How Long To Heal From Sciatica?

So how long does it take to heal from sciatica?

This very much depends on a variety of factors including what's causing the irritation to the sciatic nerve and how severe the damage is. The most common cause of sciatica is a disc issue.

Damage to a disc which is causing an irritation to the sciatic nerve, this can cause a loss of function or pain down the leg. So to have a full recovery, there needs to be the healing process of those three structures: the discs; the nerve; as well as the muscle or whatever the loss of function was in the leg. The disc takes around nine months to around two years to recover as fully as it can. Once the pressure is taken off the nerve, that nerve will need time to recover and the quicker that pressure is taken off the nerve the quicker the recovery. As soon as we've found out exactly what is irritating the nerve we can then tailor the treatment.

Presented by our Aylesbury Chiropractor Dr. Steven Hulme (Doctor Of Chiropractic) on behalf of Corrective Chiropractic & Corrective Clinics

First Aid for Sciatica

First Aid for Sciatica.

So what should I do if have sciatic symptoms? Well the first thing you need to do is take away whatever caused the issue there in the first place or take away anything that makes issue worse. The second thing I would recommend is to get your spine checked so you can find out exactly what is causing the symptoms so that you can have problem corrected at the root and see the symptoms disappear. The third thing I would suggest is to put some ice on the area to reduce the inflammation of the affected nerve which will then in turn allow you to move a little more. The movement is essential when you're suffering with a disc issue particularly because that disc needs movement to heal.

Presented by our Aylesbury Chiropractor Dr. Steven Hulme (Doctor Of Chiropractic) on behalf of Corrective Chiropractic & Corrective Clinics.

What Causes Sciatica?

So what is sciatica?

Sciatica is not really a diagnosis but a description of a symptom.

Essentially it is an irritation to the sciatic nerve and the sciatic nerve originates from five different levels in the back, it travels down to form a big thick bundle on both sides of the buttocks and supplies everything of the thigh, leg and the feet. This is going to include sensation as well as muscle strength. Common symptoms of sciatica can include things such as pain, numbness, tingling, pins and needles, and weakness to the muscles. Essentially it's going to be a loss of function to wherever the NERVE is going. As soon as we've found out exactly what is irritating the nerve, we can then tailor the treatment accordingly to decrease the symptoms.

Presented by our Aylesbury Chiropractor Dr. Steven Hulme (Doctor Of Chiropractic) on behalf of Corrective Chiropractic & Corrective Clinics

What is Sciatica?

So what is sciatica?

Sciatica is not really a diagnosis but a description of a symptom.

Essentially it is an irritation to the sciatic nerve and the sciatic nerve originates from five different levels in the back, it travels down to form a big thick bundle on both sides of the buttocks and supplies everything of the thigh, leg and the feet. This is going to include sensation as well as muscle strength. Common symptoms of sciatica can include things such as pain, numbness, tingling, pins and needles, and weakness to the muscles. Essentially it's going to be a loss of function to wherever the NERVE is going. As soon as we've found out exactly what is irritating the nerve, we can then tailor the treatment accordingly to decrease the symptoms.

Presented by our Aylesbury Chiropractor Dr. Steven Hulme (Doctor Of Chiropractic) on behalf of Corrective Chiropractic & Corrective Clinics.

Hot or Cold for BackPain?

So cold or heat?

Heat or ice? Which one should I apply to my back when I have pain? This very much depends on what is causing your pain. If the pain is coming from the muscles, then you want to apply heat to the affected muscle. The reason for this is because heat is going to increase the blood flow to the muscles, increasing the flow of nutrients and thus increasing the healing process. If however, the cause is an inflammatory issue, coming from perhaps a joint dysfunction then ice is going to be the desired choice. This is because ice will aid in decreasing the inflammation present and thus help you to feel better. As you can see, it is essential to know exactly what's causing your back pain so that you can apply the correct one. If you're not sure which one to use for back pain, I would suggest that your best bet would be to use ice as the vast majority of back issues come from a joint dysfunction (even if there is a muscular component also present). So how long should you apply the ice of heat for? I would recommend applying twice a day for around 10 minutes, then ten minutes off, then another ten minutes on. Repeat this twice a day until you start feeling better.

Presented by our Aylesbury Chiropractor Dr. Steven Hulme (Doctor Of Chiropractic) on behalf of Corrective Chiropractic & Corrective Clinics.

How Does BackPain Develop?

So how does back pain develop?

Well back pain is either going to develop very quickly or develop very slowly. The quick versions of back pain is going to be a traumatic event, this is going to be our macro trauma so this could be something like a car accident or a slip or fall that is going to cause a quick injury and the large injury to a tissue in your back and therefore causes sudden amount of pain. If this is a case then then the pain that was produce would be on that day. When we contrast this to back pain developing slowly, this is going to be the more trivial smaller injuries to the back. So this can be, for example, sitting at your desk eight hours a day, five days a week that, to day after day, will add up to a larger injury. If this is the case then your back pain has been developing for the weeks months or even years that you've been doing that small activity.

I like to explain it like this:

We have a pain threshold that sits in the middle here and when we're born were hopefully starting at the top at 100% health or 100% percent function. Provided there's no birth trauma then as we go through life we are going through little micro traumas and hopefully then the body can heal and thus we're constantly going like this. However if the ratio between the healing process and the trauma gets out of sync with the trauma dominating, we start to go like this and it's not until we get right to the pain threshold that we are on the edge of creating back pain. So you might pick up a pen and that's when you can start again back pain.

So my job here is to get you not from here to here although that get you out of pain, but to get you from here to here to give you 100% function and that's what we do when we check the spine in correct it.

Presented by Steven Hulme. Doctor Of Chiropractor (Gonstead Practitioner) - Corrective Chiropractic Aylesbury

What Causes BackPain?

What Causes Back Pain?

What causes back pain?

So why is it that when I bent over to pick up a pen or a small and light object, I started to get a severe pain in my back? Why is it sometimes some of the most trivial and light forces can cause such large injuries to our back. Well according to the NHS, low back pain is one of the most disabling conditions in the UK, so it's something that is a very big issue within our society but what causes it? Why is it that we get back pain in the first place? Well the cause of low back pain comes down to trauma and we have two different types: we have macro trauma; and we have micro trauma. A macro trauma is going to be the more obvious but the less common versions of trauma that causes back pain and this can be things such as a slip or a fall, it could be a car accident, a knock or a bang. It’s going to be a sudden injury to a tissue that causes pain. Micro trauma is going to be a small injury sustained over a period of time, day after day of day that’ll

equate to a macro injury. We can take the analogy of a camel's back: each day we’re laying a straw on the camel's back and depending on how many straw we start with will depend on when the pain in your back will start and it won't get into it the final straw is laid on the back and everything breaks and that's when the pain in the back comes.

Presented by our Aylesbury Chiropractor Dr. Steven Hulme (Doctor Of Chiropractic) on behalf of Corrective Chiropractic & Corrective Clinics

Is My BackPain Muscular?

Have you got a pain in your back that feels muscular but it doesn't seem to be going away maybe it's been there months or even years perhaps you’ve tried massage or some soft tissue techniques that might have given you some short-term to medium relief but just keeps coming back. Well the fact of the matter is that your muscles should be able to heal and regenerate very efficiently, even more than most tissues within the body. Take the gym for an example, you go and lift some heavy weights, you create some small micro tears in a muscle and the days proceeding, you start to get a pain in the muscle, this is your muscle regenerating and healing itself. So your muscles should be able to heal and if it's not there's going to be an underlying issue to that.

Three main reasons for this: the first one is if you have a joint dysfunction or a structural issue, this will cause the muscles surrounding the dysfunction to tighten up to try and protect and stabilize that joint; the second underlying issue may be a movement pattern disorder, lets take the shoulder an example, if you've got a couple of muscles in the shoulder that aren't working very well, perhaps weakened for whatever reason then there must be other muscles surrounding that shoulder that are going to have to work extra hard to compensate and therefore they will end up fatiguing quicker; and the final way may be if you have any nerve irritation that is being compromised, that nerve that goes to the muscle is then going to cause that muscle to tighten up, there'll be nothing to tell that muscle to relax. What you need to do is consult a Chiropractor to find out exactly why it is that muscle is tight so that the underlying issue can corrected.

Presented by our Aylesbury Chiropractor Dr. Steven Hulme (Doctor Of Chiropractic) on behalf of Corrective Chiropractic & Corrective Clinics