What is Sciatica

Sciatica pain can vary widely. It may feel like a mild tingle, a burning sensation or a dull ache. It can be a minor nuisance or painful enough to stop you in your tracks. Usually the pain is on one side of the body following some or all of the track of the sciatic nerve. Sometimes the leg will go numb and will not be able to support you.

To understand why there is such a variation we need to know more about the sciatic nerve … More

How to manage Sciatica

Sometimes sciatica will go away on its own. If it doesn’t or it seems to be getting worse have it checked out by your favourite healthcare professional, the majority of sciaticas are treatable with physical therapy and/or biomechanical support (insoles for your shoes). In the worst case, if there is a disease or degenerative process going on, early intervention is best, surgeons get the best results when they can operate early.

Sciatica - Red Flags

I don’t want to scare you but these are symptoms that need urgent medical attention:

Unexplained fever with back/sciatic pain, swelling or redness over your back or spine, pain travelling down both legs below the knee, weakness or numbness in your buttocks, thigh, leg, or pelvis, blood in your urine and/or pain on urination, pain that gets worse when you lie down, or wakes you up at night, loss of control of bowel or bladder.

Where does sciatica come from

Let's start at the top. The sciatic nerve is made by weaving together five of the lower spinal nerve roots, if any of those nerve roots are in trouble due to disc problems then the whole sciatic nerve is affected to some degree.

If you have sciatica caused by a disc problem it can often be diagnosed by mapping where the symptoms ... More

How people describe Sciatica

  • Pain on one side that radiates down my leg
  • Like toothache in the buttock
  • A burning sensation, radiating down the back of my leg, all the way to the bottom of my foot
  • A row of sore bits from my hip to my foot
  • Tingling, like pins and needles that won't go away. Sometimes more like a dead leg
  • Sharp, stabbing knife-like pain in the back of my leg, like cramp
  • A band of pain across the low back
  • Electric shocks in my leg when I stand or sit and a dull ache when I lie down