How Sciatica Tips can Save You Time, Stress, and Money.

So what's the deal with the pain in the butt literally sciatica pain can cause pain in your backside. And for many people, it goes from their hip all the way down their leg or even into the back of the thigh. Now I'm going to talk today about five ways that you can eliminate sciatica, and what might be causing it you can eliminate from your lifestyle and see if your symptoms improve. So keep watching this video. If you've been dealing with sciatica, or you think it's sciatica, and you want to know more about what could be causing it. Now, sciatica pain can come from your spine, or it can come from your hip. When people see someone like myself, a physical therapist, we go through different movement assessments and look at how your hips are moving, how your back is moving, what your history is, like what your habits have been like to really fine tune and figure out where the root cause is coming from. But the symptoms can be very scary, especially when it's limiting you from doing the things that you want to do throughout the day, maybe sitting is super uncomfortable, or even lying down to go to sleep at night and you're not getting enough sleep. So it can be very frustrating. But sciatica pain can come from you have your spine here and then this is the back of your pelvis through your hips. So you have your glute muscles that go over this area here. And the sciatic nerve is made up of different levels from nerve roots that come out from your lower spine, and it forms the sciatic nerve deep into your buttock region. So underneath your piriformis muscle, which is a deep hip muscle, many people will have that sciatic nerve run right underneath that muscle. And for a small amount of people, that sciatic nerve can actually run between the piriformis muscle. And when that muscle is tight and tense, it can cause the sciatic pain. But for a lot of people that I see that sciatic pain can come from a back problem. So seeing a physical therapist is really going to help you find the root of the problem, and also learn how to solve it just for your body. Because you can look up so many videos online, it can be confusing on what to do next. Now, one of the main reasons that people have sciatic pain is they are not getting enough activity in their daily life. They're too sedentary and the sounds very basic. But when you're a couch potato sitting on the couch, your pelvis gets used to that position, you get a lot of tension and tightness through your hips through your back, it becomes weak, and you put pressure on that nerve. Now getting more exercise at least 30 minutes a day is what we advise, and also getting on a regular stretching routine. Now this is not something that you right away want to start stretching when you have sciatic nerve pain, because stretching a nerve can be very uncomfortable and make your symptoms even worse. So you want to get advice from a professional. But being sedentary and having not enough activity in your lifestyle can eventually lead to a problem like sciatica. So you want to make sure that you're getting up and down at least every 20 minutes, maybe it's been really uncomfortable to sit. So taking longer walks getting up and moving more is definitely going to help. That area likes blood flow and circulation and when the nerve is being compressed, it's eliminating that blood flow and circulation and therefore movement usually feels better to people that are dealing with traditional sciatica. This can also lead to having muscle imbalances. So we call it the back side of your body, your posterior chain where your back muscles, your hips, your hamstrings, all of that can weaken with a lot of sitting. So having muscle imbalances from the front of your body to the back of your body can create irritation along that sciatic nerve. So another reason you may be dealing with sciatica is when you cross your legs all the time or bear all your weight on one leg. I know women are very susceptible to this with being able to cross their legs it shifts your posture changes the way your spinal in hip alignment is or also maybe you're sitting in the car and you tend to always put one hip shifting toward the side of of the steering wheel. You may notice muscle imbalances when you're sitting. Also when you are standing and check this the next time you're standing up. You're bearing all the weight on one leg versus the other. So having muscle imbalances in your hips and through your spine can create more tension and pressure on one side So watch that. We always say sometimes too with men, sometimes they're holding or putting their wallet in their back pocket always on the same side. And that creates the same muscle imbalances, just like crossing your legs all the time. So make sure you're sitting equally through your sits bones, those deep hip bones there, every time you're sitting in the car, on a chair, just kind of watch and make sure you're not shifting all your weight to one side there that can cause sciatic pain as well. The next one is when you're always carrying a heavy bag or a purse. And especially on one side, that's going to do the same thing that I mentioned before with crossing your legs, or shifting your weight toward one side that you're always shortening that side of your spine. And you it's going to affect your pelvis, being able to put more compression on that sciatic nerve and creating those muscle imbalances. So make sure you switch to using a backpack, something that can carry things around and keep you in a more upright posture is going to be a lot more effective, where you're eliminating all that tension going to one side versus the other. This is more common than we think. And many times I'll see a woman walking going to see me for an appointment and she goes to lift up her person, it's super heavy, or a diaper bag, something that is weighing down one side a lot more than the other. So that could be another reason why you're having sciatica pain. Another reason could be poor footwear choices. Now many women who are wearing heels all the time, think of how that is affecting your back and affecting your hips, creating a bigger arch in your back because your toes are you're going up on your toes and your heels are lifted. So that is going to change your posture. Many times if women are wearing high heels a lot or different shoes that don't have enough shock absorption, like an athletic shoe, this can create problems all the way up into your hips and your lower back. We recommend getting fitted website for a custom fit orthotics just like something like foot levelers is what we have in our office that's only at medical practitioners. And it actually can be very helpful to balance out those imbalances from your feet all the way up to your knees and your hips, from right to left being different. And many times when our feet are not positioned properly, and we're not putting the pressure through our feet, how we should, that is going to distribute more pressure up into your hamstring, your hip and your lower back. We maybe you've heard of pronation before with one foot kind of rolling in at the arch. And that is going to create pain all the way up from your knee into your hip as well. And muscle imbalances there. So making sure you have proper footwork, changing up how you are walking around in more comfortable shoes are going to be more supportive. I have clients who have ceramic floors or wood floors at home and they're always walking barefoot. Well walking barefoot is great. But not if you have sciatica pain, you really want a comfortable supportive piece of footwear that is going to distribute more of that pressure and take up the shock absorption so you don't have as much pain and discomfort all the way up to your back then the last thing that is so common is being overweight. Now imagine that extra pressure that you're carrying weight around your midsection or around your hips, and that's putting extra pressure on your spine. Therefore, a lot of people with that are overweight, do experience back problems or even sciatica issues. So making sure that you get on an exercise program that's going to be able to help you lose weight and new good nutrition program with a registered dietician. Something that is going to be sustainable for you and she makes some changes in your lifestyle. Because weight loss and being able to be a healthy weight for your height is going to take less pressure off of your spine and your hips and that less pressure on that sciatic nerve. So something to consider. Those are five reasons why I see a lot of clients for sciatic pain and how I help navigate that and help them through it is addressing those five factors and those lifestyle changes along with sleeping positions which I have another video that you can go back and search on our YouTube channel all about the best ways to sleep or the best ways to sit at your desk. Those can also improve your posture and take more stress off your sciatic nerve therefore creating less pain and discomfort for you. So how does that sound? Which one that I mentioned? Are you going to try? Put in the comments below I would love to hear from you. sciatic pain is very frustrating I know and it can be life changing when you are able to solve it and really find a solution. So leave us a comment. Let us know how you liked this video. And if you want to learn more about all different topics related to your back your pelvic floor, women's health topics and Pilates exercises, follow this channel here at level four women's health. Thanks for watching.