All About Sciatica:
Sciatica Information
Sciatica is a painful condition that affects many people. Typically, sufferers feel a sharp pain down the
back of one leg; but sciatica symptoms can affect all parts of your leg, and range
from a slight twinge or some numbness or weakness, all the way to an agonising intense pain so bad that it makes even slight movement unbearable
in severe sciatica.
On these pages we provide plenty of sciatica information, what causes it, what can be done to make you feel better, and what
steps to take to give you the best chance of avoiding it in the first place! The menu options in
the left sidebar will guide you around the site, but let's just have a quick look at sciatica now.
Sciatica is not just any leg discomfort or painful feet and legs. Sciatica pain
starts when the main nerve into your leg, the sciatic nerve, is
irritated, pinched, or compressed in some way. This can happen for one or more of several reasons – and
sciatic pain can only be treated properly when the cause of the
irritation is known.
Another way of saying this is that sciatica is really a set of symptoms rather than a condition or
disorder itself, and requires professional diagnosis to determine the best way forward.
You have two sciatic nerves — one for each leg. Each
sciatic nerve is a group of nerves about the thickness of a finger, leaving your spine at the lower part of your back, passing through your
buttock, going all the way down to your feet.
The sciatic nerve is not just the largest of your leg nerves; it is in fact the largest
nerve in your body, and controls your leg and foot muscles. It also sends signals from your legs and feet back to the
spinal cord and then to your brain. (Click on the image for a larger version that shows the
course of the sciatic nerve — it's bright yellow). Symptoms of sciatica
include numbness, aching, burning, tingling, and various degrees of pain travelling from your lower back and shooting down your leg, possibly
even reaching your feet; sometimes some of your leg muscles feel weak, or cramped.
It usually only affects one side of your body. Sciatica normally starts because of wear
and tear on parts of the spine, and usually not as the result of an accident or injury.
Most people who are diagnosed with sciatica get better within a few weeks or months, and
find that it is treatable without surgery — often, over-the-counter medicines, hot and cold applications,
exercise, and physical exercise can make you feel better and ease your discomfort; whereas others find it so painful and disabling that surgery
is the only recourse.
Have a look around. I hope this mini-site is useful to you. Please let us
know! Your first port of call might be to look at the symptoms of sciatica.
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