Understanding Low Back Pain Caused by Sciatica

Patients who are in so much pain welcome upper cervical care in Sioux Falls. Low back pain due to sciatica can be very excruciating and debilitating. Numerous people are looking for natural care instead of taking medicine.

In truth, medication is often only a temporary solution to a recurring problem. When the drug wears off, low back pain would most likely come back, and sometimes worse than before. Let’s try to learn more about what sciatica is and where to look for long-lasting care.

Defining Sciatica – Why Does It Cause Severe Low Back Pain?

First of all, let us inform you what sciatica is not. Sciatica is not a medical condition. Instead, it is a term used to denote a collection of symptoms from an underlying medical condition that negatively affects the sciatic nerve. 

The sciatic nerve is the most extended and extensive nerve in the body. It begins to your lumbar spine, runs deeply through the buttocks, and continues down the back of your leg and feet. Anything that would cause irritation, damage, or compression, and give trauma to the sciatic nerve can trigger agonizing back pain. However, several common conditions can also bring about sciatica, such as:

• Injury to the lumbar spine
• Osteoporosis
• Spinal stenosis
• Spondylolisthesis
• Muscle spasms
• Degenerative disc disease
• Herniated discs, pinched nerves, slipped discs
• Piriformis syndrome
• Other injuries to the spinal column

Who Is Prone to Get Sciatica?

Upper cervical care in Sioux Falls helps patients know more about how to prevent sciatica. Some people are highly susceptible to getting sciatica. Also, if you have the following risk factors, you are more vulnerable to suffer from sciatica.

• Regular and extremely physical work 
• Having poor posture
• Obesity
• Pregnancy
• Inflammation
• Being over the age of 30
• Genetics (family members suffer from sciatica)

Watch Out For These Sciatica Symptoms

Take a good look at the following warning signs and see if they would apply to you. Here is a list of symptoms that could tell if you have sciatica.

• Pain Down Your Back, Buttocks, and One Leg

This particular sensation is one of the most common symptoms. Pain spreads out, originating from the lower back and shoots down your leg. The feeling may become more severe as it moves down the leg. It is more likely sciatica if your back pain concentrates in the lower area of the back and goes down just one leg. This path of pain follows the sciatic nerve.

• Pain on One Side of Your Body

Sciatica frequently affects only one side of the body. It is because trauma often focuses on one of the nerve roots. Thus, it’s only causing you to feel it down one leg, buttock, knee, or hip.

• Burning Sensation or Sharp Pins and Needles 

Sciatica causes a sensation of burning in the hip, back, or somewhere down the leg. It may feel mild and go away and then come back anytime. If it is not taken care of quickly, there is a very high chance that back pain and these other sensations will gradually get worse and lead to more symptoms.

• Hip Pain

It affects either side of the hip or both sides, not only on the bottom of the sciatic nerve. When one side of the body is in pain, you have a natural tendency to compensate by shifting your weight to another. As a result, this leads to hip pain on both sides – one side is due to sciatica, and the other is due to overcompensation.

• Numbness

As sciatica gets worse, numbness may begin to appear anywhere along the side of the hip, back, or down the leg. Extreme numbness can affect your leg, causing you to have problems with walking correctly.

• Pain That Gets Worse When You Sit, Sneeze, Cough, or Stand 

Feeling the pain from prolonged standing or sitting is normal. This pain goes away when you move around to shift your weight. However, sciatica pain is quite different. It becomes worse the longer you are sitting or standing. Changing your position and moving around may help and give you only temporary relief. Some people report about feeling severe pain whenever they cough or sneeze.

Gentle, Effective Care for Sciatica

Upper cervical care in Sioux Falls has already given relief to numerous sciatica patients. Our upper cervical chiropractors have helped many sciatica patients to identify and correct a regularly overlooked cause of their situation. We focus on accurately adjusting and realigning the atlas, the uppermost vertebra in the spinal column. 

The atlas is unique and special for many reasons. It is responsible for lifting and supporting the head’s weight and for the majority of its movements. Here is what would cause sciatica to occur:  The atlas (C1) if misaligned from an accident, injury, or regular wear and tear. It is one of the most probable locations for this misalignment because it is the most freely flexible and movable section of the entire spine.

If the atlas moves out of its proper alignment, the shoulders often become uneven as the mid-back adjusts. When one hip draws up higher than the other, this can cause an imbalance in the lower back. These compensations would start to irritate the nerves that form your sciatic nerve. Finally, inflammation and pain would follow, resulting in numbness, burning, and weakness. These and more are symptoms associated with sciatica.

Upper Cervical Care in Sioux Falls

Therefore, a misalignment in the atlas (C1) can cause a trickle-down event that results in sciatica. Upper cervical care is always focused on addressing the root cause of an individual’s symptoms. It does not merely provide a temporary solution or relief. It gives long-term relief by addressing the underlying cause of any health problem. 

Here at Upper Cervical of Sioux Falls, in South Dakota, we will locate the root cause of your sciatica to produce long-term relief. Call our office at (605) 275-6900 or send us a message online to start upper cervical care in Sioux Falls today.