Your sciatic nerve is the longest and largest nerve in your body. It begins in your lower back as five smaller nerves joining together and extends to your pelvis, thigh, knee, calf, ankle, foot and toes. When this large nerve becomes inflamed the condition is called sciatica.
The pain may follow the path of your nerve down the back of your legs and thighs, down to your ankle, foot and toes but it can also radiate to your back. Along with pain there may be burning, pins and needles, tingling, prickling, crawling sensations or tenderness. Ironically the leg may also feel numb.
The quality of the pain may vary. There may be constant throbbing but then it may let up for hours or even days, it may ache or be knife-like. Sometimes postural changes, like lying down or changing positions, affect the pain and of cal muscles. For sciatica sufferers, a good night’s sleep may be a thing of the past. Simple things like walking, bending, turning, sitting or standing up can be difficult or impossible. Those with low back pain and sciatica show the highest level of disability of all back pain patients.
Like most other conditions, sciatica has a wide variety of causes. An unhealthy spine with a protruded or ruptured disc which can irritate the sciatic nerve is one cause. Sciatica has been reported following accidents, injuries and even childbirth, usually due to spinal misalignment. However, advanced diabetes can also cause sciatic nerve irritation, as can arthritis, constipation, tumors and even vitamin deficiencies. Muscle spasms or tensions can also cause such pain and need to be treated separately.
The medical approach to sciatica is usually to treat its symptoms with painkillers, muscle relaxers and orthopedic devices such as traction and physical therapy. Sciatica is particularly frustrating to treat with drugs because in many cases even strong painkillers bring little or no relief. Patients with sciatica are more likely to be prescribed opioids for their condition or by injecting painkillers directly into the nerve roots. As with all painkillers, there is always a risk of drug dependency. In extreme cases orthopedic surgery may be performed. For years medical doctors have prescribed bed rest for sciatica, yet there is little objective data to show it works. In fact there is increasing evidence that it is ineffective for low back pain as well as sciatica.
The massage therapy is incredible for sciatic patients. Even chronic pain can be dissipated with the help of this natural relief mechanism. The massage treatment should preferably start with an assessment of the entire back and buttock area. It’s important that all muscles of the lower back are relaxed and balanced to avoid compression of any of the five spinal nerve roots of each sciatic nerve. The choice of massage technique solely depends upon the kind of pain you are suffering from. Several sessions may be required to enable the muscle to release its hold on the sciatic nerve and therefore afford longer relief.
Neuromuscular therapy has proved effective in dissipating the pain caused by pinched sciatic nerve, tensed muscle is targeted and pressure is applied on the surrounding nerves. Piriformis is the peculiar muscle targeted which is located in the buttocks. Swedish massage therapy deploys stroking and kneading techniques; extra pressure is applied over the muscles which are tight, targeting the region around lumbar and buttocks in the direction of blood flow.
Deep Tissue massage, Myofascial Release, Trigger Point Therapy and active muscle energy techniques are also valuable techniques to reduce and resolve this painful condition. A massage that includes assisted stretching is very effective in relieving sciatic pain, since stretching helps to release the compression of the nerve roots.
The benefits of massage treatment include:
To maintain the benefits of massage therapy, we advise you to follow our recommended thorough stretching routine to keep the muscles loose and relieve nerve compression.
