Got Back Pain? » sciatic nerve

Sciatic Nerve Pain: What It Feels Like

writer — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 20:54:36 +0000

Sciatic nerve pain is quite painful. You may have already felt it in the past and not known exactly what it is. Sciatic nerve pain is pain that radiates from the lower back region down your legs. This type of pain feels like shooting pain, pain that is not located in one limited area but instead moves through the back, down into the buttocks and down one or more legs.

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.

Click Here to Return from Sciatic Nerve Pain to Sciatica Relief Info

Click here to return to the Back Pain Homepage

Sciatica Relief Is Possible: Find Out How

writer — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 03:34:20 +0000

Sciatica relief is possible in most situations. This type of pain is caused by the compression of the lower spinal column. Because it compresses, it pinches the sciatic nerve, which is one of the largest nerve groups that runs throughout your hips ad into your leg. When this nerve is pinched, you feel it as a shooting pain that runs from the lower back into the hip and down the leg. If this is the kind of pain that you have, there are several ways you can get relief, most of which comes directly from exercises.

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.

Click Here to Return from Sciatica Relief to Sciatica Relief Info

Click here to return to the Back Pain Homepage