Sciatic Pain
Let’s take a look at sciatic issues!
We have a lot of patients that come into Brandon Chiropractic that have shooting pain in the back of their leg down to the knee or even all the way down to their foot! For a lot of people this nerve is a real pain in the behind, literally.Let’s examine this nerve more closely and by learning more about it. The ultimate goal is to get you or other sciatic pain sufferers some relief.
The sciatic nerve is the largest nerve of the body. It starts in your low back and runs all the way to your big toe into your feet. It’s made up of nerve fibers from around the 4th and 5th lumbar vertebrae and 3 nerves from your sacrum. While we call it the sciatic nerve, it is actually two nerves bundled together. The upper part of the nerves controls muscles along the back of the leg.The two nerves split at the back of the knee to control the muscles of the lower leg. Issues with the sciatic nerve can cause pain, weakness in your leg muscles, and even swelling in your legs and feet.
So now that we know a little more about the sciatic nerve, let’s talk about pain. Pain is our body’s way of telling us that something isn’t quite right and it all occurs through your nerve system. The sciatic nerve can be irritated where it leaves the spine because of local tissue damage that results from improper movement of the hips and low back. Our job at Brandon Chiropractic Health Center is to make sure that those hips and low back are aligned and moving properly with a safe, low force adjustment. When the low back and hips are aligned the sciatic nerve doesn’t get irritated as easily and you go back to feeling better.
It’s important to know too that there are other things besides just a misalignment of your low back that can cause sciatic issues. Some might be simple like an entrapment of the sciatic nerve in the piriformis muscle causing it to become irritated. Other issues that can cause sciatic pain could be a herniated or bulged disc in your low back, pregnancy, or more seriously tumors. So it’s important to get the issue checked out by a chiropractor who can make the call if its nerve irritation or something more severe. If you or someone you know is suffering from low back or sciatic pain give us a call at Brandon Chiropractic, 605-582-6546. We would love to see if chiropractic care can help to relieve your pain.
Dr. Charles Ward DC
