Sciatica

Let us talk about a very common condition called Sciatica.  It seems to be a condition that can scare a lot of patients when you tell them what they are suffering from.  There are times when I can see how patients can get very worried about this condition.  Most patients that have come to my office for this condition, have been dealing with the pain of sciatica for some time.  As I start to question them on their pain and how it started there have been may different explanations on the type or severity of their pain, and at the same time many different ways they have told me how they developed their condition.  After treating hundreds of these type of patients you still find a very common thing that seems to evident.  I would have to say that about 90% of the patients that I have treated with the condition of sciatica have all noticed after several questions that they have had lower back pain for months that would come and go.  After a period of time though this low back pain started to be and every day thing but not severe in nature but more of an achy feeling every time they would sit for a period of time and then go to get up, or maybe they had this achy feeling and stiffness when ever they bent over to lift or pick things up from the floor and they would just think that it was sore muscles and take some tablets for pain or get some muscle relaxers to help them.  Then one morning they got out of bed and started to feel pain into the buttocks and then later in the day it was moving into the upper leg and then evendually down to the lower leg and the whole leg was starting to ache and became constant.

After talking with them the average patient would say that they woke up with this and they did nothing to cause this pain down into the leg.  They forgot that their body was trying to tell them that things were not working right and they were just covering their condition up with the tablets that they have been eating like candy so they would not feel the pain.  The average case of sciatica starts with pain in the low back and then as time goes on and not having proper treatment it starts ti spread to the leg and down the leg to the toes.  Sciatica does most generally start due to spinal subluxations in the lower spine and this is causing compression of the main nerve roots that make up the sciatic nerve, which is the largest and longest nerve of the human body.  This being said should help patients understand why it takes a series of treatments to get this condition under control and healed.  To help patients understand the way this condition starts and progresses and later heals I use a very simple explanation that helps patients make some sense out of the condition and that is to think of a hose attached to a fire hydrant.  When the hydrant is turned on and has full power, that is like a normal nerve, it is nice and thick and has a 100% of power going through it.  Once you turn the power down on the hydrant it causes the part of the hose that is attached to the hydrant to start to shrink in size and as the water pressure is decreased then the hose starts to shrink in size down the length of the hose.  This is the same thing that happens in the nervous system when a vertebrae is subluxated and pinching the nerve it starts to cut the power in the nerve and the nerve then starts to atrophy or shrink, or you might say it is starting to die out.  This then causes the pain or inflammation at the top of the nerve to spread down the length of the nerve.  When you start to get this condition treated by correcting the subluxation of the vertebrae and relieving the pressure on the root of the sciatic nerve then the nerve has to start to regenerate from top down.  Depending on how severe the nerve was affected will depend on how long it will take the nerve to heal all the way down.

What the patient has to understand is first how long they have been having this condition prior to starting their treatment, then on how sever the pain is.  Once they understand these things then they can understand why it takes time to heal from this condition.  There is one other thing the patient has to understand and that is to stay with their treatment until the whole nerve has heeled and the subluxations in the spine are completely corrected and balanced with the vertebrae above and below the vertebrae that was causing the condition to start.  If the patient stops their treatment before that then the condition will return and be even worse if you thing that could be possible.  This condition needs to be check regularly while the nerve is healing all the way down to the end of the nerve to avoid the condition from returning.  In way what is taking place is the sciatic nerve is healing from above down, or you might say from inside out.  The pain will leave the back and then the hip and then the upper part of the leg and then the lower part of the leg and then out of the foot like it is going to just blow out the toes.  Like mentioned this condition can take time to heel, the patient will need to understand this from the doctor and the doctor is going to have to reinforce this with the patient, this is like a lot of different health conditions they take both the doctor and the patient working together to get the results that are needed, there will be things the patient needs to do and proper ways to do the things that need to be done for the heeling to take place.  This is where good communication with the doctor and the patient is very important, and if done there can be great success and other problems then can be avoided.