Treatment for sciatica? (vanity)

Does anyone have any treatments for sciatica or any recommendations? I have it awful!!

Little background- i trained for the Olympics for 10 years (decathlon) and still workout daily, an hour and a half to two hours. A lot of running, swimming, weightlifting. I'm in good shape- great shape for my age.

I've had a problem with my left hip which has morphed into sciatica the past six months. It was initially annoying but now its almost debilitating. Had to stop three times on my run this morning.

Severe pain is in the lower half of my butt check through my hamstring. Calf and a achillies a bit tight but nothing bad.

I had the same kind of disabling sciatic nerve pain down my right hip and leg. Three things really helped me;

(1) Like you, I performed a walletectomy. That helped.

(2) Chiropractors have dozens of different approaches that do not and cannot help because they focus on the area where the pain occurs, aggravate it by overstressing, and keep you coming back over and over again. D. O.'s do he same thing.

But I visited a very experienced D. C. that used a vibrator up and down my spine, and found that the pain in my back was caused by misalignment of the second and third vertebrae in my neck. His simple gentle manipulating pressure in my neck realigned them, and the pain instantly went away. He told me directly that his goal is to keep me from having to come back. I did, once, until the supporting muculature

(3) My company doctor, trained in Europe and the very best that my General Electric staff could find locally gave chiropractors some credit, but said that mostly not advised for this kind of spine-related hurts that involve stretching the muscle/sinew attachment so far that permanent damage can and often enough does result in permanent incurable damage that even surgery cannot restore original pain-free function.

For me, that was fifty years ago. My ability to engage in heavy back-stressing labor returned. I am now age 88, and still raise a 24-foot ladder by myself. A month ago the corroded cast iron waste line plumbing had to be replaced, and I helped by carrying down the stairs five-foot sawn-out sections of 3-in Schedule 40 waste pipe by myself.

Praise God for the good solutions that enabled me to live a full working life through the following half a century!

For relief from the lower back sciatic pain you might want to try one of these:

Inversion table (click here)

Essentially, it allows you to hang from your heels, head down. That allows a gentle pull on the joint sinews and bones of back and leg away from each other, rather than the usual pressure on the joints as in normal sitting or standing; or the torque on them when you lie down and toss about.

Actually, you can probably try this out with a long supporting board on your stairs, roping your feet at the top and letting your body stretch out downward on the board, just to kind of test out the effect. You might need a helper for this to get situated or to get up from it.

A primitive model of this inversion device was introduced by "Doc" Roy Ryland, a Physical therapy educator, to the scheme of treating back problems of athletes at University of Delaware. He applied the idea as chief trainer and therapist in charge of healing injured competitive athletes for several years. I heard him describe it and the benefitsbwhen he was brought in to address our company's monthly safety meetings.

A second useful trick you might try is one that Ryland mentioned when he addressed us, and that is for you to lay face sown prostrate full lenth on the floor, with your elbows at your side and hands flat on the floorby your head; then (keeping your hips down) raise your upper body on your forearms. Doing this makes your spine arch backward, thus relieving the muscles and the pressure on your vertebrae, and diminishing the lower back/sciatic forces that are causing pain. Staying up for a while allows your back to get some rest, and heal a bit. You won't want to do this al day, but it helps you ease off the disabling pain for a while.

Just a couple of thoughts to try out, not too difficult or expensive for you.

Also, you might try noddin your head from the vertical to the rear and back about five or ten times; then likwise forward and back; and likewise to the left shoulder, and finally to the right. Doing this regularly when convemient will ge your neck muscles stronger with better blood flow; and keep them that way. The point is to make your neck muscles strong enough to keep your upper vertabrae in line and not get/stay misaligned from normal use. That was suggested to me by a chiropractor, and seemed to work, keeping painful instances from happening.

No cost there, either.

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