Other sciatica symptoms is the type of pain you feel. This is not a muscle ache. Rather, it is a sharp pain and sometimes a burning feeling. It can range from mild pain that you can easily live with to more intense, burning feelings that make movement painful. It may feel like you have had an electric shock, too, especially if the nerve is being pinched on and off rather than steadily.

Some conditions can make the pain more intense. For example, if you sneeze or you sit down for a long period of time, the pain can intensify, do to the nerve being hit or touched by the tissues. In most cases, though, the pain affects only one leg.

Other symptoms to be on the lookout for include:

• Numbness and weakness in the muscles, specifically in the leg and foot
• Loss of bladder control and bowel control
• Tingling and the feeling of being on pins and needles can occur

If you have these sciatica symptoms, it is important to look for sciatica treatment options. The pain is unlikely to go away untreated if it is extreme, though there are situations where it can lessen if treatment is given. If the pain intensifies and limits your mobility, definitely speak with your doctor about it.

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What causes this pain is a nerve, the sciatic nerve. This bunch of nerves is located at the lower base of the spinal column. It is used to provide feeling to and deliver messages from the brain to the lower extremities. Like all nerves in the body, they move through the tissue and give you feelings. These run up through the spinal column to the brain. The pain you feel is not normal, though. This pain comes from one of these nerves pinched.

If you think of the sciatic nerve as a big wire, delivering messages back and forth, consider what would happen if something pinched the wire. The outer covering rips and tears, which is not the cause of the pain. What is the cause of sciatic nerve pain is the pinching of the actual never by the vertebrae in your spinal column. The exposed wire is being pinched, causing electricity to flow out of it. Like this electrical cord, the sciatic nerve sends pain messages to the brain along the entire length of the nerve.

This is why you feel the pain radiating out, throughout your hips and down your legs. This is the path the sciatic nerve travels to. It is sending those pain signals throughout all of these regions, even though the actual cause of the pain is at the lower portion of your spinal column. Sciatic nerve pain can be relieved, especially when the pinching is relieved.

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The most important way to find sciatica relief is to get active exercise. Bed rest actually can be worse for this type of pain than exercise. If you have immediate pain and need to get some bed rest, this is fine. But, after one or two days, you need exercise and movement or it will worsen. The reason for this is that the spinal structure and the muscles located here become quickly de-conditioned, leaving you in pain regularly.

If the pain is chronic, or you find yourself dealing with it more than one or two times per month, seek out your doctor’s help. A physical therapist can help you, too.

To do your own exercises, consider these methods.  One great exercise is to lay on your belly and prop yourself up on your elbows. Then, slowly raise just your torso ad head up, hold and come down. This keeps the pelvic region on the ground, stretching the muscles. Another option is to stand with legs squared and place your hands on your hips. Then, bend backward, so that your shoulders are slightly farther back than your hips.

If you do not get sciatica relief from these methods, you can also get help through other exercises, or perhaps the best treatment of all is to seek out a chiropractor to help you.

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Why does it hurt? When the siatic nerve is somehow pinched, it causes this type of pain. The nerve is pinched in various situations, but the most common reason is due to a lower vertebrae that has crunched together towards the next one. This cause a herniated disc. The disc is the actual space that is supposed to be between each of the vertebrae. This cushion keeps the bones and tissues from touching the nerves that run through the spinal column and allows you to bend and flex so well. When the disc bulges due to this crunching, the result is that the nerves are touched, leading to the pain.

To know if you are feeling siatic nerve pain, a good indication is the type of pain itself. This type of pain usually starts in the lower back and runs through the buttock or hips and down into the leg, sometimes as low as the knee. If you cough or sneeze, the pain can intensify. Sudden movements trigger it. It can be intense pain, too.

Are you feeling this type of pain? If so, exercising and stretching can help to reduce it. In addition to this, you can often get relief through pain medications. Continuous pain should be monitored by a doctor. A physical therapist can help you to relieve the pain if it is continuous or chronic.

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