If you’ve ever experienced the wrath of an irritated sciatic nerve, you aren’t alone. And if you haven’t, consider yourself lucky. Either way, let’s talk about what sciatica is exactly, the symptoms you can expect to experience, and how to prevent these painful spells.
The Sciatic Nerve and Sciatica
Your sciatic nerve branches out from your lower back to your hips, buttocks, and legs. Sciatica happens when irritation, inflammation, pinching, or compression affects the sciatic nerve.
Symptoms of Sciatica
If you’ve done something to cause sciatica, you’ll know. Symptoms include:
- Pain that feels like burning or shock
- Pain that radiates down the leg on the affected side
- Pain that intensifies when you cough, sneeze, or bend or lift your legs.
- Tingling
- Numbness
- Muscle weakness
- Urinary or fecal incontinence
How Does a Sciatic Nerve Become Inflamed or Irritated?
There are a slew of conditions that can cause sciatica, including herniated or degenerative herniated disks, spinal or foraminal stenosis, spondylolisthesis, osteoarthritis, pregnancy, tumors, cysts, and conus medullaris and cauda equina syndromes.
There are also several risk factors for sciatica, such as a current or previous injury, normal wear and tear, obesity, insufficient core strength, heavy lifting, bending, sitting for prolonged periods, bad posture, diabetes, physical inactivity, and tobacco use. There are also unknown causes; some people get sciatica, and their health professionals can’t pinpoint a reason.
How to Make the Pain Go Away
Most people with sciatica recover within six weeks and don’t require surgery. During that time, there are several things you can do at home to relieve the pain.
- Hot and Cold: For the first 72 hours, apply ice to relieve swelling, then apply heat for 20 minutes at a time.
- Take over-the-counter meds such as Tylenol, Bayer, Advil, Aleve, or Ibuprofen.
- Skip the bedrest and keep your body moving.
- Do yoga.
- Visit your chiropractor.
- Go to physical therapy.
- Get a massage.
Sciatica Prevention
Here are some ways to prevent sciatica:
- Practice good posture.
- Lift items properly with bent legs and a straight back.
- Avoid sitting for long stretches of time.
- Stretch often and practice yoga.
- Sleep on your back and support your neck and knees with pillows. Or, if you’re a side sleeper, sleep with a pillow between your knees.
- Visit your chiropractor for a spinal adjustment.