Your sciatic nerve starts at your spine, goes through your hips and buttocks, and afterward branches down each leg. The sciatic nerve is your body's lengthiest nerve and also among the most crucial ones. It has a direct effect on your capacity to control and feel your legs. When this nerve is inflamed, you'll experience sciatic nerve pain.
Sciatica is a feeling that can grow itself as an average to severe discomfort in your back, buttocks, as well as legs. You may also feel numbness or weakness in these body parts.
Sciatic nerve pain is a sign caused by an underlying injury to your sciatic nerve or an area that impacts the nerve, such as your vertebrae, which are the bones in your neck and back.
Sciatica Symptoms
Sciatica is a distinct type of symptom. If you're experiencing discomfort that moves from your lower back through your buttock area and into your lower limbs, it's commonly sciatic nerve pain.
Sciatica is the result of damage or injury to your sciatic nerve, so other symptoms of nerve damage are generally present with the pain. Various other, symptoms might include the following:
- You might have discomfort that becomes worse with movement.
- You may have weakness or numbness in your legs or feet, which is typically felt along your sciatic nerve path. In severe cases, you might experience a loss of sensation or movement.
- You may have pins and needles, which involves a painful tingling in your toes or feet.
- You may experience incontinence, which is the inability to control your bladder or bowels. This is a unique sign of cauda equina disorder (CES).
What Causes Sciatic Nerve Pain?
Sciatic nerve pain can be brought on by several conditions that involve your spinal column and can affect the nerves in your back. It can also be triggered by an injury, as an example from falling, or spinal or sciatic nerve tumors.
Typical conditions that can cause sciatica:
- Herniated disks
Your vertebrae, or spinal bones, are divided by cartilage. Cartilage is filled with a thick, clear material to ensure flexibility as well as support while you move around. Herniated disks occur when the first layer of the cartilage rips.
The substance inside can press your sciatic nerve, leading to lower limb discomfort and numbness. It's estimated that 1 to 5 percent of all individuals will certainly have back pain caused by a slipped disk eventually in their lives.
- Spinal Stenosis
Spinal stenosis is also called lumbar spinal stenosis. It's characterized by the abnormal narrowing of your lower spinal canal that puts pressure on your spine and sciatic nerve roots.
- Spondylolisthesis
Spondylolisthesis is one of the associated conditions of a degenerative disk disorder. When one spinal bone, or vertebra, extends over another, the extensive spinal bone can pinch nerves that compose your sciatic nerve.
- Piriformis syndrome
Piriformis syndrome is a rare neuromuscular disorder in which your piriformis muscle involuntarily contracts or tightens, triggering sciatic nerve pain. Your piriformis muscle connects the lower part of your spine to your thighbones.
When it tightens up, it can tax your sciatic nerve, bring about sciatica. Piriformis syndrome can worsen if you sit for extended periods, loss, or experience an auto accident.
Sciatica Risk Factors
The most common risks are:
- As your body ages, it becomes more likely that parts will wear or break down.
- Particular jobs put a lot of pressure on your back, especially those that include lifting heavy objects, sitting for expanded durations, or turning movements.
- Having diabetes can increase your risk of nerve damages.
- Smoking can create the external layer of your spinal disks to break down.
When to Look for Medical Attention
Go to the medical professional if you have the following symptoms:
- Your pain comes after an extreme injury or accident.
- You have sudden, excruciating pain in your lower back or leg that's coupled with numbness or muscular tissue weakness in that same leg.
- You're unable to control your bladder or bowels, which are the symptoms of cauda equina syndrome.
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Cauda Equina Syndrome
Rarely, a herniated disc can press on nerves that cause you to lose control of your bowel or bladder. This condition is known as cauda equina syndrome. It can also cause tingling or numbness in your groin area, decreased sexual sensation, and even paralysis if left untreated.
This condition commonly develops gradually. It is essential to go to your physician or an emergency clinic instantly if the signs appear. The symptoms can include:
- you can't control your bladder or bowels, which can cause incontinence or retention of waste;
- pain in one or both legs;
- numbness in one or both legs;
- weakness in one or both legs, making it tough to get up after sitting;
- stumbling when you try to stand up;
- a noticeable progression or unexpected extreme loss of feeling in your lower body, which includes the area between your legs, buttocks, inner thighs, heels, as well as entire foot.
Diagnosing Sciatica
Sciatica is a symptom that differs from one person to another and depends on the problem that's causing it.
1. To diagnose it, your doctor will first want to look through your full medical history.
This includes whether you have had any recent injuries, pain areas, and how the pain feels. They'll like to know what makes it better, what makes it worse, and just how and when it began.
2. After that, you'll need to take a physical exam that'll include testing your muscle strength and also reflexes. Your doctor might also ask you to do some stretching as well as moving workouts to figure out which activities trigger more pain.
The next round of diagnosis is for people who had sciatica for longer than a month or have a significant illness, such as cancer.
3. Nerve tests will allow your medical professional to examine how nerve impulses are being conducted by your sciatic nerve and also learn if there are any abnormalities. These tests might help locate the area involved and the degree to which the impulse is being slowed.
4. Imaging tests will permit your medical professional to get a look at your spine, which will help them establish the reason for your sciatica.
5. One of the most common imaging tests used to detect sciatica and find its cause is spine X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans. Typical X-rays will not have the ability to give a view of sciatic nerve damages. An MRI uses magnets and radio waves to make detailed images of your back. A CT scan uses radiation to create detailed pictures of your body.
Your doctor may order a CT myelogram. For this test, they'll inject a unique dye into your spinal column to help make better pictures of your spine and nerves.
Sciatica Treatment
Upon the first medical diagnosis of sciatica, your medical professional will likely offer you suggestions for treating your sciatica pain. You should continue your everyday activities as long as possible. Lying in bed or avoiding activity can worsen your condition. Common treatment includes:
- Cold
You can take ice packs and even a package of frozen veggies.
Wrap the ice bag or frozen veggies in a towel and apply it to the affected area for 20 minutes daily, several times each day, during the very first few days of pain. This will certainly help in minimizing swelling as well as ease discomfort.
- Hot
It's advised that you make use of ice throughout the first couple of days to reduce swelling. After two or three days, switch over to warm. If you continue to have pain, try alternating between ice and heat treatment.
- Stretching
Delicately stretching your lower back can likewise be helpful. To learn how to stretch correctly, obtain personal, individually physical therapy, or even yoga guidelines from a physical therapist or instructor trained to deal with your injury.
- Over-the-counter medication
Over-the-counter medications, such as aspirin or ibuprofen, can additionally aid with pain, swelling, and inflammation. Be careful with using aspirin excessively, because it can trigger difficulties, such as stomach bleeding and ulcers.
- Regular exercise
The more you stay energetic, the even more endorphins your body releases. Endorphins are pain relievers made by your body. Stick to low-impact activities initially, such as swimming and also bicycling.
As your pain decreases and your endurance improves, create an exercise regimen that includes aerobics, core stability, and strength training. A program with these components can lower your danger of future back troubles.
- Physical treatment
Workouts in physical therapy can help to improve your posture as well as strengthen your back muscles.
- Prescription medication
Your doctor may prescribe muscle relaxers, narcotic pain relief, or antidepressants. Antidepressants can enhance your body's endorphin production.
- Epidural steroid drugs
Corticosteroid medicines are injected into the epidural area, which is the canal that surrounds your spine. Because of side effects, these injections are given on a limited basis.
- Surgical treatment
Surgical procedures may be required for severe pain or when you lost control of your bowel and bladder or have developed weakness in particular muscle teams of the lower extremity.
There are two most typical types of surgical treatment. The first one is a discectomy, in which part of the disk that's pressing on nerves that make up the sciatic nerve is removed. And the microdiscectomy, in which the disk removal is done through a tiny cut using a microscope.
Alternative Treatment
Alternative medicine is growing in appeal. Some alternative remedies for sciatic nerve pain include:
- An acupuncturist can insert sterilized needles at key points to affect the circulation of energy in your body. This treatment is virtually pain-free.
- A chiropractic practitioner can adjust your back to achieve optimal spinal mobility.
- A skilled expert can include hypnosis, which is meant to put you in a very relaxed, focused state of mind, permitting you to obtain healthy tips and instructions better. In the case of sciatic pain, the messages may involve discomfort relief.
- A massage therapist can use motion, pressure, tension, or vibration to your body to relieve pain and stress.
Learn more about natural ways to relieve sciatic pain HERE
Sciatica Prevention
The following steps can help you stop sciatic nerve pain or maintain it from occurring again:
- Exercise often. Enhancing your back muscles and also your belly or core muscles is crucial in preserving your back healthy.
- Mind your posture. Ensure your chairs provide proper support for your back, put your feet on the floor while sitting, and also use your armrests.
- Mind how you move. Lift heavy items properly by bending at your knees and also keeping your back straight.
