What triggers sciatica?

Now that’s a great question! As Sciatica is not actually a diagnosis—it’s just a sign that something is irritating the sciatic nerve.

The real question is, what is triggering the tissue that’s pressing on or irritating the nerve? 

Some reasons for the sciatic irritation being triggered are inflammation, spinal stenosis, joint or muscle, most of which require expert assessment. A common reason presented to clinic is a bulging disc. The discs are the shock absorbers between your vertebral bones that allow movement, if you damage one it can bulge outwards leading to pain by compressing the nerve.

But…

What triggered the bulge?

This may be something simple like sneezing, picking a pen up of the floor, getting out the car or even getting the shopping out of the car!

So we know what we were doing when we felt the pain but why would something so light and innocuous that we do everyday lead to severe pain?.

Now we’re getting somewhere, because the next question is the why!

If you are strong, mobile and flexible with good technique the risk of a sciatic irritation is significant less, this is where your focus needs to be!

Think of it like this, if you cannot touch your toes putting shoes and socks on will be difficult, if you cannot squat getting in and out of a car, off from the settee and even the toilet can be an issue.

Once you understand the trigger, you can find ways to help your body heal and prevent the pain from coming back!

If you have a 2 year old son, niece or grandchild and you struggle picking them up, you have a couple of options: 

• Do not pick up.
• Improve strength so the weight is not an issue.
• Improve flexibility so picking up from floor to hip height is not a strain on the body.
• Reduce the weight lifted but this is not an option with a child who has never read the manual handling guidelines and just gets heavier by the day.
• Improve technique, this will reduce uneven tension on the body.

For most the first is not an option, the rest are the ones to work on.

Your abilities must match the demands placed on your body because if they don’t it’s not a case of if you get injured, but when!,  outside of the ‘common cold’ back pain is one of the biggest presentations to osteopaths, chiropractors and GP’s.