Hi, I’m Dr. Steven Battaglino with Battaglino Family Chiropractic. I want to talk for a minute about chiropractic and sciatica. Specifically, what causes sciatica and how characteristic can help get rid of it.

So, let’s look at the body structurally for a second. This is the spine. This is the lower back or lumbar region. So, we have bones here, we also have discs, little shock absorbers, we have nerves that exit the spine right behind the discs.

So, when things get out of place, they do so with the spine, the vertebra going backwards like this. So, what’s happening is that disc that’s normally supposed to be like this, like a shock absorber doing this, and it gets pinched, it gets stretched and it gets sheared a little bit. This causes the body to react by swelling. So, there’s a lot of swelling in the disc when it does that and it gets stretched and it can swell right into that nerve that is right next to the disc.

So, when that happens, that nerve is going to be shut down a little bit. The nerves will start to swell too because of the compression. And so, you get a lot of swelling in the area. The disc and the nerve, that nerve is going to have pain right there at that level. But there’s a lot of other things, a lot of other information that these nerves carry. So, there is control to the muscles of the legs, the sensation and reflexes that go down the legs down into the feet. Some patients might have tingling or numbness. They might have pain down all the way down to the feet and toes from a problem in the low back.

This is what sciatica is. It’s basically, you know, a part of the puzzle because those nerves that are getting clamped down are also the nerves that run the colon, the bladder, the prostate, the reproductive organs, reflexes in the legs. And so, there’s a lot of things that are affected negatively by pressure on these nerves.

How can we get this fixed? So, if we if we give an injection or let’s say we start with just taking some anti-inflammatories. Some over-the-counter stuff like Ibuprofen, Motrin or Aleve. something like that or something that’s prescription. They would all work the same way, it’s basically, you know, there’s a chemical that you’re taking in that’s going to interrupt the inflammatory process. So the inflammation there is going to go down and with it some of the pain because you’re taking that chemical. But my opinion is that it’s just like taking the batteries out of the fire alarm. Let’s say there’s something burning in your oven at home and you take the batteries out of the fire alarm. The fire alarm starts going off. You take the batteries out. Is that really fixing the problem? It’s not doing anything to turn off the oven or take whatever is in there out. And if we look at what’s causing the problem. And from the standpoint of fixing that problem, it really is a structural problem. We want to take that disc that’s getting stretched like that and return it to its proper place like this. That way you can start to function the way it’s supposed to again. That swelling can start to recede and the muscles that are locking up that region will start to relax. The pain will go away. And also, all the other nerve stuff that’s going through that nerve is going to start working the way that it’s supposed to. So, then the organs, the systems you know. All of our organs get their nerve flow and control through these nerves. So, you’ve got your bladder, pancreas, kidneys, liver, heart, lungs, stomach, pancreas. All this stuff is getting controlled through these nerves. And so restoring proper function these nerves is going to get rid of pain, even including sciatica. But it’s also going to allow the body to function the way that it’s supposed to again naturally with chiropractic.

I’m Dr. Steve Battaglino you know with Battaglino Family Chiropractic and this has been your health minute.