Not a week goes by that I don’t come across someone living with sciatic pain. This is pain felt on the sides of the lower back going down through the buttocks and sometimes even down the back of the legs. The two sciatic nerves are the longest nerves in the human nervous system. When these nerves are damaged, they affect a person’s daily function.
This pain doesn’t have to mean a lifetime of painkillers and limited mobility. Sciatic pain is not a life sentence. Not only is it possible to eliminate this pain completely, but with proactive care, it’s realistic to hope that it never returns.
The first step to freedom is understanding how the nerve was damaged. The modern lifestyle of the average North American is brutal on the spine. We sit for longer periods of time, our waistlines are expanding, and we work harder than ever to achieve the world’s idea of success. Sitting motionless for hours and then bending, lifting, or twisting – this puts incredible stress on the vertebrae in your lower back. When the vertebrae become misaligned, this is called a subluxation. Subluxations cause dangerous pressure on the nervous system by inhibiting, or even cutting off, the nerve’s ability to receive messages from the brain, which is the basis of how our bodies function.
The truth is that I am not too concerned about the pain that occurs when the sciatic nerve is damaged. I have no doubt that pain is debilitating and makes life extremely difficult; I’m sorry for you. But I am more concerned with the fact that the sciatic nerves are what control the function of the urinary and reproductive systems. When the L4 and L5 vertebrae are subluxed, the sciatic nerves cannot perform the function for which they were created.
One of my patients, we’ll call her Mary, came in complaining of sciatic pain. In the process of researching her health history, we discovered that Mary also struggled with incontinence; something she never thought was related to the pain in her lower back. After regular chiropractic care, not only was the pain gone, but she regained full control of her bladder. By freeing the pathway from brain to nerves, Mary’s body went into healing mode and regained full function. Maria is 67 years old.
Another patient, let’s call her Susanne, had been trying to get pregnant for two years when she walked through our doors with sciatic back pain. Once again, she never imagined that one had anything to do with the other. I am very happy to report that with regular chiropractic care, Susanne is now happily pregnant.
“But Matt,” you might say, “I saw a chiropractor years ago and went to physical therapy. It just doesn’t go away.”
Perhaps you have already seen doctors for your sciatic pain and nothing has helped. Or more frustratingly, maybe he left briefly only to come back with a bang. It is important to remember that not all types of rehabilitation are the same, even within medicine. The way a family doctor deals with a concern is different from the approach another doctor will take. Do not lose hope. Just because you’ve already invested energy in rehab, different types of exercises, or spinal manipulation doesn’t mean you’ve exhausted all your options. We have witnessed hundreds of success stories from patients who were once hopeless. Always stay hopeful.
Yes; Chiropractic care is good for pain relief. But more importantly, it’s a vital step in your routine to maintain your overall health. Make an important decision to start chiropractic care today and start seeing all that your body is capable of.
