Image courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Sciatica

Sciatica is a term that describes the symptoms of leg pain that often originates in the low back.  Typically the pain starts in the back or buttocks and radiates down the back or side of the leg. Sciatica is not a diagnosis but is often thought of as one. It’s actually a symptom of an underlying condition where the spinal nerve is being compressed.

Sciatic pain can vary from constantly there to infrequent and annoying. In some cases it can be incapacitating. Symptoms can be different in location and severity. Some people may experience symptoms in the low back and buttocks only, whereas others may experience symptoms only in the calf. Furthermore, sciatica is usually one sided but it can occur in both legs.

Sciatica symptoms of pain, numbness, tingling and/or weakness largely depend upon where the nerve is compressed. For example, a nerve compression involving the fourth and fifth lumbar can cause weakness in extension of the big toe and cause radiating pain into the back of the thigh and calf.

Chiropractic care is more effective than surgery in some cases. Spinal decompression surgery, also known as microdiscectomy, has proven to be an effective medical management for many people. Researchers questioned whether surgery was necessary in all cases. A study published in Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics. 2010; 33(8): 576-584 revealed sixty percent of patients with sciatica who had failed other medical management benefited from spinal manipulation to the same degree as if they underwent surgical intervention.

With chiropractic care, patients can easily recover from low back pain with or without sciatica. Chiropractors are natural healthcare doctors who use gentle spinal adjustments as their primary modality of treatment to restore normality of the spine. If you are suffering from any form of spinal related pain such as neck, mid-back, low back and/or sciatica and have tried other forms of treatment with minimal or no results, chiropractic care may be the next step for you.

Dr. Richard Picard is a chiropractor in Cranston, RI. He has been in private practice for 30 years and has seen thousands of cases of low back pain with and without sciatica. Dr. Picard utilizes the Impulse-IQ instrument assisted technology which is a very comfortable, safe and effective treatment method for all age groups.