Sciatica exercises and self-care

Self-treatment and physicalactivities

Sciatica is thecondition that is characterized by the occurrence of intensive and shootingpain in the hips (lower back area) and thighs of the person. When it comes tobattling this ailment off, it can be said that in quite a number of cases, theself-treatment methods can produce the same, and even much better results thanthose treatment techniques provided by professional doctors and experts. The alreadysaid is regarded as being especially valid when one seeks relief that will beof longer duration. This is due to the fact that a significant number of those doctor-orientedtreatments actually only disguise the most evident manifestations without properlytreating the condition at the root of sciatica, i.e. in most cases, spinal disc protrusion, as well as muscle contraction.

Manifestations

Regarded as the mostfrequently occurring are such manifestations as intensive pain, tingling andburning sensations, and any additional sensations, which have the tendency tospread from the buttocks area and all the way down to the back area of theperson’s thigh. In some cases, this goes as far as the calf of the foot. True sciatica is directly connected andbrought about by the irritation and the compression of the sciatic nerve, aswell as by a ruptured spinal disc in the lower back region. The latter can besaid to be the at the root of the greatest majority of cases.

Similar conditions

One should becareful in bringing conclusion since there also exist certain conditions thatmay appear as sciatica, but they actually are not. One such condition is knownas the piriformis syndrome – inducedby the piriformis muscle located in the lower region of the buttock. Due tohuge resemblance, this condition is also sometimes referred to as thepseudo-sciatica. Due to a specific kind of contraction of the above statedmuscle, there might occur the compression of the sciatic nerve, producing a referredpain. The pain in question is known to occur once a person suffers from pain inthe arm due to the presence of a particular heart related problem.

Treatment techniques

Both of aforementioned conditions can be remedied with most positive results by various uncomplicatedexercises and home-treatment techniques such as the McKenzie Method,particularly those exercises involving specific spinal position arrived at byspinal extension. The latter condition is most effectively defeated by way ofstretching exercises, as well as by various massage therapies specially concentratedon the massage of the piriformis muscle.