If you’ve been trying to get all the information you need about sciatica relief only to bang your head against a wall, you must at least read this. There’s just so much information out there and it’s totally understandable to feel a bit lost. Are you? Don’t worry, you’re not the only one. There are a lot of people looking for sciatica relief who are just given pills to pop. I mean how long can you go on only on medication? Here are 3 important things you need to know about sciatica relief.

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It’s not sciatica if the pain is not going below your knee

A lot of people tend to mistakenly call it sciatica even if their pain is in the buttock area. It is important to understand what it is to get the best sciatica relief. Sciatic nerve pain is specifically because of the compression on the sciatic nerve. And the sciatic nerve is the longest nerve in the body. It starts from the back and supplies the whole leg right upto the big toe! So if your nerve is compressed , it’ll defintiely let you know. The only way it tells you is to cause pain along the path it runs. So you’ll feel the pain in the back sometimes, but mostly in the back of your leg and the foot. If the pain is not going below the knee, it’s not sciatica. This means that you don’t specifically have search for for sciatica relief. It’s a back or hip pain that’s casuing radiation into your thigh.  Hooray! because that means that your nerve is not getting compressed and you’ll recover quicker!

Don’t sit on the couch for sciatica relief

If you have sciatica you’ll notice that sitting actually makes it worse. So don’t sit! All right I understand it’s impossible to avoid sitting. But the next best option would be to minimize sitting. So gauge the amount of time it takes for the pain to come on and get up before you get it. It’s also wise to avoid sitting on soft surfaces to get quicker sciatica relief.  It’s because sitting puts a lot of pressure on the discs in the back. Usually the discs act like shock absorbers. But when there’s a disc bulge, it can increase with sitting and push on the nerve. Avoiding sitting reduces the strain on the discs which can push on the sciatic nerve and this helps with sciatica relief.

Physio is the main treatment for sciatica relief!

woman treating a man

Oh please tell me you knew this already! No? Oh my gosh! Yes! Physio is the mainstay of treatment for sciatica relief! Trust me, being a physio I have seen a lot cases that have recovered. The most important thing is to get to a physio as soon as you are suspicious that you have sciatica. Remember, pain is not normal. So you’re in doublt, go see a physio straight away to get you started with sciatica relief.What’s the worse that can happen? Physios know the symptoms of sciatica like the back of their hands. Now you do have to make sure that you go to physios who are experts in manual therapy. You also want to see therapists who are experienced in sciatica relief. Finally, please remember that physio may be a slow process of recovery but it’s definitely a long term solution.