Index

Hi. I’m Dr. Ryan Johnson from Integrated Chiropractic and today we’re continuing our Q and A series. So a common question I get is, “What is sciatica?” So everyone has heard that term. A lot of people think sciatica is anything with low back pain and although it does affect the low back, there are other causes of low back pain. Sciatica is going to be specifically when it affects usually the L5-S1 disc and that’s going to hit the S1 nerve root. It’s going to travel into your buttocks, down your hamstring, basically down the back of the leg. Now the worse this disc herniates, the worse you’re going to feel it down into the foot. So if you have a knife-like or sharp or stinging pain that travels from your leg all the way down to your foot, typically it’s going to be from this lowest disc in the lumbar spine here. What that looks like, it can look at different grades of the disc herniation. So in this case, this would be a massive herniation pressing on that nerve root. Now that nerve is what travels and sends the signals to your foot and then you also get the pain signals back from your leg back up into the spine here. So what we want to do is correct that structure by taking pressure off the disc and removing that so it’s not mashing on the nerve anymore. We do that through our specific chiropractic adjustments. We do it through intersegmental traction or the lumbar decompression and what we want to do is help decompress to open that space to allow the disc to get off of the nerve. So sciatica again is a common cause of low back pain but the main component is where you’re having the pain travel down the leg. Now true sciatica is where it travels past below the knee. You can have SI joint discomfort or pain from the sacroiliac joints that will refer pain in the buttocks as well. So it’s important you come into the office for a consultation and exam so we can evaluate, “Is the pain coming from your lumbar spine in the disc or is it coming from the SI joint?

Integrated Chiropractic

PHONE: 941-541-1096

ADDRESS: 2206 Jo-An Drive, STE 1 Sarasota, FL 34231