We rely on a healthy back everyday. It is essential for work, sports, and every-day getting around. Whether you are playing with the kids, hauling lumber, or training for a big event, you are utterly dependent on the health of your back. Unfortunately, this leaves the supportive tissues of the back vulnerable to injury.
Muscle strains of the lower back are most common and as with most back injuries can be prevented by good body mechanics. This includes, bending at the knees when lifting from the ground, standing and sitting with good posture, warming-up and stretching before exercise, and sleeping on a firm mattress. These simple measures for avoiding back injury can work wonders!
However, sometimes these injuries are unavoidable. In fact, one-half of all working Americans admit to having back symptoms each year. It is no wonder then that back pain accounts for most health care visits and missed work. Most commonly back pain is brought on by a singular event that proves to be too much for the back’s supportive muscle tissue. However, back pain isn’t always brought on by a strained or torn muscle. Other causes of back pain include: herniated disk, sciatica, spinal stenosis, spondylosis, spondylolithesis, and spinal infections.
Fortunately, most sciatic symptoms result from an irritated or inflamed muscle around the sciatic nerve, the main nerve that runs from your spinal cord and down into your legs. In some cases, when the sciatic nerve is aggravated it radiates pain from the lower back all the way down into the toes. Though sciatica often gets better without any treatment, the healing process can be enhanced by a diligent treatment regimen with home therapy products.
Sciatic Pain Treatments
Compression of the sciatic nerve can occur in various locations and the exact cause and location is not always known. Treating the symptoms can be helpful to manage the pain but treating the source of the compression will result in faster sciatica relief. We recommend that you see your doctor for a proper diagnosis and to determine the cause of the compression on the sciatic nerve.