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Sciatica is pain in the distribution of the sciatic nerve. The sciatic nerve is made of 5 nerve roots in the low back and sacrum (L4, L5, S1, S2 and S3). These nerves exist on both sides of your low back and buttocks; 5 on the right, and 5 on the left.
So there are 10 sciatic nerve roots. If any of these nerve roots is irritated or compressed, usually by a herniated or bulging disc, you will feel pain, tingling, or numbness wherever the pinched nerve travels. And these nerves travel down your buttock, thigh, leg and foot. If you feel pain, tingling or numbness in your buttock, thigh, leg or foot, you probably have a disc problem in your low back, usually the L5 or S1 nerve roots.
If, as is usual, your nerve is compressed by a disc herniation, there is only one way to get better. You must get the pressure off of the nerve root. This is an anatomical, physical, mechanical problem, and it requires an anatomical, physical, mechanical solution. Medications and injections can help with the chemical inflammation that results from the compression. But the only effective treatment is to get pressure off of your nerve root. The most effective way to get pressure off of a nerve root is to use a treatment called spinal decompression, a sophisticated traction table, to gently pull your vertebrae apart, to encourage the disc problem to recede, and get it off of your spinal nerve root. If you do that, the painful inflammation will naturally go away, and then your pain and function will improve. If you don’t get pressure off of your nerve root, you cannot feel better.
Very few clinics use this treatment approach even though it is the most effective, and makes the most sense. Instead, they have you do stretching or exercises which, sometimes, aggravate the pain. Spinal decompression treatment is the most effective, non-surgical treatment I have used for sciatica pain with 50,000 patients,
in my 38 years of practice, since 1987, which includes orthopedics, physical medicine, physical therapy, and neurosurgery.
If you’re looking to relieve sciatica pain in Atlanta & Decatur I would love to help you with your problem. And because spinal decompression treatment is more effective, it works faster and costs less. Sound too good to be true? Read my patients’ reviews. Call me at 404-558-4015.
Herniated discs are discs which have degenerated or been torn, and become weak enough to expand beyond their normal border. This process can cause pain from the outer disc fibers, cause disc collapse over time, put more pressure on the joints, result in joint degeneration, and pinch nerves sometimes.
As you may know, there are 24 spinal bones/vertebrae in your spine, and 23 spinal discs between these bones. The discs are made of two components; an inner “nucleus pulposus”, and and outer component called the “annulus fibrosus”. The outer annulus component is made of 12- 25 tough, fibrous, concentric layers of tissue that enclose the inner component. Imagine a jelly donut, with the outer donut component and the inner jelly component.
When these outer layers tear, as commonly happens, when we age, they may permit the inner component to push out, i.e. bulge or herniate, and escape their confine.
The spinal nerves are behind the discs and can get pinched when the disc material comes out. These nerves are very sensitive to disc pressure, and the resulting pressure on them will cause, and perpetuate, a chemical process called inflammation. Inflammation includes five components- redness, swelling, heat, pain, and compromised function. So long as there is pressure on the nerve it will be painful.
Sometimes the herniated disc is small and causes a mild, brief episode of pain, and you get better without treatment. Other times the pain can persist for years and ruin your quality of life. When medical treatment is sought, we start with the simplest, safest treatments and proceed to more aggressive treatments, including injections and surgery. Generally, the first treatment suggestion is medications andphysical therapy or chiropractic treatment. If that fails, injections of cortisone may be recommended. If that fails you may be recommended to do surgery. Surgery is appropriate in about 2% of patients who seek treatment for a herniated disc.
As far as non-surgical treatments, such as physical therapy and chiropractic, either is fine to try, but in my experience a treatment called spinal decompression is most effective. This treatment involves placing the patient on a spinal decompression table, and providing a kind of traction that gently pulls the vertebrae apart and reduces the compression of the disc, joints and nerves. Since almost all pain in the spine arises from these three tissues, decompressing them alleviates most spinal pain.
If you’re looking for non-surgical herniated disc help in Atlanta or Decatur, please call 404-558-4015.
Pinched nerves are usually pinched by a disc bulge or herniation in the low back. But it the problem is in the neck, it is usually caused by something called a disc/osteophyte complex, which is a combination of disc bulge/herniation and boney arthritis. All of these problems can usually be resolved with surgical treatment or injections.
When nerves are pinched in the low back the pain will radiate into the buttock, thigh, leg and foot. The more the nerve is compressed, the farther down the leg your pain will travel. If the nerve in your neck is pinched, you may feel pain in your shoulder, and arm. Similarly, the more the nerve is compressed, the farther down the arm you will feel your pain. When nerves are pinched, only one thing will make them feel better. They must be un-pinched. The best way to do this is to provide sophisticated, computerized traction treatment for the neck or low back. This treatment is called spinal decompression. It only helps with pain because it does exactly what needs doing, and nothing more. When the treatment helps, and it usually does, it means that your nerve is pinched less or resolved. Usually a series of treatments is necessary to totally un-pinch yournerve(s).
If you’re dealing with a pinched nerve in Atlanta or Decatur, Backstrong Non-Surgical Rehab Clinic offers effective, non-invasive care to get you out of pain and back to your normal activities. Call 404-558-4015.
Car accidents can result in a host of injuries. The most common are neck pain and back pain. Other injuries include concussions, headaches, shoulder and chest pain, hip and knee pain, contusions, abrasions, and more.
Chiropractic treatment can help by providing symptomatic relief of the pain and inflammation, while your body’s innate healing process works to restore normal tissues and function. Movement is essential during this process and is also a component of treatment. Sometimes manual therapy is necessary to help the tissues recover, by breaking up scar tissue to enable normal movements again.
Neck pain is a common complaint. And it can be confused with shoulder pain. Sometimes both problems co-exist. It is typical for neck problems to be felt in the neck, shoulder, trapezius, shoulder blade, between the shoulder blades, and arm. Pain that is felt in these areas are almost always coming from a neck problem, and the usual problem is called a disc/osteophyte complex. This is a combination of herniated or bulging disc and boney arthritis. These arthritic/degenerative changes to your spine are so common as to be normal in older persons. But they don’t have to be painful, and usually are not. But as they progress with aging, they lower the threshold for provoking pain. Sometimes provoking pain can be done by sleeping is a bad position, or some other mundane activity. As with most spinal pains, the pain is often so severe and frightening, that one will think and feel that something is severely wrong and dangerous. But this is not usually the case.
Reassuring the patient and getting them better fast, will alleviate this fear, and demonstrate that these pains are not cause for fear. This disc/osteophyte complex is a common, degenerative process that I describe, more broadly, as a slowly, progressive, degenerative, compression of the spine/neck. Compression of the discs, joints, and nerves is what is happening. The most effective, non-surgical treatment for this compression, is decompression. And decompressing these lesions is most effectively done with a specialized, computerized table called spinal decompression. This is the treatment I have used since 2006, and it is, by far, the most effective treatment I have used since 1987 with 45,000 patients, working in orthopedics, physical medicine, physical therapy and neurosurgery. While reassurance is appropriate, initially, the patient must improve quickly. The doctor’s role is to reassure appropriately, but fear the worst until the pain improves in accordance with a benign problem. Should the problem and pain persist, the doctor must be quick to consider other diagnoses and diagnostic studies, and referral. I explain all of this to patients as we proceed. Patients can’t learn everything the first time, but they need to understand their problem right now, and what to expect in their futures. For neck problems, 80% of patients will get some relief of their pain with their first visit, and more will improve with subsequent visits. And, while neck problems can recur in the future, most patients will improve and not have any recurrence for many months or years.If you want lasting neck pain relief in Atlanta and Decatur, call me at 404-558-4015.
Joint pain is the most common source of back and neck pain. We have all experienced this, and most of the time, it gets better in a few days time without requiring treatment. When we’re young this usually happens from an acute soft tissue injury, but when we’re older it usually happens from an insult to a degenerated joint.
Chiropractic treatment can help by gently providing passive movement, opening up the joint, reducing the painful inflammation and restoring normal, pain-free movement.
Dr. Craig Castanet owner of Backstrong Non-Surgical Rehab Clinic.