From womenshealthmag.com
Ever sat on a chair or the toilet for a while and felt your whole leg go numb?
Then you have some indication of what people with sciatica are dealing with—only in the case of sciatica patients, the tingly, painful feeling in their butt or leg is unlikely to go away after they’ve walked away from their seat. Those who deal with sciatica on an acute or persistent basis are in good company: Sciatica nerve pain is thought to affect as many as 40 percent of people at some point in their lives, according to data from Harvard Medical School.
Even though sciatica is incredibly common, it’s also very misunderstood. There are a lot of misconceptions about sciatica, which range from what it is in the first place to exactly how it affects the body and whether or not it can be treated. “It almost goes without fail—people don’t realize that sciatica is a symptom,” says Rolland Nemirovsky, a chiropractic sports physician at Manhattan Sports Therapy. Instead, most people believe it’s a medical condition unto itself.
In reality, sciatica is a symptom of a number of different potential conditions. (More on that below.) It consists of pain that radiates along the sciatic nerve, which starts in the lower back and runs down through both legs into the buttock, thigh, calf, and foot. “When the nerve gets irritated or hurt, it can produce any number of symptoms,” says Keith Overland, a chiropractor and spokesperson for the American Chiropractic Association. “Those symptoms are what’s called sciatica. So when you have pain radiating down your leg from your back, it’s caused by something else. It’s not an inherent injury all by itself.”
So let’s clear a few things up. Whether you’ve been dealing with sciatica for a while or you’re just learning about it, here are five things you may not know about that pain in your butt:
The sciatic nerve is the longest nerve in the body, says Nemirovsky, and pain can occur anywhere along it. This helps explain why sciatica can have such potentially far-reaching effects.
“What makes [sciatica] confusing is… it can be in the lower back only, radiating out just a couple of inches. It can radiate into the buttock and stop. It can go down to the knee and stop. It can go into the calf and stop. Or it can go all the way into the foot,” says Overland.
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Sciatica can manifest in a wide variety of ways
Not only can sciatica crop up in a wide range of body parts, but it can also present as different sensations. “It can cause numbness for some people, muscular weakness for some people, and it causes pain for most people,” says Overland. “It’s almost one of those catch-all terms.”
No matter how it manifests, there’s no question sciatica can interfere with your daily life. “When you have sciatic symptoms… it could feel very debilitating,” says Nemirovsky. “It can affect how you feel, how you sleep, and your mood.”
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Anyone can experience sciatica
“I have patients who are… out of shape and have these symptoms; I have patients who are IronMan and IronWoman athletes and they have these symptoms,” says Nemirovsky. “A lot of times it can just happen to anybody.”
Overland concurs. “[It’s a] myth that sciatica has to come from a trauma like an accident or herniated disc,” he says. “I have patients who come in with sciatica just because they’re not sitting properly at their desk for eight hours or their car seat is in an improper position.” Sciatica can also arise because of an injury, repetitive stress (for example, from sports such as tennis or golf), a herniated disc, or a variety of other causes.
Overland says that rarer but possible causes of sciatica include stenosis (or narrowing) of the lower back, arthritis of the lower back, spinal tumors, or simple anatomy. “In about 15 percent of the population, the sciatic nerve actually travels through the middle of the piriformis muscle in the buttock,” says Overland. “When that muscle gets tight and stiff and achy, it can press on the sciatic nerve and cause pain down the leg.”
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When seeking medical attention for sciatica, it’s best to look for a musculoskeletal specialist
If you’ve experienced sciatica for more than three days or it’s severe enough that it’s interfering with your daily activities, Overland says it’s time to seek out a professional. Because sciatica can stem from so many different issues, he says, “It’s really important for people… to determine what it really is that’s causing the problem.”
In order to do that, Overland recommends consulting a medical professional who specializes in back and musculoskeletal conditions, such as a chiropractor, physical therapist, or orthopedist. “Urgent care docs or general practitioners… won’t necessarily have the tools within their office to do a detailed diagnostic evaluation,”’ he says.
Those evaluations might include a simple orthopedic and neurological assessment or more complex diagnostic tools such as X-rays, MRIs, or EMGs. “The severity (and in some cases the length of time that someone has had the condition) will determine how detailed the examinations are required to be,” says Overland.
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Treatments for sciatica can vary widely.
Treatments for sciatica can range from very simple, natural approaches (such as physical therapy or a few visits to a chiropractor) to more aggressive measures such as injections or surgery, says Overland. Both Overland and Nemirovsky advocate for trying out the most conservative treatments first.
Overland especially cautions against using painkillers as a quick fix. “Too many of us want instant relief and health care from a bottle,” he says. “[But] taking really strong medication doesn’t fix it if there’s a mechanical cause. It just covers it up. So you go on with your life, but you’re not actually addressing the problem. And it becomes chronic.”
No matter the treatment approach, recovery times can vary widely. “It depends on the pathology,” says Nemirovsky. For example, sciatica resulting from a slipped disc might require a three-month treatment period (give or take), while simpler biomechanical issues might be relieved within a few physical therapy appointments. “It depends on how deteriorated or dysfunctional the patient presents at the time of their initial visit,” he says.
Many people believe that once you develop sciatica, it’s something you just have to live with. Luckily, that’s a big fat myth.
“There are people who… believe that once you have sciatica, it’s going to be there for the rest of your life,” says Overland. “That is simply not true… Oftentimes the reason people will experience sciatica for a long period is because they maybe have not been accurately diagnosed as to the cause of it. It’s really unusual that we would find a person that would have to live it.”
https://www.womenshealthmag.com/health/sciatica-nerve-pain
