Have you experienced pain or numbing in your lower back?
Perhaps, pain that shoots down your leg that is sharp or maybe you are experiencing a sensation like pins and needles?
Perhaps it’s more a feeling of numbness?
Sometimes pain can last for days, weeks or just isn’t going away. It might even come and go with different levels of intensity.
Why Sciatic Pain is Sometimes a Good Thing
Often this pain is a direct result of something going on with your sciatic nerve. Your sciatic nerve runs from your lower back, to your hips and buttocks and down your legs. The pain is often caused by your lower spine being misaligned. Sometimes when we have a misalignment it can cause a nerve to be trapped or inflamed and cause us pain. Other causes can be related to pregnancy, childbirth, constipation, diabetes or sitting for prolonged periods or time. Unfortunately, many people wait until they are experiencing severe pain before they seek relief.
Pain is actually a good thing. It is telling us that something is wrong. By waiting to seek treatment it may actually cause long term damage. If treatment is sought early you’ll have less risk of long term pain and discomfort. The sooner treatment begins the sooner you can get back to pain-free living.
Symptoms you may experience can be lower back pain, pins and needles, numbness and tingling down you leg, or even pain in your calf or thigh. The type of pain you may experience can vary from sharp, intense and constant, to mild and intermittent.
In order to understand what might be the root cause of you particular pain an assessment would be valuable to find out the cause of your pain in order to treat it properly.
What Can A Chiropractor Do To Help?
A chiropractor will take time to do a health history and try to understand where the problem originated from. They will do a hands on assessment as well as a series of exams, specialized scans and possibly x-rays to determine the severity of the issue. Once understanding why you are in pain, manual adjustments can be used to correct the misalignment of the spine and remove any blockage that may be pinching the sciatic nerve. There are a number of different Chiropractic Techniques that may be used.
In addition to adjustments, massage therapy may be suggested as well as specific stretches to do at home, and applying ice as directed by the doctor. Taking pain medication does not treat the problem, it only masks it and will not bring the long term relief you are looking for.