First of all, I’m not a doctor, chiropractor, or even work in healthcare. But, I do work in a field that sees people suffering with back pain. I see them weekly. I know the trouble sciatica pain sufferers go through. I suspect you’re at my sciatica treatment blog because you’re looking for sciatica pain relief. That’s my main reason for writing this blog – I’m not in anyway an expert on the medical side of back pain. Keep reading, because the option I suggest to treat your back pain may be a little different than you’re accustomed to.
I’ve spent some time researching sciatica and back pain – and so if you’re here I thought the least I could do is set out briefly what I perceive sciatica pain to be.
What I’ve come to learn during the last couple of years is that sciatica is not an underlying condition. Instead it’s a symptom. This is important because for so long I had it in my mind that sciatica was a condition. I even started believing it was a condition that could not be overcome.
My reading and experience tells me that rather than being a condition, sciatica is a symptom of a muscle imbalance condition. Let me illustrate with an example. A person who has a desk job sits all day. That applies a certain pressure to the spine. Moreover, that person doesn’t lead a very physical life. What can happen is the hamstring and abdominal muscles weaken. The result: the back spine curve becomves overly pronounced so that the stomach protrudes forward. The continuing weakening of the abdominal and hamstring muscles fuels the pressure applied to the lower spine. The result is a forward-tipped-pelvis. Now a forward-tipped-pelvis is one of 4 conditions resulting in pain stemming from spine misalignment.
You’re thinking maybe – where is this information coming from?
Good question. Like I said, I’m not a doctor or any kind of healtcare professional. I’m a regular working person who writes on health-related topics. I also work (my day job) with people who have back pain. My source for the muscle imbalance condition concept is the 7 Day Back Pain Cure Guide. I got a free copy and read it. I read it because I write on health topics including back pain.
Now let’s get to the nuts and bolts of sciatica …
Okay, where does the sciatica come in to play?
Sciatica simply refers to some form of irritation or pressure on the sciatic nerve. The sciatic nerve is the largest nerve in your body and stems from the lower spine through the buttocks. That is why when you have sciatica you experience a radiating pain/sensation into a leg or legs. Now that I’ve explained the muscle imbalance condition above, you can see how the muscle imbalance can cause the irritation or pressure on the sciatic nerve.
In a nutshell, when your spine’s alignment changes for whatever reason (trauma, sedentary lifestyle, etc.), the use of your muscles change (often weakening some muscles) that then results in low back pain such as sciatica.
What actually irritates the sciatic nerve?
Usually bone, muscle, or inflamed soft tissue. Any material that irritates the sciatic nerve can cause the sciatic pain.
Aside from all my discussions with my doctor, chiropractor, and physiotherapist over the years, that’s what I now understand sciatica to be.
Two other interesting components to lower back pain I learned
I also learned from the 7 Day Back Pain Cure Guide that diet and emotional wellbeing actually can have something to do with lower back pain, including sciatica. It never occurred to me that negative emotions such as stress, anger, or fear can actually result in back pain. Neither did I think diet had anything to do with it. After all, I never was too much overweight.
Emotions and back pain
A muscle imbalance is caused by something. Often it’s a change in the spine alignment (when talking about back pain). However, physical imbalances can result from emotional imbalance such as too much fear or anger. The tricky thing is you don’t have to be a terribly angry person to develop emotional imbalance. I did a self-assessment for emotional imbalance, and I had an underlying anxiety imbalance. Like I said, you don’t need to have a complete mental breakdown to have sufficient emotional imbalance that can result in a physical imbalance.
How do emotional states affect the body?
This was my immediate question when introduced to the emotional imbalance and back pain concept. I read (and came to agree with) the idea (and probably fact) that our emotions do produce physical reactions. Certain types of emotional states produce immediate physical reactions such as faster heart rate, muscles tightening, faster breathing, and so forth. Okay, it’s hard to disagree with this, but where’s the link to spine alignment? It follows that if you have too much emotional imbalance, your blood flow can be negatively affected. Too little blood flow (from constricted arteries) deprives muscles of oxygen – back muscles for instance. Oxygen-deprived muscles tighten and can even spasm. Stress in many forms cause this – even I had heard about knots in the back muscles. Well, this is in a nutshell, as I understand, what is happening.
The muscle spasms and “knots” in your back over time can misalign your spine. As I set out above, once the spine is misaligned, muscles weaken, additional pressures is placed on the spine, and you can develop a variety of back pain symptoms – sciatica being one of them.
Emotional upset can also impact diet, which also can ultimately misalign your spine and cause a muscle imbalance.
Diet and back pain
It made sense to me that being overweight can cause back pain, but many pain sufferers are not overweight. What I learned (and believe) about diet and back pain is this.
First, drinking enough water is very important. The discs between vertebrae have water have an outer and inner ring. The inner ring is filled with water and is designed to absorb shock. When the inner ring dries, it doesn’t function. The outer ring then bears the brunt of pressure – which results in inflammation. If enough pressure (i.e. amount and duration) is applied, it can result in a herniated disc (a classic physical symptom irritating the sciatic nerve).
Second, some foods can actually cause inflammation in muscles and tissue. Often inflammation then irritates nerves and causes the back pain. Without going into too much detail, processed foods cause inflammation in our tissues which over time can result in back pain.
Now that is a simplified version of the 7 Day Back Pain Cure Guide. I got my free copy because I wanted to write about it. It’s a different approach to sciatica treatment in that it incorporates not only physical treatment, but emotional and nutrition treatment. Think about it, maybe one reason you still have back pain is failing to include emotional and nutritional elements to your treatment.
