Can a Chiropractor Help with Sciatica?It’s widely known how prevalent lower back pain is with an estimated 25% of all Americans experiencing lower back pain at any given point in time. For many of those people, however, the pain doesn’t stop at the lower back. If you experience lower back pain that extends down the length of each leg, you might be suffering from sciatica. Let’s take a closer look at what sciatica is, what causes it, and how chiropractic can help treat sciatica. What Is Sciatica?Sciatica is a condition that causes pain in the sciatic nerve, which runs from the lower back, branching at the buttocks and all the way down each leg. Typically, sciatica will only affect one side of the body with the pain shooting through the back of the thigh and throughout the leg. Occasionally, it can also affect the feet or even the toes. Although it’s sometimes described as a disorder, sciatica is actually more of a symptom of other disorders. The severity really depends on the person. In some cases, the pain is constant and completely debilitating but in others, the pain could be occasional and annoying at worst. Even if the pain isn’t all that bad now, if left untreated, it has significant potential to become much worse. Chiropractic care is the safest, non-invasive and drug-free way to treat sciatica. But in order to understand the connection between sciatica and chiropractic, we first have to understand what causes the condition. What Causes Sciatica?The causes of sciatica vary, but there are a number of disorders and conditions that can trigger the pain at any time, including:
How Does Chiropractic Help With Sciatica?The majority of disorders that cause sciatica start with subluxations (aka misalignments in the spine). Since sciatica is merely a symptom of a larger issue, chiropractors don’t necessarily treat sciatica — they treat the root issue of the cause.
At Petrak Family Chiropractic Center, we use several different adjusting techniques. There are a few different types of traction (to help take pressure off of the disc), and/or soft tissue release techniques to relax some of the musculature around the problem area. These techniques and modalities are dependent on the exam and my findings. We start by properly diagnosing what’s causing the sciatica since this factor will drastically change the treatment method. Once a cause is determined, we’ll create a customized treatment plan specifically tailored to the patient’s needs. If you or a loved one suffer from the nerve pain of sciatica, it’s important to get it checked out before it becomes a debilitating issue. Get in touch today to schedule an initial consultation and to start down the road to a healthier you.
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