Sciatica & Massage

What is Sciatica?
This is a nerve dysfunction that affects your low back, hip and leg.  There are several causes of this dysfunction -- injury to your spine, overuse of certain muscles, posture and even age will do it.  Precisely how sciatica affects you depends on the cause of the dysfunction and the cause, in turn, directs how it is treated, if at all.

The sciatic nerve is the longest nerve in your body and the largest in your legs.  Branches off the main nerve serve all areas of your body from your lumbar spine to your feet, so it's no wonder why a person affected with sciatica would want relief from it.

Find the Cause!
Have you been diagnosed with sciatica or sciatic pain? Before seeking treatment, determine what is causing the problem to begin with.  Sometimes, the symptoms alone are used to make the diagnosis.  Here's why it's so important to know what's causing the impingement on the nerve.  Many branches of the Central Nervous System (CNS) reach out from between the five lumbar vertebrae and several more emerge from openings in the sacrum (the diamond-shaped bones between your low back and tailbone) to form the sciatic nerve.  Any impingement of the feeder branches of the nerve from the CNS may cause or result in this traveling pain.

In addition, both the branches to and from the main nerve itself run a course through, between and beneath several muscles from the time they leave the spinal cord until they terminate in your feet and elsewhere along the way.  Damage to or tension in any of these muscles may result in squeezing the nerve and issuing sciatic pain.

Compressed vertebrae tend to pinch the nerves, too, and a degenerated disc allows the vertebrae above and below it to put the squeeze on it.  So can a bulging disc.  A herniated disc creates another whole set of issues including sciatic pain.  Poor posture over a long period of time may result in deforming the curve of the lumbar spine resulting in a weakening of the nerve, along with a number of spinal diseases such as scoliosis.

Massage To The Rescue?
Could be!

Should a diagnosis of tight muscles be indicated as cause, especially tension in the muscles of the posterior hip, that is, your backside, a massage therapist trained in the physiology and therapeutic workings of releasing those muscles may well be your ticket to hope! Even a cause not directly related to muscles may be benefited with massage because muscles may tighten around the affected area to splint or prevent further damage to the nerve.

A couple of worthy notes here: First, a massage therapist is not legally able to diagnose, though most of us have an idea what may be at the root of the problem when the symptoms are described.  Second, life holds no guarantees and massage is never held up as a cure-all by competent therapists.  Our intention is to work the muscles to release their tension.  It's up to your body to recognize the change in muscle tension and make the adjustments.  That's why we say that we only allow your body to help heal itself, we don't fix things.

Sciatica and Piriformis Syndrome are closely related in that pain symptoms are exceptionally similar.  The piriformis muscle is located deep inside the muscles of your rear end and the sciatic nerve runs beneath and, sometimes, right through it.  If the piriformis is tight, the nerve gets pinched and pain is felt in the hip, buttocks and down the back of the leg as a steady or shooting pain.  Piriformis Syndrome is the keynote to the therapist and is the first targeted muscle we work on to release trigger points (constricted muscle), elongate and relax signals of sciatic pain to the brain.

Other muscles may also be causative to the pain or may simply impede progress of your recovery, so the competent therapist will work those muscles as well.  These include the major players of the deep lower back, glutes (your butt) and hamstrings, along with performing assisted stretching exercises with you on the table.  Additionally, we may give you homework to do -- exercises you can do at home to help between visits to your therapist to aid and speed your recovery.

Together, these treatments by your therapist may very well be able to do what other treatments have been unable to do for you -- help your body return to wellness!

To your best health,
~ Joel

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