What is Sciatic Nerve Pain? What Causes it?

Sciatica nerve pain happens when one of the longest, thickest nerve in your body gets compressed and irritated. Sciatic nerve pain manifests as a sharp, jolting, electric-type pain originating in your back and radiating down your leg. There can be numbness and tingling as well. While the symptoms are pretty characteristic, and even self-diagnosis wouldn’t be that difficult, it’s always better to seek medical advice from a professional. Still, here’s a bit more about this condition and how you can recognize sciatica.

What does sciatica feel like?

When you first hear about sciatica, it's likely when discussing symptoms with a doctor or searching online. Therefore, it seems fitting to begin by addressing the symptoms.

• One of the most important symptoms of sciatic nerve damage is pain. In fact, there’s a reason why you are more likely to hear the term “sciatic pain” than the term “sciatic nerve pain”. The type of pain is described as sharp, shooting, electric, or even jolting. In other words, it’s not subtle, and it’s really hard to ignore.

• Numbness is also present quite often. Most commonly, it is present along the back of the leg and finding its way into the foot.
• The next symptom worth noting is tingling or parasthesias. The more poetic way to explain this would be to refer to it as “pins and needles”. It again often occurs in the leg, foot, or toes.
• Weakness in the affected leg and difficulty moving it are major problems that you may face.
• Most commonly, sciatica only affects one side of the body. The pain is either constant or intermittent, but it usually follows the same pattern.
• Lastly, sciatic nerve pain worsens with movement. Conversely, being in certain positions may result in significant relief.

If you are experiencing a combination of these symptoms, there is a likelihood that you have sciatica. However, it is essential to seek a medical professional's diagnosis for confirmation.

What is sciatic nerve damage?

Sciatic nerve damage occurs when a sciatic nerve, or one of its components, is injured or impaired. As a result, you may experience pain, weakness, or numbness in your lower back, buttocks, and leg.

You see, the sciatic nerve is the longest in your body, which means that trauma to any part of the body it runs through could, technically, result in sciatic nerve damage. For instance, a herniated disk, spinal stenosis, or trauma to the back or leg should also be listed as potential causes because they could result in some nerve damage.

The same thing could happen with conditions like tumors, diabetes, smoking which can result in nerve damage, propagation of nerve damage, or prevention of nerve recovery.

What triggers sciatica?

The simplest way to answer the complex question of what triggers sciatica is compression or irritation of the sciatic nerve. Now, most commonly, this irritation comes from either:

• Heavy lifting

• Prolonged sitting

• Twisting movements

• High impact sports

• Sitting on a wallet in your back pocket even!

In the past, heavy lifting and twisting movements would have been the most common causes of sciatica; however, in modern times and in this age, risk factors are slightly differently distributed. Namely, more people lead a sedentary lifestyle, more people own cars and drive on a regular basis, and most importantly, more people work from home.

All of this means that people are sitting more than ever and in a seat that’s often not ergonomic or optimized for posture support. According to what we know at the moment, the connection between sciatica and sitting runs pretty deep. 

Some people may lift heavy objects or spend a lot of time sitting without ever experiencing sciatic nerve pain, which means that this just comes down to risk groups.

• Age: Due to changes that happen in the spine with age, people between 30 and 50 are the most likely to develop sciatica pain.

• Obesity: Extra weight puts extra pressure on your body.

• Lifestyle: We’ve already discussed this, but a sedentary lifestyle puts you at greater risk.

• Occupation: Prolonged sitting, lifting heavy, and twisting movements for work will increase your risk of developing this condition.

• Diabetes: This condition will increase the risk of nerve damage, potentially even the sciatic nerve.

Overall, this could happen to anyone, but if you are engaged in some of these activities or belong to any of the above-listed risk groups, you should be even more careful.

How do you treat sciatica?

There are several ways to treat sciatica, ranging from self-care measures like rest, cold and heat therapy, stretching, and posture correction to medication and physical therapy.

If nothing else gives the desired results, even injections (corticosteroid or epidural steroid injection) and surgery (microdiscectomy or laminectomy) could be a possibility.

The bottom line is that it all comes down to the current state of your sciatic nerve and whether or not conservative treatment methods have an effect.

There are also some alternative treatments like acupuncture and chiropractic care, but the data on the actual effectiveness of these methods is questionable. Even when there are studies conducted on this subject, their methodology leaves a lot to be desired. In other words, evidence of the real effectiveness of these methods is either mixed or lacking entirely.

Overall, you should always consult a medical professional and take their advice. Even when you want a second opinion, you need to make sure that this second opinion is coming from a medical professional and not a random online source or a friend.

How to relieve sciatic nerve pain?

When it comes to the most effective sciatic nerve pain remedies, there are quite a few things you can do. For starters, you should rest, apply cold and heat therapy, and perform light stretches.

The reason we started here is that these are simple solutions that you could start applying right away, and you don’t need a prescription for them. Also, they should always be the first thing you try.

You may also try to rectify your posture while sitting or standing.

Over-the-counter medication and physical therapy could also help. Services like sciatic nerve pain messages and manual therapy (like spinal manipulation or massage) might be effective in alleviating the pain. Some sciatica exercises deliver incredible results, and you should never ignore them.

Wrap up

Ultimately, sciatic nerve pain can occur due to an extreme lifestyle. Lifting weights that are too heavy for you or moving less than you should could result in Sciatica. Either way, moderating your lifestyle choices will help in the long run. If you already live with sciatic nerve pain, there are quite a few ways to treat it, both conservatively and invasively. The only safe way to approach this is to consult a physician and ask for their advice.

Don't let sciatic nerve pain hold you back—contact the Orthopedic Institute of NJ today to explore effective treatment options and start your path to relief!