Sciatic nerve pain symptoms, causes, and exercises
Aka sciatica, lumbar radicular pain, or just a pain in the butt!
Do I have sciatic nerve pain?
Sciatic nerve pain feels like a burning, aching pain down the back of one leg. It is most commonly a result of an issue in your lower back, but the leg pain is usually worse than any back pain. If your back pain is bad, with more mild leg pain, or you have pain down both legs at the same time, it is probably a different issue.
If you have a similar burning, aching pain in your arm, or the side of your leg, it is likely nerve pain, just a different nerve. Despite being a different nerve, the causes and treatment are much the same. The sciatic nerve itself is a collection of nerves from your low back that run through your buttock, down the back of your thigh, before splitting into other nerves behind your knee. It is often painful while sitting or bending, but can progress to being sore all the time.
What is nerve pain?
Nerve pain is caused by irritation through either inflammation or compression.
Inflammation can come from a variety of sources, but is often due to a local tissue injury (muscular, disc, arthritis). It suggests the nerve is being caught up in a nearby issue, but the nerve itself is fine.
Compression can be caused by a disc bulge, narrowing of bony canals (usually due to arthritis) that the nerve has to pass through, or muscular tension. Compression of the outer layers of the nerve produce pain, while compression of the inner nerve fibres produce conduction loss symptoms, but not usually pain. Conduction loss symptoms are loss of strength, loss of sensation, and loss of reflexes. It can be reassuring to know that if you have pain but none of these other symptoms, the compression (if compression is the issue) is probably more like contact of the nerve. Essentially, the pain comes first as a warning, if the compression worsens, you might start to lose some function.
Will it get better?
The great thing is that your body will naturally recover from the vast majority of this, given the right conditions. Inflammation is something your body will be able to deal with naturally (unless there is an inflammatory condition involved), so these cases will settle as your immune system does it’s work. Disc bulges usually resorb naturally (at least enough to offload the nerve), and muscular tension is very treatable. Osteoarthritis is not something that is reversible naturally, however, through exercise and healthy lifestyle, most of these cases will also resolve as the nerve becomes less sensitive to some pressure from the bone.
What to do?
As I said, this should improve given the right scenario, that bit is up to you.
Move. Nerves like movement, discs like movements, arthritis likes movement, inflammation likes movement (easy right?!). Find ways to move that don’t aggravate your symptoms (if it hurts, it probably won’t help). Walk often, lay down if you need relief, then walk again.
Immune support. Your immune system is responsible for regulating your inflammation, disc healing, and basically any other potential cause. Doing everything you can to help your immune system will make an impact. Eat an anti-inflammatory diet, no alcohol or smoking, prioritise sleep, manage stress. Essentially, look after yourself, and you will feel a million times better.
If you have nerve pain and need some guidance, give us a call, we’d love to help 😊