One of the unfortunate facts of life is that there are a plethora of mechanical and skeletal issues you can pick up as you get older, and one example is sciatica. If you’ve got sciatica, or think you might do, it’s a headache to deal with and sometimes a little confusing to understand. With that being said, we’d like to make it easy for you, so let’s talk a little bit about what sciatica is, how it can affect you, and what options you’ve got to manage the condition everyday.
Table of Contents
What is Sciatica?
So, let’s kick off by explaining sciatica, and try to do it in a non-complicated way because most of us aren’t doctors.
Inside your body, you’ve got what’s called a sciatic nerve. It’s the longest nerve in your whole body. It isn’t just one nerve either – it is five separate nerves that branch off from the spinal cord.
The two main sciatic nerves are on either side of your body. They go through your hips, down the legs, and stop just below your knee. From there, they will split into smaller nerves that connect to your lower leg areas – including your feet.
If you’ve got sciatica, then you’ve got pain in an area which is specifically connected to your sciatic nerves. This does cover a lot of your body – basically your entire lower half – but it means that one of the nerves is irritated. If the pain and discomfort you feel are from sciatica, then we call this ‘true sciatica’.
Sciatica can be pain, discomfort, pins and needles and even muscle weakness. It has a lot of causes, and can be made more likely by things like obesity.
What Can Be Done?
What we can do for sciatica can depend on what’s wrong with you and how severe the cause is. Milder causes can be treated by you – with things like weight loss and lifestyle changes helping a lot.
However, if things do get out of hand, an osteopath in London is your best bet. By manipulating the body and the areas affected, we can help to manage your pain levels. This is a common part of living with sciatica – keeping pain to a minimum and ensuring the disruption to your life is minimal.
In extreme cases, you may need surgery to get rid of the problem. However, this doesn’t usually happen, and you can often manage your condition with the help of osteopathy and lifestyle changes.
Be Proactive
If you are living with sciatica, then you should try to be proactive. If you suspect you might have it, then book an appointment with an osteopath who specialises in sciatica. You should also try and do things like lose weight and exercise more. It’s an annoying condition to live with, but if you’re proactive and recognise the signs and symptoms, then you can get a jump on dealing with them. After all, a lot of mild cases of sciatica can be successfully treated with the right support.
