Sciatica Symptoms

If you're curious to whether you have sciatica symptoms, you're probably right - you have!

How can I be so sure? Well frankly I can't - not 100% anyway, but nearly all lower back pain complaints will give you sciatica symptoms.

Let me explain-:

Whether you have a serious back problem, suffered an injury, or maybe lifted something heavy and sometimes - for no reason whatsoever - there are just some days when you wake up with crippling back pain.

The pain that you are actually feeling 90% or the time is due to a muscle going into spasm which in turn irritates and inflames the sciatic nerve and therefore giving you symptoms of sciatica.

The sciatic nerve, exits the base of the spine, runs through your buttock into the back of the thigh, round to the shin, top of your foot and into your big toe and pain can be felt anywhere along the path of the nerve.

So what are sciatica symptoms? The most obvious symptoms of sciatica are pain to the right or left side of your lower back as the muscle goes into spasm. This will usually stop you from standing up straight, plus the pain will often radiate into the buttock, and is also usually more apparent when sitting or standing for long periods of time.

The reason for the pain becoming apparent in these positions is due to holding a poor posture, due to your muscle spasm.

Other sciatica symptoms are numbness and tingling, pins and needles, and crawling sensations, all of which can occur anywhere along the path of the nerve.

The numbness can cause weakness in the legs and you may also find in some cases that you have a lack of movement in your toes.

Sciatica symptoms and the degree of pain vary from person to person. Some people will feel little pain and it will come and go, and for others, the pain can be almost unbearable day and night.

Now as I said earlier sciatica symptoms are only that, symptoms. it is important for you to find out exactly what is causing the muscle to spasm and the sciatic nerve to inflame, and it is strongly advised that you seek professional advise from your doctor who will probably arrange for an MRI scan.

The results of the scan will tell you exactly why you have symptoms of sciatica and then you will be able to start the treatment for the pain, which is usually as simply as lower back strengthening and stretching exercises.

The good news is that Sciatica is rarely due to anything serious, such as a tumour or a blood clot. In many cases however, it can be caused by a herniated disc.

If this is the case then this will be picked up by the MRI scan.

Although a herniated disc not life threatening, it is a condition that will need treating, to prevent the situation worsening over time, however it is unlikely that any surgical treatment will be required.

Further details of other causes of sciatica symptoms, plus details of effective treatments can be found on our main sciatica page -:

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