My name is Dr. Dennis Barley and I’m here at Barley Wellness in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. Today we’re going to talk about a great treatment option for sciatica. What is sciatica? Sciatic is is a knowing painful, burning tingling, which starts in the lower back, goes through the buttocks, down the back of the leg, and all the way into the foot. It is a condition that many people suffer from, and a condition that we see here a lot.
The sciatic nerve is made up of five spinal nerve roots, two from the lower back, and three from the sacrum or the lower part of the spine. Those nerves come together and go all the way down to the bottom of the foot. The sciatic nerve can actually exit underneath a muscle that goes from the hip to the sacrum, that muscle is called the piriformis. Or it can exit through that muscle.
A Common Reason For Sciatica In Fairhaven, MA
So what causes sciatica? Well, there are a few things that can cause sciatica. One is something called a subluxation. The second cause could actually be a disc bulge or herniation, that occurs between the two vertebrae, there’s this cushion called the disc. And if that bulge in that disc, impinges back into the hole where that nerve root comes out, then that could cause irritation there.
Helping that person realize that calming down the swelling on that nerve root in the disc itself can also help that person with sciatica. And then lastly, the third thing, which I talked about before, is this muscle that goes from here, the sacrum, over to the hip, actually covering the sciatic nerve, and sometimes that sciatic nerve will go through that muscle. If that muscle is tight, it compresses on that nerve and can cause irritation.
Chiropractic Adjustment For Sciatica In Fairhaven, MA
Today, what I’m going to demonstrate and go over with you is how we adjust the lower back. First, we’ll diagnose the condition, whether it’s a subluxation or misaligned vertebra, a herniation, or the piriformis muscle causing the problem. And we’ll show you what exercises to do and what therapy to use to decrease that disc bulging.
So let’s move on to the treatment of sciatica. All right, so Megan is on the wobble chair. And basically what we’re doing there is trying to improve the disc hydration. So she’ll be going back and forth first. Okay. And again, taking the disk and moving it back and forth. And then from side to side. And then in a circular motion, circular one way, circular the other way. And then eventually a figure eight in an angle.
Megan has sciatic pain down her right leg. So what we’re going to do first is have lie on her stomach. We found that she has an irritation right here in her lower back. So we’re going to have her face into the room on her side, this is called the side posture adjustment and we’re going to adjust the subluxated vertebra that’s causing the irritation her lower back.
Now, I’m going to put Megan back on her stomach. And if she’s an elderly patient, or a patient who appears to have issues with her vertebrae. We can do another technique called the activator technique. And we can utilize this little gadget here to make an adjustment simply with less amount of force.
