Enhancing Rehabilitation: The Benefits of Chiropractic and Physiotherapy
Radiating pain from your lower back down your leg, on one side of your body?While you must never self-diagnose any medical condition, this could be sciatica, a type of back nerve pain. So, we decided to create a 101 guide on sciatica, its symptoms and causes.
Sciatica is a common ailment in adults over 30, and yet it is a very specific kind of discomfort. So, we decided to write a detailed guide for those of you who wish to know and understand more about sciatica causes and symptoms, and the treatments you can seek; thus, improving your chances of recovery.
This condition commonly results from either an injury, irritation or pressure on your sciatic nerve, which causes back nerve pain that can be mild to extremely severe. Hence, its name – Sciatica. For those of you who are curious, the Sciatic nerve is the longest and thickest in your body. Up to 2 cms wide, it’s not one single nerve, despite its name. Instead, it is a bundle of nerves that is formed by five nerve roots that branch off from your spine.
There are two such bundles and each extends from your lower back through the hips and buttocks, down each of your legs, until just below your knee. After that they split into other nerves that connect to your lower leg, foot, toes etc.
While studying sciatica, causes and symptoms, prognosis etc. it is often observed that it most commonly affects only one side of your body.
Along with pain of varying severity, sciatica symptoms can even include numbness, tingling, or loss of sensation in your back, butt, or down your leg. Usually, it feels like the pain is radiating from your lower back, and it is possible to experience more severe symptoms as well.Typically, sciatica symptoms affect only one side of your body and is most prevalent in individuals between the ages of 30 and 50. Understanding sciatica thoroughly can help individuals identify potential symptoms early and seek appropriate treatment, improving the chances of recovery.
Types of sciatica
There are two types of sciatica. No matter which type you suffer from, the effects on your body are one and the same. These two types are known as True Sciatica, and Sciatica-like-condition.
In the first case, an injury or another condition impacts your sciatic nerve directly. In the other, your condition feels like sciatica, but it occurs for reasons that are not related to the sciatic nerve, or any of the bundle nerves. While sciatica causes and symptoms are similar in both cases, your treatment can vary based on which kind of sciatica you suffer from.
Are sciatica symptoms common?
Sciatica is very common!
Approximately up to 43% people in India (source –) experience some form of sciatica symptoms in their lifetime. However, sciatica rarely occurs in individuals younger than 20, unless due to an injury.
Are sciatica symptoms common?
Understanding the uniqueness of the sciatica signs and symptoms is important for early diagnosis and treatment. The symptoms can vary in intensity and cause you anywhere between mild discomfort to severe debilitating pain, thus making even your daily activities difficult.
Some of the most common symptoms of sciatica are listed below:
- Sharp pain: Sciatic pain is not just any back pain. It is described as severe and sharp and travels along the sciatic nerve. It can make sitting down or standing up overwhelmingly painful and difficult. A lot of patients also describe this sensation as shooting or stabbing pain, burning sensation, or like an electric shock.
- Pain that worsens with movement: Sudden and jerky movements like a cough, or a sneeze, etc. can intensify your pain. The pain can also worsen if you twist your body, or bend or lift your legs upwards when lying on your back.
- Constant pain on one side: Unlike other types of lower back pain, sciatica typically affects only one side of your body. This localized pain can vary in its severity. It might range from just a mild ache to a sharp burning sensation. However, it’s overwhelmingly constant in its presence.
- Numbness or tingling (paresthesia): These sensations might occur in your leg or even up to your foot and toes in the affected side. This depends on where your sciatic nerve is compressed.
This sciatica symptom can be of varying intensity and can feel like ‘pins and needles’. It can also feel similar to how a leg falls asleep when we sit cross-legged.
Sometimes you might not even be able to feel sensation on the skin in the affected areas because the signals from your leg or your back are not reaching your brain due to the nerve compression. - Muscular weakness: This is a more severe symptom. You might feel weakness in your leg muscles thus facing difficulty in movement, or in lifting objects. Your ability to balance your body may also be affected in this case.
- Incontinence: Whether urinary or fecal, this is a very severe symptom. This indicates that not only the signals from your leg or your back, but also those that control your bladder or bowels aren’t being transmitted appropriately.
What causes sciatica?
In this section, we will discuss what causes sciatica. On one hand, injuries, tumours, cysts and other growths, or infections that impact the spine can cause sciatica. On the other hand, some of the most common sciatica causes include situations like herniated disc, bone spurs, spinal stenosis, spondylolisthesis, osteoarthritis, and even pregnancies.
- Herniated Disc: The disks in the spine act as cushions between vertebrae, but sometimes a disk may herniate. In such a situation, it can press on a nerve, and might cause sciatica. This is the singular most common cause of sciatica.
- Bone Spurs: As you age, sometimes small bony projections called bone spurs develop along the edges of the bones. When such spurs form on the spine, they might encroach upon the space where nerves are supposed to be. This can irritate the nerves and cause sciatica.
- Spinal stenosis: In this condition, the spinal canal narrows in the area where the nerves pass through. This applies the pressure on the nerves, including the sciatic nerve. Often it leads to nerve compression and a lot of pain.
- Spondylolisthesis: In this condition, one vertebra slips out of place. It then slips onto the vertebra below it and pinches the sciatic nerve in the process.
- Pregnancy: The extra weight and pressure of a growing foetus can also cause sciatica during pregnancy because of the pressure on the sciatic nerve.
Sometimes, the exact sciatica causes remain unknown, but here are some other medical situations that might cause sciatica are degenerative disk disease, conus medullas syndrome, foraminal stenosis, and cauda equina syndrome.
Possible complications
In this section, we will discuss what causes sciatica. On one hand, injuries, tumours, cysts and other growths, or infections that impact the spine can cause sciatica. On the other hand, some of the most common sciatica causes include situations like herniated disc, bone spurs, spinal stenosis, spondylolisthesis, osteoarthritis, and even pregnancies.
- Herniated Disc: The disks in the spine act as cushions between vertebrae, but sometimes a disk may herniate. In such a situation, it can press on a nerve, and might cause sciatica. This is the singular most common cause of sciatica.
- Bone Spurs: As you age, sometimes small bony projections called bone spurs develop along the edges of the bones. When such spurs form on the spine, they might encroach upon the space where nerves are supposed to be. This can irritate the nerves and cause sciatica.
- Spinal stenosis: In this condition, the spinal canal narrows in the area where the nerves pass through. This applies the pressure on the nerves, including the sciatic nerve. Often it leads to nerve compression and a lot of pain.
- Spondylolisthesis: In this condition, one vertebra slips out of place. It then slips onto the vertebra below it and pinches the sciatic nerve in the process.
- Pregnancy: The extra weight and pressure of a growing foetus can also cause sciatica during pregnancy because of the pressure on the sciatic nerve.
Sometimes, the exact sciatica causes remain unknown, but here are some other medical situations that might cause sciatica are degenerative disk disease, conus medullas syndrome, foraminal stenosis, and cauda equina syndrome.
Consectetur sollicitudin cubilia facilisis lobortis lacus a ac phasellus. Mus pulvinar enim suspendisse pharetra id commodo platea nunc aliquet.
Hi, this is a comment.
To get started with moderating, editing, and deleting comments, please visit the Comments screen in the dashboard.
Commenter avatars come from Gravatar.