According to experts 80% of North Americans will experience back pain at some point in their lives. Unfortunately, this is particularly common when you reach your sixties and beyond because bones become more fragile and prone to injury. One of the most common back complaints affecting post-menopausal women is Sciatica. But it doesn't just happen to post-menopausal women - this painful and debilitating back complaint can happen at any age!
This is when the sciatic nerve becomes irritated, leading to lower back and leg pain. For some it can be a dull ache, while others experience an ‘electric shock’ pain that can be quite debilitating. Why does it happen? The bones in our spine are cushioned by tiny sponge-like discs that help to absorb the pressure we place on our backs from daily activities like walking and running.
Sciatica is a very painful syndrome caused by compression or
irritation of the sciatic nerve. The sciatic nerve runs deep through the
buttock and down the leg. Sciatica can range from a dull ache to an
incapacitating pain. Symptoms may be constant or intermittent, depending on
activities or time of day.
Can Sciatica Be Cured?
That depends on the origin and severity of the problem.
Like many pains humans experience in life, some have an immediate cause like a fall
or a sports injury, while others just seem to happen to us. In the former case,
we know how it happened and why it happened – we fall, we injure ourselves and
we have pain that runs down the back of our legs.The second scenario is more
mysterious. We wake up with pain or it comes on slowly out of nowhere or
something inconsequential, like a sneeze, triggers it - and suddenly, we have a
pain that runs down the back of our legs.
Osteopathy and Sciatica
There is no mystery about this – the sciatic nerve which
originates in the lower back and sacrum then runs down the back of the legs
becomes irritated somewhere along it’s trajectory resulting in pain. We know
what’s causing the pain and with proper diagnostic testing, we can determine
where along the nerve’s trajectory it is being pinched or entrapped giving us a
place to start treatment.
A Simple Accident
A simple accident such as falling on your buttocks can
compress the nerve root. And treatment to de-compress the lower back and sacrum
usually solves the problem.
Sciatica and Posture
In this case there is a postural deficit that causes the
bodies weight to fall off-center stressing the lower back which results in
sciatic pain. Here it becomes necessary to dig deeper and treat the postural
compensation with the aim of re-centering the body. The extent to which we are
successful determines whether the sciatica can be completely healed or managed
over time. In fact this is an over simplification of the situation because an
accident, if severe enough, can also cause postural changes.
The story gets even more complicated because a patient’s
health and pre-existing state-of-being (ie. all the various compensations that
a person may be carrying, as well as congenital problems such as a scoliosis
and others) also play into the severity of the injury and these things also
affect prognosis for recovery. More
often than not there’s a mystery to solve. But solve it we usually can and with proper treatment, recovery time and exercise,
sciatica usually resolves.
Osteopathy
Can Relieve the Symptoms of Sciatica
An osteopathic manual practitioner will usually conduct a
full musculoskeletal and orthopaedic examination to find the true underlying
cause of the Sciatica and will treat the related joints, muscles, ligaments or
tendons to reduce the pressure on the sciatic nerve. Sciatica will often
resolve quickly with the appropriate treatment as well as self-care.
Symptoms of sciatica may include the
following:
- pain in the buttock or down the leg
- numbness
- muscular weakness
- pins and needles or tingling
- difficulty moving or controlling the leg
The pain associated with sciatica can be caused by a
number of underlying conditions. These may include:
- herniated (bulging) disc in the lower back
- bony growths on the spine
- arthritis in the low back or hip
- tight muscles in the buttock or trauma to the lower back
- pregnancy, due to changes in the pelvis and lower back.
Tips
for Managing Sciatica
- Engage in low impact exercise such as swimming, Yoga or Pilates or Tai Chi, to increase flexibility and back strength
- Sit and stand with good posture
- Use ergonomic furniture such as chairs with lumbar support
Other Tips for Managing Sciatica
Symptoms
of sciatica might to go away on their own, but it can take months before you’re
feeling back to normal.
We do
not recommend taking painkiller medication as it is unlikely that it will solve
Sciatica; it can only temporarily help the painful symptoms.
If
you’re in the early days of a flare-up, your doctor GP will likely suggest
over-the-counter anti-inflammatories (NSAIDS), to reduce inflammation around
the spine and ease the pressure on the sciatic nerve. (Please refer to my blog article “Warning: Pain Killer and Addiction”.)
Keep
moving! In the past, doctors believed
bed rest was the best cure for a bad back.
However, new research shows that lying down could actually make matters
worse because when you stay still, your
muscles become stiff and tight.
You
could try Heat Hydrotherapy;
combining the relaxing benefits of a hot bath with Epsom Salt or baking soda
together with a low-impact work-out, can be a great help for soothing a sore
back. Heated to around 34°C, the warm
water helps to relieve pressure on your joints and muscles so they can work
more effectively. Hydrotherapy is a
great way to improve blood flow and muscle strength while relieving sciatic
pain.
If Sciatica
is getting you down, acupuncture could get to the heart of the problem. Many
osteopathy clinics provide a treatment called dry needling – a form of
acupuncture that taps into the “trigger points” of pain to ease symptoms. A dry
needle is placed directly into tightness or knots in your back muscles to
loosen them up and take pressure off the sciatic nerve. Depending on how you respond to treatment,
symptoms can subside within a few sessions.
Spinal
traction therapy lasts just a few minutes and the relief can be instant.
Traction is a process that’s performed by an osteopath and involves manually
stretching out the legs while you lie down to lengthen and take pressure off
the spine. If this process is performed early on, it can correct a slipped disc
and stop sciatica from getting worse.
Without Osteopathy and as a Last Resort
If
symptoms persist for longer than six weeks, a doctor may suggest a
corticosteroid injection for targeted pain relief. Typically, you will only get
a few weeks of pain relief from one injection. As a last resort, surgery can offer relief for
chronic sciatica. It tends to stop symptoms for most patients, but flare-ups
can recur in rare cases.
Bio-Structural Integration™ at Osteoklinika
Bio-Structural Integration™ at Osteoklinika
Every cell in our body works synergistically together to maintain homeostasis. When one system is disturbed the other cannot function properly. In my method of Bio-Structural Integration™, I address the dysfunction at every level. Within one treatment I use Cranial Osteopathy to release central nervous system lesions. After that I use an Osteopathic Muscle Energy Technique to correct the joints, followed by Myofascial Release of connective tissue. Neuromuscular Massage is implemented to reduce muscular tension, and electrotherapy helps to interrupt the pain cycle. All of the above is done within a 1 hour treatment.
After the structure is realigned I might recommend BioFlex Low Light Laser Therapy (LLLT) to deal with inflammation. Healing is now stimulated at the cellular level. This session may take 30 minutes to 1 hour depending on the condition being treated and the protocol selected. Elimination of inflammatory process assists in structural stabilization of the joints. As a result, muscles and ligaments relax; fascia releases its tension, flexibility increases bringing back normal range of motion and reduction of pain.
The program of rehabilitation could be up to 5 weeks long and provides more than 90% of success in bringing back a pain free life. If you have tried every possible known therapy and still have pain, you should not give up! Surgery should be the last resort! During many years of practice I developed protocols for numerous difficult-to-treat conditions.
Osteopathic manipulation, which may involve moving joints back into place, massaging soft tissue and helping you relax stressed muscles, was recently found to reduce chronic low back pain in a study of 455 people!
For more information about inflammation and pain, Andrew Subieta can be reached at Osteoklinika Pain Management & Rehabilitation 905.660.8810. Also, please check our website at www.osteoklinika.com for more information about Bio-Structural Integration™, or our Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter pages. 