hi, has anyone got any good remedies for easing sciatica?
things to do or use?
what not to do or use?
i specifically get pain at the top of my leg (hip-buttock-and just below)
ive been taking prescribed ibuprophen amoung other tablets-but im not totally keen on nocking back the pills as they will affect me in the long run.
any sujestions appreciated Only the obvious: Ice and heat and ice and heat.
Keep your weight low.
Don't sit in one position for too long. Try Deep Heat and massage the area,hopefully it will ease it. My mum has sciatica. She has recently started seeing someone who does cranio-sacral therapy. She says it makes her feel pretty rough immediately after and for the rest of the day but then the pain relief benefits last for a couple of weeks. I suffered from sciatica years ago. It was really bad. It kept reccurring for a very long time.
My sciatica was the result of injuring a spinal disc in a car accident when I was 18. The driver was killed instantaneously, so I thought I was lucky ... until the pain gobbled up huge chunks of my life and continued to do so for about 10 years.
I hope you find my advice helpful, I want it to be useful.
From experience, I found the recurring bouts of sciatica were induced by severe stress or some kind of physical trauma (such as jumping off a low wall onto sand ... seems harmless, but when the disc is still vulnerable, even such a normal action can take its toll!)
Here's what helped:
Relaxation techniques to deal with stress, including massage and acupuncture. Vitamin B supplements (it was while I had a bout when I was working in Turkey many years ago that I first discovered the relevance of the B complex vitamins. The doctor injected B vitamins into the base of my neck ... that was almost as painful as the sciatica! Since then studies have found a connection with the B group of vitamins and stress reduction and the ability to help with many kinds of back pain or nerve related pain. I invested in a good Vitamin B supplement and as soon as I felt another attack coming on, I took a few pills a day. I do not recommend the injections, even though they were logically correct!)
Heat helped a lot. Especially a hot sand bath.
Swimming worked wonders, especially an upside-down version of breast-stroke (lie on your back and move your legs as you would for breast stroke).
I got my pain in the small of my back first, so this is different from you. But I will tell you about it, just in case it has some relevance to your situation.
The pain was so bad in my back that I couldn't stand up straight. I had to do everything bent forward. This eased the tension in my back, but made things far worse later, when the sciatic nerve in my leg took the strain of it. Talk about clawing the carpet! However, I learned that if I could keep myself upright during that initial pain in my back, the whole thing would pass in a week or so, with far less discomfort and much less pain. The problem was how to keep straight. My sister advised me to place the heaviest book I had on my lower back and tie it there with a judo belt. I tried this, and I will bless Jane Fonda forever because the only heavy book I had then which was large enough to use for this purpose was her "Workout" Book which came out in the late '70's! The work-out sucked, but the book saved my back! So, whenever I was at home, I did everything with this book strapped to my lower back. Just like a Japanese "Obi", it kept me straight and ensured perfect posture. When I did this, the pain never reached my leg, and I was soon fine again.
Sleeping on a hard surface, such as the floor also helped.
Sex helped too, but only if I was the partner underneath; not on top! (Sorry for being explicit!)
Learning to protect my back was part of the lesson - so I read about how to pick heavy things up correctly; and how to cushion it against any shocks, such as bumpy car rides (there are special portable seats made for that purpose.)
For many years my sciatica has been a thing of the past. I am so glad, because it made my life very miserable indeed.
I hope you will find some good answers to your question and that your sciatica will also soon be just a distant memory! All that I have found that helps are rest and painkillers. I have had chronic sciatica for 14 years now, the result of a ruptured disc that was misdiagnosed for too long. Be careful with the ibuprofen, especially in high amounts for long periods of time. It can cause all kinds of stomach trouble.
Over the years I have done everything offered to me to treat my pain. I have had surgery, physical therapy, chiropractic adjustments, steroid injections, meds specifically for nerve pain, pain management, narcotic pain meds and finally an implant device that helped the pain but sent my immune system into chaos and had to be removed. Nothing has truly helped the pain other than the implant, but that is no longer an option for me. So, here I am, 33 years old and in pain every day. I find that walking helps the most, but I avoid stairs and hills on days I am having lots of pain. I do not lift more than 10lbs, and I do not twist, push or pull any more than absolutely necessary. I generally only wear sneakers because they give me the most support and I sleep with a pillow between my knees. Besides that, ther is little I can do and little available to me. I am hoping to begin a family in the near future so meds are limited to only the most necessary and on an as needed basis. I am sure I haven't helped you much... but I wish you the best. I know exactly what you are going through. please call the body care multi therapy clinic marble arch London 02072624443 for pills free real advance treatment qscience machine that can correct nerve and muscle abnormality and give you realistic advice to improve your condition best wishes doing lunges really help, you can feel it stretching the bad side, keep your feet flat on the floor bend one knee and keep your back straight, it really helps the pain, as it's unreal.
hope it helps. |
