SCIATICA SERVICES OFFERED IN COLUMBIA, MD
About 4 in 10 people experience sciatica at some point. Dabbs Rehab Center of MD offers holistic solutions for low back, hip, and leg pain in their Columbia, Maryland, office. The multidisciplinary providers combine to offer chiropractic, physical therapy, naturopathic care, and functional medicine all in one place. If you’re looking for natural solutions to sciatica, call the office or click on the online booking link now.
SCIATICA Q & A
What is sciatica?
Sciatica is a type of pain affecting your sciatic nerve, the body’s longest nerve. The nerve starts in your lower back and splits, running down both hips, buttocks, and legs. If changes in your spine cause pressure on the nerve, it leads to sciatica: shooting pain that travels down one side of your body.
What are the symptoms of sciatica?
The tell-tale sign of sciatica is usually pain that starts in your lower back and radiates to your hip, buttock, and leg. The pain varies, but many say it feels like a traveling electric shock.
Sciatica can be intense, making you hesitate to put normal pressure on your leg and preventing you from standing or walking comfortably.
Sciatica can also cause uncomfortable sensations like numbness and tingling anywhere along the nerve pathway. These sensations can disrupt your sense of balance and increase the risk of a fall.
Why does sciatica happen?
Sciatica occurs because of pressure on the sciatic nerve, usually from a bulging or herniated disc. But, other changes within your spine can lead to sciatica too, including:
- Bone spurs
- Neuropathy (nerve damage)
- Spinal tumors
- Degenerative disc disease
- Scar tissue buildup after back surgery
These problems grow more common as you age, so aging is a significant risk factor for sciatica.
Carrying extra weight, prolonged sitting, and diabetes are additional risk factors.
How is sciatica treated?
Dabbs Rehab Center of MD combines a physical exam, careful symptom analysis, and diagnostic screenings like nerve conduction velocity testing to determine the root cause of your pain. Most causes of sciatica are highly treatable using natural approaches.
Treatment aims to relieve your pain quickly using a combination of physical therapy and chiropractic care. Physical therapy offers noninvasive techniques like therapeutic massage, heat therapy, and cold therapy to relieve your pain while doing strength-building exercises to improve spinal stability.
Chiropractic care corrects spinal imbalances by realigning your vertebrae. This frees the compressed sciatic nerve, relieving your pain and other uncomfortable nerve sensations. Many people with sciatica respond well to non-surgical spinal decompression, a noninvasive treatment that gently separates and realigns your spine to free your sciatic nerve.
Additionally, the practice offers naturopathic and functional medicine, both approaches that identify problems like nutrient deficiency and help you correct them.
Struggling with shooting sciatic nerve pain? Call Dabbs Rehab Center of MD or click the online scheduler to make your appointment today.