Lower back and leg pain that travels into the foot may be a symptoms of sciatica, which is a type of pinched nerve in the lower back. These symptoms should not be ignored even if they are currently intermittent because they can progress, leading to chronic back pain.
Most types of back pain dissipate within 24 to 48 hours after the injury or onset. However, sciatica does not heal on its own. Often, the pain starts out intermittent and progresses to chronic and debilitating. Individuals with sciatica often experience pain in their lower back and legs. At first, the pain may be annoying and intermittent, but without treatment, the pain can become constant.
Sciatica usually only affects the lower back and a single leg. However, it rare instances, it can affect both legs. Individuals with severe, untreated sciatic often have weakness and numbness in their legs that prevents them from walking without assistance.
Common Causes of Sciatica
Sciatica is an inflammation, irritation or compression of the sciatic nerve. Your sciatic nerve exits the spine in the lower back and extends downward where it branches and travels down the legs. The sciatic nerve ends in the feet. Since it is one of the longest and thickest nerves in the human body, an injury along any part of the sciatic nerve can result in sciatica. Common injuries include sprain strain of low back muscles, subluxations of lumbar spine, herniated or slipped discs, spinal stenosis in the lower back, a slipped vertebra and pregnancy.
Risk Factors for Developing Sciatic Nerve Pain
Individuals who lead a sedentary lifestyle are more prone to developing sciatica than individuals who are active and within their healthy weight range. Sciatica is also more common in older adults and pregnant women.
Sciatic Nerve Pain Treatment with our Clinic
The first step to reducing the symptoms of your sciatica involves getting a proper diagnosis from Dr Randy. Once we know the cause of your sciatic nerve injury or compression, we can create a treatment plan to reduce your pain, numbness and muscle weakness.
One of our treatment options is the chiropractic or spinal adjustment. This treatment works well if your sciatica is caused by inflammation of the soft tissues, a back injury, slipped disc or misaligned vertebrae. Spinal adjustments are effective at repositioning misaligned vertebrae. When the vertebrae become misaligned due to an accident, injury or common muscle pulls, they can put pressure on the surrounding nerves and soft tissues and cause localized inflammation.
By correcting these misalignments, we are helping fascinate the healing process and reducing your inflammation and pain. After several treatments, you should notice a reduction in your pain medication consumption and an improvement in your mobility.
If you have pain, numbness or weakness in your lower back or legs, do not hesitate to call us today!