Sciatica
Do you experience agonizing pain in your buttocks, thighs, and right down to your feet? The pain is often agonizing and you keep going for treatment after treatment with only slight improvement. DON’T put up with it anymore!
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Sciatica is the most commonly misdiagnosed form of pain.
We regularly give presentations to GPs on the difference between TRUE-sciatica and FALSE-sciatica. This enables them to choose the best referral for their patients and prevents months of unnecessary pain.ost every site.
FALSE-sciatica looks a lot like TRUE-sciatica, but to the trained eye, it follows a subtlety different pain pattern.
FALSE-sciatica comes from a mal-aligned pelvis, or from buttock spasms. It can be resolved in 3-4 sessions, even if it has been there for a long time. It is incredibly simple to treat if you know what you are looking for. Even if you have been told that you have a disc bulge... do not believe it!
54% of the population have a disc bulge and do not even know it. It is normal to have a disc bulge. It is not the cause of most “sciatica”.
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TRUE-sciatica is caused by a MASSIVE disc bulge. Our trained Osteopaths will be able to diagnose if your sciatica is caused by a massive disc bulge, big enough to significantly compress the sciatic nerve. In these cases, as it will not respond to hands-on therapy, the best thing to do is to keep moving, take anti-inflammatory drugs and if the pain is not improving in three months, then consider surgery, Generally, it takes 3 to 6 months to resolve itself.
X-RAYS, CT & MRI scans can be very misleading
We'd like to tell you the story of Leon. His is a tale of many medical ‘red herrings’. It goes to show how x-rays, CT scans, and MRIs can be very misleading.
Leon was referred by his GP to our sciatica treatment specialist, Dr. Melanie Brown. His CT scan showed a definite disc bulge. It was close to a nerve in his back called L5. His pain even referred to the outside of his shin- the classic pain pattern for L5 sciatica. Anyone in their right mind would make the obvious conclusion that this is sciatica. So Leon was told to wait about 3 months, and then see if any serious medical intervention was needed.
However, not all therapists bother to test and find out the real cause of pain. Yet all the mechanical tests ruled out true-sciatica in about 10 minutes.
We don’t want to get too technical, but the fact is that Leon had tight calf muscles. Calf muscles are big, and they were ‘bullying’ the poor little shin muscles. The Calf also refers to the back (specifically the sacroiliac joint), which leads to much confusion for many practitioners.
Leon was given osteopathic treatment and some of the exercises in our rehab videos. He felt immediate improvement and resolved his ongoing “sciatica” in less than 3 sessions.
When is sciatica not sciatica?
We had a case of a man who had an MRI showing a large “slipped disc” and sciatica in his left leg. They were considering operating on his back. His disc was not the problem. We adjusted his pelvis and re-trained his buttock muscles. He was able to get back to power walking the next week.
To find out if you have true or false sciatica, get in touch with us. Don't put up with the pain anymore. There is hope and a solution.
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