Sciatic nerve pain or sciatica is the result of pressure on the sciatic nerve, which just happens to be the longest nerve in the human body. What this means isthat any pressure felt on that sciatic nerve can actually cause anywhere along the length of it, and as the sciatic nerve stretches from the center of the lower back, right down both legs and into each foot, that is a large nerve, and a big area to feel pain and discomfort.
If you have had the symptoms of sciatica before and have been diagnosed by a medical professional, you will know what sciatic pain feels like, and you will know the best way to treat it in the future. The best treatment you can have for sciatic pain is to begin icing the center of lower back at the first signs of sciatic nerve pain. Use this cold compress for ten to 15 minutes every hour or so. This sounds like a lot of icing, and it is, but this will keep down the swelling, and as that reduces, the pain level should too, so it is a sensible thing to do.
Now, there are some who hate using ice packs and will not make the effort to do this. That is their right, but what it will cause is a longer session of sciatic pain and more time spent trying to get back to normal after it.
This is not fair on the friends and family of a sciatic pain sufferer, but there is not much you can do to force someone to use a cold compress if they really are set against it.
Once the pain level has subsided a little, then it is time to start doing some gentle exercises. It used to be thought that this was bad choice, and that bed rest was what was required to end sciatic pain, but research has shown recently that the back needs to keep moving or else it loses some of its strength quite quickly, and recovery will take much longer. The simple exercise of walking on the level is a good exercise, provided it doesn’t cause leg pain, and to begin with the walking should only be for a few minutes at a time every few hours, on the level, gradually building up on this as the sciatic nerve and your body allows.
Doctors may recommend anti-inflammatories too to help reduce the sciatic pain, and only if after many months of pain there is no noticeable improvement, it may be time to see a specialist, and perhaps even consider back surgery to relieve the pressure. Back surgery is not always straight forward, since damaging the spinal column can lead to paralysis, but the surgery depends on the reason for the pressure on the sciatic nerve. It might be due to weight gain in pregnancy, a boy spur growing into the scaitic nerve, or a herniated disc to mention just a few causes.
So to summarize, begin an ice pack as soon as you feel any discomfort or pain on your sciatic nerve, and hopefully you will be back coping well with life again in the near future.
Tags: back pain, lower back pain, sciatic nerve pain, sciatic pain, sciatica
