How Is Sciatica Caused?

Sciatica can be an extremely painful condition to live with on a daily basis. With studies showing an astounding 20% of sufferers are unable to work as a result of their symptoms, if you’re a regular sufferer of back aches and pains it’s very useful to know the signs of sciatica. Seeking treatment in the early stages of back pain can help with preventing more serious back conditions in the long-term, but if the problem has already gone too far it may still be possible to make a recovery with the right therapies.

Sciatica can be such a confusing condition

Simply put, Sciatica is caused as a result of irritation in the nerve roots located in the lower lumbar spine, or into the lumbo-sacral area of the spine – the bottom part of your lower back before the buttocks. In these areas of the spine, the sciatic nerve root begins and extends down along the back of both legs. As a result of this, sufferers of sciatica will usually experience pain or discomfort in the lower back, or sharp pain, burning or tingling sensation that affects the buttocks or the back of the legs, usually only affecting one side of the body. Irritation in the nerve roots can occur for a number of reasons but generally starts as a result of prolonged poor posture that begins to place more pressure onto the discs in the lumbar spine.

Your spine naturally has great “suspension”

Our spines are, for the most part, naturally aligned with a curve to effectively distribute the forces and pressures of our day-to-day lives. When slouching at your desk, on your commute to work or even in the evening watching television, hunching over in the shoulders can cause compression in the lumbar spine as it bears the extra pressure that it’s not used to dealing with. Over time this can cause disc dehydration and degeneration to occur more quickly. In turn, the degeneration can cause the disc space to reduce, leaving the possibility for disc injuries, such as slipped discs, to be more likely – it’s these kinds of disc injuries that can potentially cause compression on the sciatic nerve.

Unfortunately, we hear all too often that when patients visit the hospital or their local GP for sciatica, the most common recommended treatments include the prescription of painkillers or a course of physiotherapy sessions.

Our approach to treating deeper causes of sciatica

Treatment for sciatica at The Mayfair Clinic is relatively simple in comparison. The first step is to find the underlying cause, once this has been investigated the right treatment can be recommended. Our spinal decompression treatment offers an effective solution for disc injuries, particularly in relief of symptoms like sciatica. Using a gentle traction, spinal decompression applies a stretch onto a specific area of the spine in either the lower back or neck. The stretch allows for vital nutrients to penetrate the disc space, increasing hydration and allowing for the right healing environment to develop. It also allows for an increase in disc space, which can relieve the pressure on the sciatic nerve and allow for relief of the symptoms of sciatica. In order to bring down inflammation, our laser therapy can be utilised in order to target the injured tissues.

Healing the deeper injury

Our K-Laser can accelerate the healing and the rate of recovery when used in conjunction with our treatments. If there are misalignments present in the spine when we initially investigate your spine, using our spinal impulse adjusting technology can also help with improving the overall health of your spine. By helping the spine function effectively, we can help to improve the long-term results of your treatment to keep you out of pain for longer.

Symptoms of sciatica can be only temporary in some cases, but it’s important to recognise that even if your symptoms are only lasting for a few weeks at a time it’s quite likely that these will be recurrent until the underlying cause is treated. So whether you’ve been suffering from the odd bout of sciatica, or whether it’s a cause for constant frustration in your life, there are treatments out there that can help in treating the problem for good.

We can offer an examination, complete with x-ray imaging to confirm a diagnosis if needed, along with a diagnosis and your first treatment. Receiving clarity on the extent of your condition along with your first session of treatment to get you on the road to recovery and honest advice to help your condition outside of the clinic, can give you peace of mind that there is hope for recovery from the agonising pain that sciatica can cause.  To discuss your case or to book your first session, call The Mayfair Clinic today on 0203 947 3222 or email us at info@themayfairclinic.com.