Tag Archives: Sciatica

The Worst Position To Put Your Spine In

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Bending in a fieldHere in the Northeast, halfway through January we thought we were going to have a mild and easy winter.

Mother Nature had other ideas.

In a short period of time, we got a record amount of snow. Truly a crazy amount.

With all of this snow came the inevitable shoveling, an activity that is not the best for your low back to say the least.

Now that the snow has cleared, people are starting to think about gardening and once again shoveling may come into play.

Here is my issue with shoveling…the worst position that you can put your back in is bending forward and twisting or side bending.

Please allow for a brief anatomy lesson.

As a chiropractor, I work with peoples’ structure to maintain proper weight distribution within their spine. We strive for 50/50 weight distribution between the right and left with 50/50 distribution from front to back.

When we bend forward, the weight shifts to the front of the spine. When we bend to a side, the weight shifts to that side. The body is designed to handle those singular movements.

The problem comes in when we combine the two.

When we bend forward and twist or side bend, all of the weight goes onto 25% of the spine. This creates tremendous pressure within the discs of the low back.

Eventually that pressure has to go somewhere and more often than not it results in a shifting of the structure which then leads to a whole host of secondary conditions, with back pain being at the top of the list.

It may also lead to the disc breaking open, also called a herniation, and that has another whole host of secondary conditions, with sciatica being at the top of that list.

As you get older, you must limit the amount of time you spend bending and twisting. The sad reality is as we age our discs dry out and can handle less pressure. The more we bend and twist/side bend, the higher our chances are of shifting our structure or worse, blowing out a disc.

If you have been spending a lot of time in less than ideal positions, email or call us and we can discuss strategies to help you stay upright and pain free.

 

 

Case of the Month July 2010

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Illustration of the pain pathway in René Desca...
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A patient, that we will call Ben, reported to my office with low back pain that was traveling down his right leg all the way to the foot.  Upon exam it was pretty clear to me that Ben had a pretty tough case of sciatica, and trust me when I tell this, sciatica is no fun.

Let’s do a quick anatomy review.  The sciatic nerve begins in the low back, right around the top of your hips, or what you will hear as L4 and L5.  This nerve runs through the buttocks and continues down the leg.  When a person has sciatica, pressure is placed on the nerve somewhere along the path and the result is usually pain, although numbness can also be present.

Back to Ben.  When asked to rate the pain on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being miserable, Ben was a 9, which indicates it was quite severe.  Upon exam, Ben was showing tight musculature in the low back, decreased movement in the low back and tight musculature in the right buttocks.  Ben’s posture was a mess and several tests revealed the sciatic nerve was aggravated, to say the least.  X-ray was unremarkable.

I suggested to Ben that we try a short trial to make sure that this was the right course of action for him.  He agreed and we began with chiropractic adjustments, exercise, trigger point therapy and traction.  Ice was also applied after each visit.

At first we made some crazy improvements.  Ben’s pain rating dropped from 9 to 5 after 3 visits.  That gave us some information that this was the right course of action and not necessarily a disc herniation as can often be the case with leg pain cases.

The going after that was much slower.  Over the course of 3.5 weeks, we have been able to get Ben’s pain down from a 5 to a 2.  Ben is thrilled with his progress, me I am a little impatient.

In the coming weeks we are looking to improve Ben’s pain to a zero, while helping him with strength and conditioning to increase the chances that this doesn’t happen again.

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Who Else Doesn’t Understand Sciatica?

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Have you ever woken up and had burning pain going down the back of your leg.  As a chiropractor, I see this everyday. You are going along, everything is great, and then BAM, your leg is killing you and you feel like it will never go away.

Nerves of right leg, anterior and posterior as...
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A brief review of anatomy is in store here.  The sciatic nerve begins in the low back, travels through your buttocks and heads down the leg.  If anywhere in the course of the nerve, pressure is put on it, pain and numbness can occur.  The most common form of pressure is swelling from a misalignment.  As the pressure builds up, the nerve compresses and WHAM, you have sciatica.

What to do when I get sciatica.

Once we have it, the key is getting rid of it quickly.  Here is where ice and Dr. Harrington are your best friend.  If the sciatica is from the spine being out of place a few adjutments will go a long way to helping you reduce the pressure on your nerves.  While we are reducing the pressure on your nerves by putting your spine in place, ice will help calm the swelling down thereby taking pressure off the affected nerve.

How Can I Keep the Sciatica from Coming Back?

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