. If you do have sciatica, from whatever cause, a chiropractic spinal adjustment is very badly needed to remove pressure on your nerves, rebalance your spine, take stress off your discs and permit your body's muscles, glands and tissues to function in a more balanced manner.
Every sciatica sufferer needs a healthy spine and therefore every sciatica sufferer should visit his or her neighborhood doctor of chiropractic for a spinal checkup.
References
1. Fonti S, Lynch M. Etiopathogenesis of lumbosciatalgia due to disc disease; chiropractic treatment. In J. Mazzarelli (Ed.), Chiropractic: Interprofessional Research. Torino, Italy: Edizioni Minerve Medica, 1983:59-68.
2. Patrick CAJ, Vroomen MD, Marc CTFM, et al. Lack of effectiveness of bed rest for sciatica. The New England Journal of Medicine. 1999;340:418-423.
3. Johnson EW. Sciatic nerve palsy following delivery. Postgrad. Med. 1961;30(5).
4. Barge FH. The chiropractic vertebral subluxation and its relationship to vertebrogenic lumbar pain, cruralgia and sciatic syndromes. Chiropractic Research Journal. 1995;3(2):25-39.
5. Livingston M. Spinal manipulation: a one year follow-up study. The Canadian Family Physician. July 1969:35-39.
6. Mathews JA, et al. Back pain and sciatica: controlled trials of manipulation, traction, sclerosant and epidural injections. British Journal of Rheumatology. 1987;26:416-423.
7. Osterbauer PJ, Fuhr AW. Treatment of chronic sciatica by mechanical force, manually assisted, short lever adjusting and a video assisted stretching program: a quantitative case report. Proceedings of the Consortium for Chiropractic Research Conference on Research and Education, 1992. Palm Springs, CA.
8. Cox JM, Shreiner S. Chiropractic manipulation in low back pain and sciatica: statistic data on the diagnosis, treatment and response of 576 consecutive cases. JMPT. 1982;7:1-11.
9. Bronfort G, Evans RL, Anderson AV, et al. Non-operative treatments for sciatica: a pilot study for a randomized clinical trial. JMPT. 2000;23(8).
10. Downs S. Unilateral intermittent claudication of the left lower extremity. JMPT. 1988;11:322-324.
11 Nall SK. The role of specific manipulation towards alleviating abnormalities in body mechanics and restoration of spinal motion. JMPT. 1982;5:11-15.