Treatment For Sciatic Nerve Pain - A Whole Body Approach

Most sciatica nerve treatments focus only on relieving the pain. While pain relief is certainly important, that doesn't take care of the problem itself. The pain may disappear, but the problem remains.

What if there was a more comprehensive treatment for sciatic nerve pain? I am talking about one that not only deals with the pain but also works to correct the underlying causes that created the sciatic pain in the first place.

There is a new approach to treating sciatica beyond just the pain relievers, anti-inflammatory drugs, and generic stretches.

You may have heard of the two main causes of sciatica.

Herniated Disk/Bulging Disk Sciatica
This condition happens at the base of the spine. Due to imbalances in muscles of the back and in the hips, the spine has become warped. The spinal disk, the cushiony material between spinal vertebrae can weaken and bulge outwards from its normal position. In sciatica, this bulge or herniation in the disk material compresses the roots of the sciatica nerve causing the familiar sciatica symptoms and pain.

Piriformis Syndrome
This condition may have exactly the same symptoms as sciatica but is actually not sciatica in the classical sense of the term. It still involves compression of the sciatic nerve, but happens away from the spine. In piriformis syndrome, the piriformis muscle, located deep in the hips, pinches or compresses the sciatic nerve.

These two conditions may be the direct cause of the majority of sciatic nerve pain. There are other less common causes as well. But the question that most sciatica sufferers and their doctors fail to address is, "What created these conditions in the first place?". If you can answer that, then you can correct those problems and prevent sciatica from ever coming back.

A Better Treatment For Sciatic Nerve Pain

The root cause of sciatica and most other forms of back pain has been classified by physical therapists as physical dysfunctions and muscle imbalances. It makes a lot of sense if you stop for a moment and think about it. As we go through life, as we sit in front of a computer all day, our habits and our activities all combine to shape our body. Some muscles grow weak with disuse. Others become stronger and tighter due to use, injury, etc.

Our muscles work in a continuous dance and tug-o-war with each other as they support our bones and our movements. However, if these groups grow out of alignment, where one side can regularly pull harder than the other, then things start to change in our bodies. Stress and irritation start to develop. When things begin to reach dangerous levels, our bodies begin to alert us with pain.

Sciatica is the end result of a long line of things going wrong in the body. The good news is that these imbalances are usually easily corrected. The first step is to learn how to identify these imbalances. The next step is to choose the proper treatment for each of those imbalances. What you end up with is a customized treatment for sciatic nerve pain uniquely suited to you and your body.