Sciatica: What It Is and How To Treat It

Are you experiencing numbing, tingling, or pain in your glutes or lower back that radiates all the way down your legs? If so, you might have a condition called Sciatica. Often shrugged off as a bad back, roughly 16% of Australians struggle with back issues. Some of the issues are related to Sciatica. But what exactly is Sciatica, how is it caused, and how can you treat or manage it? 

In this article, we’ll discuss Sciatica and how it affects people. We’ll also give you some tops on how to manage it yourself too.

What is Sciatica?

Sciatica is a condition that refers to pain that runs along the sciatic nerve from the spine to your legs. It often causes pain, numbness in that area or the legs, or tingling. Sometimes, the effects of Sciatica can be quite severe and debilitating. The Sciatic nerve is one of the longest and thickest nerves in the human body. While we often refer to it as one nerve, it’s actually a group of nerves clumped together that branch off from your spine. 

From the hips, the sciatic nerve splits, running down each side of the leg from the hip until just below your knee. There. The nerves will split and move towards their respective areas such as the feet or toes. Mild to severe pain in any of these areas on a regular basis could be a result of sciatica.

There are two types of Sciatica: true sciatica and sciatica-like conditions. As you would piece together, true sciatica refers to injuries or conditions that directly result from the sciatic nerve. At the same time, sciatic-like conditions refer to conditions that seem like they may be sciatic nerve issues but occur from other related issues. 

What causes sciatica?

There are a variety of causes of sciatica, most of them originating from another injury that affects the nerve at the same time. Remember, the Sciatic nerve is made up of five separate nerves bundled together. In this situation, if either one of the nerve branches is affected by another injury, it could be considered sciatica or Sciatica-like conditions. Here are some common causes of sciatica:

• Spinal stenosis
• A herniated disk
• Degenerative disk disease
• Pregnancy
• An injury to the leg, hip, buttocks, or lower back
• Foraminal stenosis
• Osteoarthritis

What are the symptoms of Sciatica?

Some of the most common symptoms of sciatica are pain, tingling, and numbness. Muscle weakness and urinary incontinence are also recorded as symptoms. When you have pain as a result of sciatica, it’s because the pressure is being applied to the nerve, causing pain to radiate from that area, following the nerve to its ends and roots. 

The tingling sensation you feel is very similar to when your leg falls asleep for a bit. The numbness is usually felt in your lower back and in your legs. This occurs when the signals to control your leg struggle to reach your brain successfully. 

Finally, if you have a severe case of sciatica, you might experience muscle weakness, when the command to your muscles also can’t reach the brain and back, limiting your ability to use them effectively. The same case applies with your urinary tract, because the nerve is restricted, the signals controlling that area aren’t able to move freely, hindering your ability to control your bladder.

How do you treat Sciatica?

In most cases, sciatica can be treated at home. If your symptoms are mild and you don’t have symptoms like muscle weakness or difficulty controlling your bladder, your goal at home would be to alleviate pain and manage your symptoms until they disappear. 

However, there are some cases where sciatica is prolonged and can’t be fixed by self-treatment. In this situation, you’ll need to seek professional advice on what your sciatica treatment options would be. Here are some home remedies that you can use to treat your sciatica:

• Apply ice or a cold pack onto the area mostly affected by sciatica for the first few days you experience it if you’re able to, apply it on the area for 20 minutes a time a few times a day. Exchanging this with a heating pad for the same duration of time can also help alleviate the pain and reduce swelling in the area. Switch between the two to find which one alleviates the pain best
• If the pain isn’t subsiding, you might need to get over-the-counter-medication like Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to alleviate the pain and reduce inflammation in the area
• In addition to these activities, stretching properly is a great way to alleviate the pain and reduce its chances of continuing. 

Final Thoughts

Don’t shrug back pain off as a growing issue, get to a specialist and get an accurate diagnosis on your issue so that you know how to treat it and manage it. This is the first step to alleviating your condition and possibly working towards recovering fully.