Sciatica refers to pain that radiates along the path of the sciatic nerve, which branches from your lower back through your hips and buttocks back of thigh and down each leg. Typically, sciatica affects only one side of your body.
Sciatica most commonly occurs when a herniated disk, bone spur on the spine or narrowing of the spine (spinal stenosis) compresses part of the nerve. This causes inflammation, pain and often some numbness in the affected leg.
CAUSES:
Lumbar spinal stenosis (narrowing of the spinal canal in the lower back)
Degenerative disc disease (breakdown of discs, which act as cushions between the vertebrae)
Spondylolisthesis (a condition in which one vertebra slips forward over another one)
Pregnancy
Muscle spasm in the back or buttocks
More rarely, the nerve can be compressed by a tumor or damaged by a disease such as diabetes.
Other things that may make your back pain worse include being overweight, not exercising regularly, wearing high heels, or sleeping on a mattress that is too soft.
WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF SCIATICA?
Common symptoms of sciatica include:
Lower back pain
Pain in the rear or leg that is worse when sitting
Hip pain
Burning or tingling down the leg
Weakness, numbness, or difficulty moving the leg or foot
A constant pain on one side of the rear
A shooting pain that makes it difficult to stand up
Sciatica usually affects only one side of the lower body. Often, the pain extends from the lower back all the way through the back of the thigh and down through the leg. Depending on where the sciatic nerve is affected, the pain may also extend to the foot or toes.
For some people, the pain from sciatica can be severe and debilitating. For others, the sciatica pain might be infrequent and irritating, but has the potential to get worse. Seek immediate medical attention if you have progressive lower extremity weakness, numbness in the upper thighs, and/or loss of bladder or bowel control.
HOMOEOPATHIC MANAGEMENT
The homeopathic approach for sciatica is the constitutional approach where the patient answers a list of questions, based on which the analysis and evaluation of the case is done and a proper constitutional therapy is selected. As homeopathy believes we need to treat the man in disease and not the disease in man. Since the treatment targets the root cause, Homeopathy offers long-term cure instead of temporary relief. It treats at a deeper level of immunity and enhances the healing capacity of the body.