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Sciatica Facts
Learning the Sciatica FactsSciatica has a reputation as a chronic and treatment resistant back pain problem. The syndrome affects every patient differently and can be blamed on a wide variety of spinal sources. Herniated discs and degenerative disc disease are perhaps the most common diagnoses used to explain sciatica. However, arthritis in the spine is also a prime player in the medical diagnostic industry. Additionally, so called pseudo-sciatica pain conditions are sometimes diagnosed when a spinal source can not be located. The most common of these pseudo-sciatica causes include sacroiliac joint pain and piriformis syndrome.Despite the epidemic incidence of these structural conditions being blamed for creating sciatic nerve pain, the most common actual causation is oxygen deprivation of the sciatic nerve and surrounding peripheral nerves in the lower back, buttocks, legs and feet. Proving Sciatica FactsMatching the clinical symptomology against the suspected diagnosis often uncovers discrepancies which rule out the theorized anatomical source as the actual reason for the sciatica pain. For example, a herniated disc at L5/S1 might be diagnosed as compressing a nerve root (pinched nerve), due to a right side bulge. Foraminal stenosis is the diagnosis. However, the patient is experiencing pain in both legs, even though the left side is unaffected by the bulging disc structure.Spinal arthritis is often targeted for blame when osteophytes are discovered in or around the facet joints or foraminal openings. However, once again, these structures are rarely responsible for the actual symptoms experienced by the patient. The Bottom Line on Sciatica FactsSciatica is most often a variable process which produces an ever changing range of pain and related symptoms in one or both legs. Patients who experience this type of condition will have a difficult time connecting their symptoms to a single spinal causation. Ischemia is far more logical, since it is a regional process which can create a full range of uncomfortable sensations in the nerves and muscles on the entire lower body.Knowledge therapy is a good choice of treatment for patients who have not found relief from more traditional medical modalities. This is the exact same treatment I used to cure my own chronic sciatica and lower back misery. For patients with verified anatomically induced sciatic nerve pain, consider spinal decompression as a good option. This noninvasive therapy is very effective for many types of back pain and is certainly a better and safer bet than back surgery.
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