Sciatica Symptoms

Sciatica typically causes one or more of the following symptoms:

Note that many sciatica symptoms can occur for reasons other than sciatica, and the term is often used as a catchall for any pain or discomfort in your buttocks or legs; whereas sciatica has a very specific set of causes.

Pain is the most common sciatica symptom, usually affecting only one side of your body. You may experience this as a sharp pain starting in your one of your buttocks, shooting pain down your thigh; and perhaps the rest of your leg, sometimes down to your foot; some people get numbness in a big toe. With sciatica, lower leg pain is very common.

The pain can be persistent, or can be in spasms, or even like sharp electric shocks. It can appear with certain actions or movements, such as leaning forward (for example to tie your shoes); and sneezing, coughing, laughing, or even hard bowel movements can make it worse.

Sciatica symptoms can appear alone, but they can often appear before or after lower back pain.

The pain can sometimes be so bad that your lower back locks in a sideways bending position (called scoliosis) because of a strong muscle contraction.

Some sciatica symptoms are cause for real concern:

• Progressive weakness in your leg
• Loss of bowel or bladder control

These symptoms can be caused by Cauda Equina Syndrome and you should speak to a medical professional immediately. There are also some other Red Flags concerning sciatica that you should also check.

Many people have reported a tremendous easing of symptoms by following the simple, gentle exercises described here; others have shown dramatic improvement with a whole-body therapy approach.

Technical Stuff

• L4 Sciatica: Pain or numbness in your calf and foot. This may prevent you bringing your foot upwards and may make you feel clumsy.
• L5 Sciatica: Pain or numbness in the top of your foot or perhaps your ankle. You may have problems extending your big toe.
• S1 Sciatica: Pain and numbness on the sole of your foot or one of the outside edges. You may be unable to walk on tiptoes and may experience big toe numbness.

For more technical details, hop over to the Biology page.