Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Simple and Best Exercises to Relieve Sciatic Nerve Pain

As anyone knows who has ever had sciatic nerve pain, it is extremely painful. Move in the wrong way and you will experience intense pain. Numbness and tingling may occur at any time. This makes it extremely hard to go about your daily activities or do productive work to support yourself and your family.

As soon as possible, you need to begin stretching and strengthening your muscles to relieve the pain and help prevent further problems.

Before beginning any exercises for your back pain, get a diagnosis from a physician such as a chiropractor. You need to be sure you do not have a condition of injury that will be made worse by exercising.

Exercise your stomach muscles, but that doesn't mean start doing crunches and sit ups, these will make it worse and in fact may help cause sciatica. The hip flexor, piriformis, and stomach muscles are the most important ones to strengthen if you have sciatica.

Lay on the floor, one leg bent and foot flat on the floor, the other leg straight. Hold your lower back flat against the floor. Raise your straight leg 8 to 10 inches off the floor keeping you lower stomach muscles tight. Hold this for about 10 seconds then lower your leg. Repeat with other leg. Remember to raise and lower you leg slowly. Try to work your way up to ten lifts a day with each leg. This will help strengthen you lower abdomen.

The piriformis muscles are the ones in your buttocks. These need to be strengthened to take the pressure off your sacro-Iliac joints, the ones that connect the base of you spine to your pelvic bone. One way to do this is place a rolled up towel at the base of your spine where the triangle shaped bone, (the sacrum), is. One end should be at about where your waist is and the other at or slightly beyond your sacrum. Make two fists and put them behind your head on the rounded area of your skull, (the occiput). Do this for about five minutes and then go for a short walk. This exercise will help take the pressure of your joints and spine.

Stretching your hamstring muscles will help loosen them and prevent stress on the sciatic nerve which causes pain. Lie on you back with knees bent, feet flat on the floor. Put your hands behind your knee and pull up your leg until it points upward, then straighten your leg until you begin to feel it stretch. Stop there and hold for around 30 seconds. Repeat 2 or 3 times. Do the same with the other leg. Repeat this 2 or 3 times a day. Don't overdo this exercise or it could make your pain worse.

The more you can keep active and exercise the better off you will be. Inactivity causes your muscles to get weak and therefor cause your back to get worse. Get on your feet and move around as soon as you can. If you feel pain while doing any of these exercises, stop doing them and consult a chiropractic or spine specialist.

Sciatic Pain Treatments with Clinical Care

Sciatica nerve pain is associated with radiculopathy in which the twinge felt in the cervical/neck area is radiated to the bottom of the spinal cord. It might be the result of a herniated disk or strained nerve. The muscles of your lower and upper back and glutes are not sustaining your body weight. When these grave muscle groups become weak, you are to experience sciatic pain. Laziness is one reason for herniated disc pain. Your muscles let you down and you have pinched nerve pain. Don't go on a long way to suffer yourself with this grave condition in silence. You must seek proper clinical care and check that you really have sciatica -- and if you do have it you should take proper treatment. Your healthcare specialist will also be able to provide advice about further clinical care.

Here, the pinched nerve is the largest and longest nerve in the human body. Sciatic pain is very often disabling you by characterizing a discomfort in the lower back. Starting from lower back it reaches the ankle. The twinge can be acute and beating in nature, sometimes it may include tingling and muscle weakness. The discomfort is caused by compression or irritation in the nerve. There are many treatments for sciatica pain with clinical care which include synthetic medications, corticosteroid injections and pharmaceutical treatment. If such clinical treatments are not effective to make anything good, then you have the option for surgical intervention as sciatic pain treatment.

Medications: You can overcome the sciatic nerve pain with anti inflammatory non steroidal drugs along with muscles relaxing drugs. The effect of these drugs is bilateral in action. There is the blocking of tense sensations to the brain and producing endorphins that reduce sciatic pain. If there is no effect, steroid based medication is to be considered. Steroid injections may help reduce inflammation in the affected areas. But in clinical treatment, steroids shouldn’t be taken in normal conditions.

Surgery: If there is no sciatic nerve pain relief by all home treatments and sciatic nerve exercises, the last resort is the surgery. If the problem seems to be still chronic and does not subside, it may lead you to extreme weakness. In such case, the surgery is the best solution to solve your problem.

Alternative treatments: If you are not for synthetic medicines, you have the liberty to choose alternative treatment which includes no drugs or medicines. It is based on purely neuropathy therapy. Acupuncture and acupressure have their own credit. Stimulation is given at weak points of the body to regulate the nervous system.

If you want to have a total cure for your sciatic pain, you should know the exercises to relieve sciatic nerve pain AND home care natural treatments along with clinical care.

Sciatic pain Treatments-Home based

Sciatic pain is normally associated with mild to whipping pain in the lower back and other region of the body. It is the pinched nerve pain which occurs due to the compression at the base of the spinal cord. The sciatic nerve has a network connection with all other nerves in the body making the whole system more intricate. It starts from the spine and passes through the hips, thighs, knees and reaches ankles. It is through this channel that the twinge spreads down to the legs. When the pain reaches the ankles through the knees, it is recognized as sciatica. There may be other inherent causes which are associated to another nerve called herniated disc pain.

Sciatica can reduce your normal daily activities considerably in general by lessening your physical mobility. The continual pain may prolong to one or two months depending on the body condition with inherent cause. However, you need not have much concern over any symptoms of sciatica and lose hope since the pain can be subsided with proper care and treatment. You have many treatments for sciatic nerve pain relief, both clinical and home based, which can help manage and cure sciatica. Here you have the natural treatment for sciatica pain almost with zero cost. Be sure, they are home based treatments for sciatica which cost nothing.

Dual rest: It is highly home based to relieve your nerve discomfort as suggested by physicians is to avail sufficient body rest on bed and feel relaxed. Rest here doesn’t mean lying on bed to hours together lazily. You may have some relaxed activities like reading books and looking at TV while at rest. The rest along with relaxed activities in general without straining your body is known as rest in dual role. However, taking dual rest alone cannot solve your problem as a whole.

Physical exercise: Next to rest, sciatic nerve exercises are recommended by physiotherapists to prevent future recurrence of the problem. Such exercises are mainly aimed at improving your body condition for free mobility with ease. This is achieved by strengthening the muscles around your lower back. If the exercises are wild, then you will be feeling an increased twinge. So, mind it to be mild in exercise for sciatic pain.

Home remedies: Physical exercises build up your body and relieve muscles pain connected with sciatica. You have Yoga, Meditation and Breathing exercises which are different from normal exercises. They improve the functioning of the internal organs and reduce the sciatica pain. In meditation, both the body and mind are relaxed. Breathing exercise ensures effective functioning of the lungs. Applying ice pad to the painful area helps in reducing sciatica pain considerably and it is purely a home based treatment with zero cost.
If you want to have a total cure for your sciatica, you should know the exercises to relieve sciatic nerve pain along with home based treatment AND the supporting medications.