Sciatica
Your West Vancouver Chiropractor can help you identify and treat most types of sciatica. Sciatica is pain that moves from the lower back of your body towards your legs. The pain usually radiates through and down your hips and buttocks along the trajectory of the sciatic nerve. It presents commonly on one side of the lower back, hip, leg, and foot. Sciatica can happen from different causes. Some of these causes can be a herniated, or bulging disc that compresses a portion of the sciatic nerve going down the leg. Other reasons can be a bone spur from the spine, tight muscles, and even just from joints being out of place from the hip and pelvis. Inflammation, pain and often numbness and tingling down your legs are quite common. The sciatic nerve is the longest and most significant nerve in your body. It has a direct impact on the movement and feeling in your legs and feet. You’ll experience Sciatica when this nerve is compromised or just touched in the wrong way. The common symptoms are usually numbness and tingling. However, pain and weakness can also accompany the leg or foot that is affected.
Symptoms
You can feel any of these symptoms anywhere along the path of the sciatic nerve. However the most common areas for these symptoms of pain, numbness, and tingling can be felt in the lower back, buttocks, back of the thighs, and calf. It presents on either side. Your West Vancouver Chiropractor will be able to determine if you have sciatica after a series of questions and an exam if you complain of these symptoms.
There may be different types of pain associated with sciatica. Depending on the severity of the compression or involvement of the sciatic nerve, the pain can range from a mild achiness to one that is sharp and burning. The pain may also feel like an electric shock going down your leg sometimes. Coughing, sneezing or even laughing may make it worse. Sitting for too long will be uncomfortable as it usually makes the symptoms worse.
If you are experiencing any of the symptoms noted above, don’t wait as it can get worse. Get a doctor or your West Vancouver chiropractor to do a proper exam as soon as you can. A quick and correct diagnosis of sciatica increases your chances of recovery significantly. By visiting Dr. Andrew Chin in West Vancouver, there is an excellent chance that he can help you after only one visit if the cause is musculoskeletal.
Additional symptoms might accompany sciatic pain:
- Leg pain gets worse with walking. Stopping and resting makes it feel better temporarily.
- A loss of feeling and sensation in your affected leg and foot.
- A feeling of “pins and needles” traveling down your affected leg and foot.
Causes
Your West Vancouver Chiropractor will go over some common causes of Sciatica.
These are:
Age
The most prevalent causes of Sciatica are age-related changes to the spine, such as a narrowing of the vertebral canal and bone spurs from osteoarthritis.
Prolonged sitting
People who have sedentary lifestyles or sit for long periods are more likely to get sciatica than active individuals who are active.
Diabetes
The risk of nerve damage in your extremities such as your legs and feet increases dramatically if your blood sugar levels are too high.
Pregnancy
The weight of the fetus pressing upon the sciatic nerve when sitting can increase your chance of sciatica during the second and third trimester.
Obesity
Excess body weight causes more wear and tear on the spine and individual vertebrae. This increased degeneration of the spine leads to osteoarthritis causing rapid bone spur growth and narrowing of the nerve canals.
Type of Job
Any profession that causes repetitive and prolonged wear on the spine will invariably lead to first back pain and then early progression of osteoarthritis. Degeneration of the spine, tight and weakened muscles, and tendons. Even subluxated joints can all eventually play a part in compression of the sciatic nerve.
Treatment
Chiropractic doctors offer one of the best treatment options for Sciatica, in the early and intermediate stages. The aim of chiropractic therapy is to assist the body in repairing itself. It builds on the notion that limited movement of the spine and joints leads to pain and early degeneration. The reduced performance and function of the spine and hip joints increases more wear and tear and thus osteoarthritis. Your West Vancouver Chiropractor will offer a non-invasive and straightforward treatment of relieving the stress on the sciatic nerve. Your treatment plan for sciatica may include modalities such as ice/heat, ultrasound, TENS, shockwave therapy and spinal manipulation. Our West Vancouver Chiropractor is adept in all of these treatments. To find out if Dr. Andrew Chin, West Vancouver Chiropractor can help, please call us at 604-922-0706
