Sciatica is a common complaint that occurs due to compression or irritation of the sciatic nerve. Typically the pain is experienced in the lower part of the back, buttocks, leg and to the foot. The pain may be also associated with numbness tingling and sometimes difficulty in movement of the leg too. More often the pain is localized to only one side of the body.
Since the sciatic nerve is one of the longest running nerve of the body most patients suffering from sciatica experience pain running from the lower back to the entire leg. Faulty alignment is the root cause. Misalignment, which is also called as subluxation in chiropractic results in severe pain and pressure. It effects greater the misalignment the greater is the subluxation and the degree of pain and pressure experienced which can be very disabling too. Activities involving movement like standing, sitting, walking, bending, even sneezing will give rise to sharp shooting pain.
Chiropractic offers one of the best solutions in cases of sciatica. If you are living in Vancouver, you can find a number of chiropractors. Your Vancouver chiropractor can manually correct this spinal misalignment by recognizing the root cause. The nerve block that causes the pinching of the sciatic nerve can be adjusted.
Vancouver chiropractic services include massage therapy that helps relieve muscular pains which is the presenting symptom of sciatica. It also uses ice therapy to relieve the pain. Diagnostic tests like X-ray, MRI or CT scan helps the Vancouver chiropractor understand which nerve is irritating, and can accordingly manipulate to eliminate the root cause.
The methods used in Chiropractic to treat sciatica are –
1. Ice or Cold Therapy. This helps reduce the inflammation and also helps reduce the pain
2. TENS (Transcutaneous Electric Nerve Stimulation). This is widely used by chiropractors wherein variable intensities of electric current stimulate the muscle and helps reduce the spasm and pain.
3. Ultrasound therapy. Here the ultrasound waves cause improved circulation of blood which reduces the spasm of the muscles. The sound waves penetrate into the tissue causing amelioration in cramps ad inflammation too.
4. Spinal manipulation- the adjustments made in cases of sciatica may be painful but these are safe and give best results which are more permanent.
Next page: Carpel Tunnel Syndrome and Chiropractic
