About 40% of people in the U.S. experience sciatica sometime during their lifetime. Sciatica refers to pain that radiates along the path of the sciatic nerve, which branches from your lower back through your hips and buttocks and down one or both legs. The pain can vary widely, from a mild ache to a sharp, burning sensation or excruciating pain. Sometimes it can feel like a jolt or electric shock down the leg.
It’s easy for me to explain the symptoms because I too experienced sciatic nerve pain for months. I had the type of sharp pain that stopped me in my tracks. I had been under full spine chiropractic care and my previous chiropractor regularly adjusted my lower back. The symptoms relented but never fully went away, I would occasionally get an electric shock if I turned too quickly or got up too fast.
It wasn’t until I began consistent upper cervical chiropractic care did I see the symptoms completely subside.
Upper cervical chiropractic care focuses on removing subluxations (misalignment of the vertebrae) that are affecting the function of the brain stem and surrounding nerves in the neck. Now how can adjusting the neck affect the nerves in the lower back? Let’s start by talking about how the sciatic nerve can be aggravated.
Poor posture, car accidents, old sporting injuries, or even a difficult pregnancy can all contribute to misalignment in your upper cervical spine. The upper cervical spine contains not just our brainstem (which controls all of our movement), it also contains 8 cervical nerves that branch into hundreds of nerve fibers that run throughout the whole body (even down to our toes!). Without treatment, misalignment in the spine can cause irregular tightness in your back muscles, bulging spinal discs, and lopsided hip movement. Any combination of these imbalances will put enormous pressure on your sciatic nerve, resulting in ongoing sciatic pain. Even though the pain is felt in the lower back, Sciatica is often caused by an imbalance in the upper cervical spine.
At Keystone Specific Chiropractic Center we use the latest technology to assess the nervous system and we take digital x-rays to evaluate the structure of the entire spine in order to assess the subluxations present in the upper cervical spine. We then put together a detailed individualized care plan for each client to remove subluxations, improve spinal structure, and restore proper function.
When receiving consistent upper cervical care, balance to the body and nervous system will be restored and the pressure on the sciatic nerve can begin to decrease.These are the results I have seen as an upper cervical chiropractor and as a patient of upper cervical care!
If you or someone you know suffers from sciatic nerve pain and would like to be checked for an upper cervical spine misalignment then it’s time to schedule an appointment to be assessed!
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