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The Skinny on Sciatica

If you’ve ever suffered from sciatica, you know the pain, discomfort, and frustration it can cause. Sciatica can affect people in a variety of ways, but no matter how the pain presents, it can really cramp your style.

What is sciatica?
It may be helpful to start off with what sciatica is not. Sciatica is not a disorder; it’s a set of symptoms.

Sciatica refers to pain, weakness, numbness, or tingling anywhere from the lower back through the buttocks all the way down the leg. The pain can be sharp or dull, and the symptoms may not be consistent. (You could have a stinging sensation on one part of your leg while experiencing numbness in another part.) Symptoms may be experienced at any point on the leg—even down to the sole of the foot—and are usually (but not always) experienced in only one leg.

But what causes it?
Sciatica is usually caused by a compression of the sciatic nerve, which can occur due to a number of different causes—spinal and otherwise—including a herniated disc, misaligned vertebrae, pregnancy, or tumors, just to name a few. (Seriously…there are a lot of possible culprits.) You can even develop sciatica from sitting on your wallet. (Keep it somewhere other than your back pocket, guys!)

Okay, but what is this “sciatic nerve” you’re talking about?
The sciatic nerve is the longest and largest nerve in the human body. It runs all the way from the base of the spine along the back of each leg into the bottom of each foot.

What can bring relief?
In short? It depends. Again, since sciatica refers to a series of symptoms and not a disorder, it’s important to diagnose the underlying cause. Sometimes sciatica gets better on its own; other times, treatment is necessary. There is a wide range of treatments available, including (but not limited to):

back/core exercises
stretching
ice
heat
physical therapy
chiropractic
over-the-counter pain medications
prescription pain medications
muscle relaxers
epidural steroid injections
surgery (usually a last resort)
Tell me more about how chiropractic can help!
In some cases, chiropractic adjustment can help restore mobility to the spine and reduce nerve irritability that’s causing pain, inflammation, muscle spasms, and other symptoms associated with sciatica.

There are additional benefits of seeing a chiropractor for sciatica. If chiropractic can relieve your particular symptoms without the need for medication, you can bypass the possible side effects of said medications. And since you don’t need a referral to see a chiropractor, you can “cut out the middleman,” as it were.

If your sciatica pain falls outside the bounds of your chiropractor’s expertise, they should be able to point you in the direction of a provider who can help.

by Brent Hearn

Sources:
Cleveland Clinic: Hands-On Help: How a Chiropractor Can Provide Lower Back or Sciatica Pain Relief

Cleveland Clinic: Sciatica

Health Central: What to Know About Chiropractic Treatment of Sciatica

healthline: Why is My Sciatica Not Going Away?

Penn Medicine: Sciatica

Reuters: Chiropractic Care May Ease Back-Related Leg Pain

Spine-Heath: Sciatic Nerve Anatomy

Posture Check!

Okay, class…quiz time! Yes, you can use your notes. No, this won’t count toward your daily average. Yes, Timmy, you can go to the restroom. Right after you take this quiz.

Don’t sweat it; this one is pretty easy. Just answer the following questions. (Silently, Timmy.)

Do you sometimes feel off-balance while standing?
Bring yourself to your full height right now. How much adjustment did that require?
Do you find yourself slumping, slouching, or otherwise leaning in a way that might lead to your being cast in a 90s alternative band’s music video?
Do you experience frequent flashbacks of your mother admonishing you to Stand up straight, Timothy!? (Sorry to pick on you today, Timmy. Maybe if you showed up on time for class on any day that doesn’t involve a field trip…)
Do you suffer from otherwise unexplained back or neck pain?
Have you recently been offered a bell-ringing position at a French cathedral?
If you answered “yes” to one or more of these questions, your posture may need an overhaul. We’ve talked about good “office job” posture in “Watch Your Back…at Work” and doled out a few helpful posture tips for kids in “Neck and Back Health: Is Your Child Making the Grade?” but today we’re going to focus solely on standing posture.

Quite a bit goes into developing and maintaining good posture, so we’re going to try to keep things simple. It may be helpful for us to focus on three particular aspects of posture: strength, balance, and alignment.

Strength
Your core strength both affects your posture and is affected by your posture. Weak leg muscles can negatively impact your balance. Weak or fatigued muscles in your core—those in your belly, back, sides, pelvis, and butt—can lead to slumping. And said slumping can contribute to fragility in your spine, making it more prone to injury. It’s easy to see how a poor-posture cycle can be perpetuated.

Strengthening these muscles can help put an end to that cycle. You don’t have to become a gym rat; whether you’re young, older, or somewhere in between, your posture can likely benefit from manageable, consistent strength training. Consult a doctor or physical therapist to develop a routine appropriate to your current fitness level.

Balance
Your shoulders should be even. Your elbows should be even. And your hips? You guessed it: even. Think about keeping your feet at shoulder-width apart while standing, with your weight evenly distributed between both feet. And remember when we talked about slumping? That can tip you forward, throwing you off balance.

This is a great time to point out something you may have already picked up on: The aspects of posture we’re discussing don’t exist in a vacuum. Strength, balance, and (spoiler!) alignment—are all interconnected. Making positive changes in one area can pay dividends elsewhere.

Alignment
There’s more to alignment than simply standing up straight. (According to some experts, “standing up straight” is overly simplistic; there’s not a one-size-fits-all metric for good posture.)

That said, there are some good guidelines to follow when it comes to proper alignment:

Keep your head centered above your pelvis and your feet. (If you’re hunching over to stare at your phone, that’s the polar opposite of what we’re going for here. Fight the text neck!)
Your ears should be over your shoulders—not jutting out in front of them.
Your ankles should be directly below your hips; this helps you maintain your balance. (There’s that interconnectivity we talked about earlier.)
As you can see, it can be a lot to think about. (And there’s more.) If you’re the type of person who loves a checklist to work from, check out this article from AARP to help you assess and improve your alignment.

by Brent Hearn

Sources:
AARP: Stand Up Straight: How to Improve Your Posture

Harvard Health Publishing: Why Good Posture Matters

HuffPost: Standing Up Straight Might Not Be as Beneficial as We Thought

Mayo Clinic: Good Posture Tips