Hello, Dr Kelly here.
The sciatic nerve runs from your back through your buttock muscles down your leg to your feet. It can be a major source of pain.
Sciatica can manifest as pain in the buttock. You could have numbness &/or tingling that stays in the back or travels to thigh or all the way down to the feet.
You can feel sciatica pain while you are sitting or standing. Each person is different. You need to find what position makes you feel better.
What can cause sciatica? You can have a herniated disc putting pressure on the sciatic nerve. You can have arthritis or stenosis in your low back that irritates the nerve. You can even be sitting wrong causing undo pressure on the sciatic nerve.
How do you know if the pain you are feeling is sciatica? A doctor can perform certain orthopedic tests. You can have an x-ray or an MRI. All are different diagnostic test that I use to help me determine where your pain is coming from.
Do you have to live with sciatica pain??? NO!!
Once the source of pain is determined, I get to work on the best plan for you! This could be addressing the nervous system, bone, disc or muscle.
Most of my patients want long term changes for their body. They want to know in 5, 10, 20 years they have the tools to get the pain under control quickly or even prevent sciatica from reoccurring!
For sciatica you want to calm the nerve down.
Phase 1 – Stabilizing the spine. The adjustments help to align the spine and make you the strongest you possible. The wobble chair helps to rewire the way the nervous system is sending messages to your muscles. It gets the small muscles of your spine doing its job.
Phase 2- Stretching. Once the spine is stabilized, the nerve is calmed down, we get to work on stretching the muscles. Stretching the hamstring & piriformis are very important. Also stretching the muscles of the back. Cat/Cow & child’s pose are helpful.
Phase 3 – Strengthening. This is where the longer-term changes occur. You are feeling better, but you want to work on keeping it this way. Deadbug exercise is my favorite! Bird/Dog & Stork exercises are an excellent start to returning you to fun long-term function.
Don’t forget about nutrition. It is important to be giving your body all the nutrients you need to heal. Inflammatone and Collagen are both very beneficial.
You can reach out by responding to this email or text us if you want more info on the stretches and exercises that help sciatica. Or if you want a link to the nutrition support I recommend. Even better, ask me about it at your next visit.
Yours in Healthy Naturally,
Dr. Kelly