Why is my sciatica not going away? The sciatic nerve is the longest nervous system nerve in our body. It starts at about where your buttocks join together, just under your pelvic bone on one side and extends down into your foot; so that it is a part of both the spine and lower extremities (legs).
Quite often when someone feels pain or discomfort in their lower back and/or buttocks, they will mistakenly refer to this as “sciatica”. In most cases though, this is not sciatica at all; it is referred pain from a problem somewhere else.
Factors that can cause sciatica include:
- Sitting or standing for long periods.
- Lifting heavy objects.
- Prolonged bed rest.
- Diabetes mellitus (high blood sugar).
- Kidney disease.
- Spinal abnormalities (such as narrowing or bulging (herniated discs).
The sciatic nerve itself never really causes any pain – it’s a big thick wire-like bundle of nerves that has no feeling going through it. However, the smaller nerve branches coming off the main sciatic nerve are responsible for picking up sensation from an area around them. So if something is wrong with one of these smaller nerves (e.g. pinched by a bulging disc), then you may feel pain, tingling, numbness etc coming from those areas – which can extend down into your legs as well.
For example, if you have a problem in your neck causing referred pain down through your shoulder and arm, this pain can travel right the way into your pinkie finger. The fact that it has traveled all this way is not from anything wrong with the nerve itself, but because something is going on around one of its smaller branches (e.g. pinched by a bulging disc). If you correct whatever may be pinching the nerve branch, then the referred pain will go away as well.
So sciatica isn’t caused by any problem within or involving the sciatic nerve itself, it’s just that sometimes there are problems elsewhere in our body that can end up causing some kind of pain or discomfort in the areas supplied by that nerve (legs, buttocks and lower back).
In some cases though, sciatica is caused by compression of the main sciatic nerve itself. This most commonly occurs because one of our vertebrae is sitting too far forward on top of the next one down. Again this only happens when there are problems elsewhere within our body, for example, a disc bulge or herniated disc can put pressure on our spinal nerves; so they start to refer pain into other ‘neighbouring’ nerves like the sciatic or even down into your leg. This form of sciatica can be very severe and debilitating so it does pay to try and prevent it from happening in the first place.
To deal with your sciatica problem effectively, you need to follow several steps. Firstly, make sure that you understand why your sciatica is not going away and then remember to treat the cause rather than just the symptoms. Another important thing you should focus on is rehabilitating yourself so you regain strength in the muscles supporting your spine and other parts of your body. This is not always easy to do, although it can be done with a little bit of work on your part.
Some good exercises to do as well as getting your neck checked and treated if necessary to get rid of the problem causing the pinched nerve in the first place, are all those that focus on stretching back over your head. These types of stretches put very little strain on our bodies, but they help keep our spine in a healthy position so it doesn’t start sitting too far forward on top or behind other vertebrae.
It’s also important not to have too much ‘forward collapse’ through our upper body and/or upper spine. Remember when we’re doing squats, bench presses, push-ups etc with weights we want to make sure we don’t just drop straight down with them; instead of keeping our midsection nice and tight and pulling our whole body back as we go down. Again this helps keep our chest, neck and head in a healthy position so they’re not too far forward on top of our spine; instead just sitting comfortably in the correct alignment with it.
Another way to think about how to prevent sciatica is to try and take pressure off our spinal nerves by keeping them nice and straight at all times. If they’re bent or twisted at any point, then even when everything else is fine, there may be some pressure coming from elsewhere (e.g. herniated disc) which could end up causing referred pain into those areas served by that nerve (legs, buttocks etc).
A really good way to try to help keep our nerves straight is by doing a few minutes of gentle yoga or Pilates every day; so your body gets used to being in the correct alignment and becoming more balanced overall. Some really simple exercises can be done as part of your warm-up before playing sports, going for a run or even just exercising at home.
So what are some alternatives?
- Get up slowly and try to keep your legs straight.2. Try to avoid lying on your back for long periods (it is not good for your spine or discs).If you have a prolapsed disc then you need to seek medical attention right away because it can only get worse if left untreated. The longer you wait, the more nerve damage will be caused which means that the pain will never go away completely and in some cases, extreme loss of movement may also occur, even if surgery is successful.
- If sitting is unavoidable, make sure you keep your back at a 90-degree angle and have lumbar support to reduce pressure on your spine as much as possible. A good alternative may be to stand up using a tall desk or standing workstation if your job allows it. Although this may sound like an awkward way to work, you will find that after some time, sitting becomes more and more uncomfortable than standing with a great chair because even though your back muscles are working. They are also relaxing.
If you have been dealing with sciatica for some time now, it would be wise to take care of the issue sooner rather than later because leaving it untreated could result in much more serious problems than just chronic pain. Keep in mind that sciatica does not only affect older people, anyone can get it at any age due to different reasons. Therefore, ensure that you find out why yours persists and treat the condition as soon as possible so you will no longer need to suffer from this problem.
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