Seeing Your Chiropractor for Sciatica Treatment

Here at the Spine Pain Center in Columbia and Irmo, sciatica is something chiropractor Dr. Clinton Drake Jacobs sees every day. Chiropractic is your best option for sciatica treatment. This brief article will tell you some reasons why.

What Is Sciatica?

Sciatica isn’t a disorder itself, but it’s one of several symptoms of a disorder. With sciatica, there is pain that originates in the lower back or the buttock that travels down one of both legs. This pain can be occasional, or it can plague its sufferer night and day. It can be dull, or saw-like, or maybe something closer to an electric shock. The pain of sciatica limits mobility. People who have sciatica often can’t walk more than about 50 yards (or in some cases 50 steps or less) without having to stop to get a little rest from pain. The pain of sciatica may interfere with sleep, sex, and even normal elimination. Sciatica becomes a disability.

The underlying cause of sciatica is pressure on the sciatic nerve. This pressure may occur during pregnancy. It may be due to a phenomenon known as a lumbar spine subluxation, misaligned vertebrae in the lower back. Or it may be due to a slipped, ruptured, or herniated disc. Severe constipation can aggravate sciatica as can sitting on a wallet in one’s back pocket.

A common injury that causes sciatica is piriformis syndrome. The piriformis muscle attaches the lower part of the spine to the thigh muscle. It’s the muscle that makes it possible to swivel your hips. The sciatic nerve runs under the piriformis muscle. When the muscle is stressed by hip arthritis, a slip or a fall, or picking up something heavy the wrong way, it can press on the sciatic nerve to cause serious pain.

What can your chiropractor do about sciatica?

If you think you have sciatica, the first thing your chiropractor can do for you is to make sure you are accurately diagnosed. Then if the problem really is your sciatic nerve, then the chiropractor can help you with drug-free pain relief. Heat, cold, ultrasound, and transcutaneous electroneural stimulation (TENS) all help relieve pain. But it’ is spinal realignment that will make the most long-term difference for your pain relief. Spinal manipulation frees the spine so it no longer traps the sciatic nerve. This treatment reduces muscle spasms, inflammation, and pain.

But will my sciatica treatment hurt?

Chiropractic adjustments aren’t painful. They sometimes give nearly immediate pain relief. The sooner you start treatment, the sooner you will be rid of sciatica pain. That is why you need to call Dr. Clinton Drake Jacobs at the Spine-Pain Center in Irmo (serving greater Columbia) today at (803) 781-4092!