Sciatica Relief in Edmonton
What Is Sciatica?
Sciatica is a generalized term for the pain that people feel along the sciatic nerve. The sciatic nerve consists of several lumbar nerve roots that come down through the pelvis, through the glute, and down into the leg. When you feel pain there, it can be attributed to dysfunction or “subluxations.”
Stress can also contribute to any subluxation in the body, and sciatica is no different. At South Side Chiropractic, one of the leading causes of sciatica we observe in our patients is chronic stress. Stress can create tension in our pelvis, and our hip flexors become very tight. The nickname for the hip flexors is the “muscle of the soul,” and for good reason. The hip flexors flex to protect your body as it reacts to the stress.
When the hip flexors tighten up, it pulls our lower back, pelvis, and femur heads into an almost seated-like position, causing pressure areas upon our sciatic nerve. It can be one of the most frustrating experiences for patients, but chiropractic can unlock the answers to what is behind the pain and discomfort.
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Getting to the Root
When you visit for pain that is presenting along your sciatic nerve, X-rays show us the actual alignment of the vertebra in the pelvis and the lower back. It can also show us your history of wear and tear and approximately how long it may have occurred.
Think of misalignments like this: when your car has a misalignment, it can cause uneven wear and tear over time on the tread of your car tires. The same thing happens in our spine if you have a vertebra out of alignment. It will cause wear and tear, called arthritis. X-rays tell us the severity of your arthritis and the approximate length of time there’s been a mechanical issue in that joint.
We’ll also use orthopedic and neurological tests and a chiropractic exam to analyze the movement of the joints throughout the lower back into the pelvis and the hips. When a joint starts to go out of alignment, it’ll slowly start to lose its full range of motion. Each chiropractic adjustment will then slowly start to retrain that vertebra to move.
How Does Chiropractic Help?
When someone visits the chiropractor for this kind of pain, we track the nerve from where it comes out of the spine along its path all the way down the leg to find the problem. Similar to what happens when an electrician has an electrical outlet that isn’t working and they want to trace it all the way back to the fuse box, chiropractors do the same.
First, we check the lumbar spine because that’s where those lumbar nerves come out of the spine. The second place we check is the pelvis. If the pelvis is out of alignment, that also causes your physiology to be in a state of protection, which is also called hypertonicity or tension.
Once the areas needing care are identified, the chiropractic team will work toward improving the function through adjustments. As soon as you start to improve the function of the lumbar spine, the tissue around the lumbar spine will start to relax. Similarly, as soon as you start to work on any dysfunction in the pelvis or in the femur and femur heads, the physiology in those areas will also start to relax.
Sustaining Care and Continued Improvement
When you proactively approach spine health, you can optimize movement and remove tension from the spine. If we have proper movement in the spine, continuing strengthening and stretching exercises will also keep our movement fluid.
It’s also important to reduce the amount of sitting you do throughout the day by taking multiple breaks. The less movement you have in your low back and pelvis, the more likely it is to atrophy, weaken, and develop scar tissue. This, in turn, makes it very easy to “blow out” your back doing even the most common of daily life activities, like reaching for the remote or brushing your teeth.
Stress management is also extremely helpful for low back challenges.
Contact Us Today to Feel Relief
We help patients who are suffering from sciatica. Contact our office today to schedule an appointment and take that first step toward living life without back and leg pain once again!
