SCIATICA

What is Sciatica?

Sciatica refers to pain that radiates along the path of the sciatic nerve, which branches from your lower back through your hips and buttocks and down each leg. Sciatica, usually affects only one side of your body. The medical term for sciatica is lumbar radiculopathy. Sciatica is not a condition; it is a symptom.

The sciatic nerve is your body’s longest nerve and one of the most important ones. It has a direct effect on your ability to control and feel your legs. When this nerve is irritated, you’ll experience sciatica.

Cause

Sciatica occurs when the sciatic nerve becomes pinched, usually by a herniated disk in your spine or by an overgrowth of bone (bone spur) on your vertebrae. More rarely, the nerve can be compressed by a tumor or damaged by a disease such as diabetes.

Sciatica results from irritation of the root(s) of your lower lumbar and lumbosacral spine.

Additional common causes of sciatica include:

•  Lumbar spinal stenosis (narrowing of the spinal canal in your lower back)

• Degenerative disk disease (breakdown of disks, which act as cushions between the vertebrae)

• Spondylolisthesis (a condition in which one vertebra slips forward over another one)

• Pregnancy

• Muscle spasm in the back or buttocks

Risk factors

• Sleeping on a mattress that is too hard or too soft

• Smoking

• twisting back for long period of time, or carrying heavy things

• Aging (which can cause changes in the spine, like bone spurs or herniated disks)

• Diabetes

• Being overweight

• Not exercising regularly

• Sedentary lifestyle

• Wearing high heels 

Symptoms

The symptoms of sciatica are commonly felt along the path of the large sciatic nerve. Sciatica is often characterized by one or more of the following features:

• Hip Pain

• Numbness

• One-sided symptoms

• combination of leg and foot pain, weakness, tingling or numbness

• A shooting pain that makes it hard to stand up

• Burning or tingling down the leg 

Sciatica usually affects only one side of the lower body. Often, the pain extends from the lower back all the way through the back of your thigh and down through your leg. Depending on where the sciatic nerve is affected, the pain may also extend to the foot or toes.

For some people, the pain from sciatica can be severe and disabling. For others, the sciatica pain might be infrequent and irritating, but has the potential to get worse.

Seek medical attention right away if you have:

• Fever and back pain

• Swelling or redness in your back or spine

• Pain that moves down your legs

• Numbness or weakness in the upper thighs, legs, pelvis, or bottom

• Burning when you pee or blood in your pee

• Serious pain

• Loss of bladder or bowel control (leaking or not being able to make it to the toilet in time

Homoeopathic treatment for sciatica

Homoeopathy do offers effective cure for sciatica. There are many medicines in homoeopathy, some are: Colocynth, Valeriana officinalis, Rhus tox, Gnaphalium, Kali iod, Cotyledon umbilicus, Bryonia alba, Amm. Mur., Mag phos., Rhus tox etc. 

Homoeopathy also offers additional benefits as it not only helps in rectifying sciatica pain it also helps in strengthening a patient’s constitution so that the disease is cured of its roots and there are no further recurrences.

Homoeopathic medicine is very fast and effective for Sciatic Nerve Compression Pain and is totally natural, free from any side effects. It is one of the most widely accepted forms of medicine which causes no side effects and can be taken easily by both men and women. Homoeopathy aims at treating sciatica permanently. 

Therefore, it does not believe in giving painkillers or muscle relaxants. Homoeopathic medicines try to provide strength to the nerves and muscles of the back that are involved. The culprit disc can slowly slip back into its normal space once the muscles are toned up. Once this happens, there is no pain or discomfort. Since this is not an easy task, it does take some time and requires patience on the part of the patient. Doing regular walk and exercises helps a lot in curing sciatica quickly. The exact choice of medicine depends on the symptom totality of the concerned patient.