Sciatica pain relief: Dummies home guide that works

Last updated on September 15th, 2023 at 01:12 pm

Sciatica pain relief treatment at home can be confusing and risky. A feeling of pulling sensation with tinglings like feeling on the back of thigh and leg could be a sign of sciatica nerve pain.

Sciatica is painful and frustrating which can make you uncomfortable when standing, walking. You sit sometimes tilted, sometimes straight, often keeping the leg straight in search of some sciatica pain relief but nothing seems to work.

At some point, you may even think you may never get rid of it. But understanding sciatica is the first step towards sciatica pain relief and we are going to guide you in each and every steps.

Here is dummies guide to understand and then cure sciatica once and for all.

Sciatica pain relief

Before we jump to how to get relief from sciatica and learn sciatica pain treatment at home, we must first have a thorough knowledge of what is sciatica, how and why does it happen. This makes to concept easier to grasp.

So, let us start by why sciatica happens

What is sciatica?

We can define sciatica as neuralgia that hurts the back, hip, and outer side of the leg, caused by compression and irritation of a sciatic nerve root in the lower back.

In simple language, sciatica is a condition where a sciatic nerve gets compressed due to some underlying pathological condition resulting in pain, pulling sensation and tingling sensation on the low back, the backside of the thigh and leg.

The sciatic nerve is the nerve that originates from the lower back region and travels down the back of the leg till great toe. This nerve is responsible for all the movement and sensation on the leg.

What causes sciatica

Now that we know sciatica happens due to the compression of the sciatic nerve, there is a number of causes of it. There could be a rare case as a uterine tumor, but two of the most common cause is:

• Prolapsed Intervertebral Disc (PIVD)/ Slip disc.
• Piriformis Syndrome

And among these two, PIVD is the most common. It is herniation of the intervertebral disc that compresses the nerve that passes by. In sciatica, disc herniation occurs in the lumbar region (lower back area).

This is why sciatica is always associated with lower back pain, but not all back pain is the result of it. This is why we must know how to recognize whether back pain is sciatica or muscle pain.

It starts with sudden sharp pain on the back when bending over, it has typical symptoms of pulling and tingling sensation on the back of the thigh and legs. It starts from lower back travels down the back of the thigh and leg till the calf or ankle joint.

We have to also note that disc herniation has 4 stages and the symptoms become more prominent and severe from one stage to another

I worst cases you may even feel numbness on the outer side of the foot.

Symptoms of sciatica nerve pain

1. Pulling sensation on back of leg and thigh.
2. With tingling sensation on the back of leg and thigh that increases with standing and walking.
3. Posture becomes tilted towards the sound side.
4. In severe case the sufferer may become bedridden.
5. Chronic sciatica may show the sign of numbness on the outer side of foot and sole.

Pain relief from sciatica at home

The treatment process differs with the severity/acuteness. In an acute case, one may completely go bedridden. In a less severe condition, one can manage to walk but with difficulty.

The severity of suffering indicates the degree of internal injury. This is why the exercises that may be suitable for a less severe one is not advisable for acute sciatica conditions. Rather, rest and resting position itself is sufficient in the acute phase.

If bed rest is necessary for the acute phase, a localized rest to back has its own importance in the subacute phase. This we can achieve by the use of back pain belt, also known as a lumbar belt, LS belt or lumbar corset.

Sciatica pain relief exercise: choose exercises carefully

There are so many good exercises for back pain, but keep in mind that these are suitable once the acute pain has reduced to a certain level. The exercises that are meant for the subacute phase, can be very difficult to perform in the acute phase, it can even aggravate the pain.

You have to understand that there is a very different approach to handle acute/ severe pain. So, choosing the exercises for a particular phase is so crucial.

In the latter case, when suffering is almost gone, we can switch over to other kinds of exercises. Such as exercises using a therapy ball. Choosing the right size therapy ball is again very important.

Sciatica home precautions

Till you fully recover from it, there are few activities that you need to avoid altogether or have to do in a modified way. Like you need to check the way you get into and get out of bed in sciatica.

In addition to this, you also have to take care of proper sciatica sleeping posture, the correct way of lifting weight, correct posture of sitting on the computer.

How physiotherapy can help

Physiotherapy also has a major role in managing this kind of neuralgia. We already know that disc hernia is the major cause of sciatica; disc hernia has 4 stages and the treatment depends upon this stage. We are summarising the stages, for more detailed information read this article. These four stages of disc hernia are:

1. Bulging disc.
2. Disc Protrusion.
3. Extrusion of the disc.
4. Disc sequestration.

Though physiotherapy is important in all the phases it has a very crucial role during bulging disc and disc protrusion. Pain management using Ultrasonic Therapy and Interferential Therapy is very important during acute pain.

Everyone must have heard of lumbar traction, it is also a very important part of physiotherapy during the first two stages.

How “Sciatica Relieved” can help you in your journey to pain-free sciatica.

This book covers all the aspect of sciatica and its treatment. it will guide you through each phase you may pass through.

Think this book as your personal physiotherapist keeping an eye on your journey to pain-free sciatica.

It will answer all the questions mentioned in this article. This book contains all the practical tips and exercises described with figures and diagrams for easy grasp and use. Think of this book as your personal physiotherapist keeping eyes on each and every step of pain recovery.

We wrote this book with all those valuable practical experience dealing with hundreds of thousands of sciatica patient.

I Dr. Sunit Sanjay Ekka (PT), author of the book is a physiotherapist practising for 12 years. During this period I seen many back pain cases diagnosed with sciatica. I got lots of practical experience talking with the patient, evaluating them, formulating a treatment plan for them, then re-formulating modifying according to improvement.

After years of learning with them, I have come up with the most effective exercises and home tips that will work and fetch result.

You will find tips for every sufferer regardless of there intensity of discomfort and suffering. Like if you are suffering from very severe unbearable pain, then we have categorized it under “Acute Phase.” Under acute phase chapter, you will find everything related to precaution, sleeping posture, pain management tips.

We have presented every exercise with diagrams and figures for easy understanding. We have also included physiotherapy treatment process that you would possibly expect if you visit your physiotherapist.

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Sunit. S. Ekka

Dr Sunit Sanjay Ekka is a physiotherapist in practice for the last 15 years. He has done his BPT from one of the premium Central Government physiotherapy colleges, ie, SVNIRTAR. The patient is his best teacher and whatever he gets to learn he loves to share it on his Youtube channel and blog.