When you have sciatica or any other type of back pain, it’s always important to see if there’s something you may be doing in your daily life that is causing or contributing to the back pain.
You may not ever considered this before, believing that the sciatica or back pain came out of nowhere and suddenly afflicted you one day. However, that isn’t true. In our everyday life, we are often unaware of certain habits we have or ways we do things that can set us up for sciatica or back pain.
You may be familiar with hearing cases where people went to the doctor and were healed of sciatica – and then it returned. Why would sciatica return if it was healed previously? The answer is in the daily habits you have at home, at work, and in your car that might be the root cause of the sciatica.
Discovering these root causes of sciatica is imperative for your healing. And really, when you think about it, traditional medical doctors simply don’t have enough time in their busy schedules to brainstorm with you to find that root cause. That’s why they’ll prescribe painkillers – and hope that the condition will resolve on its own. Chiropractors like Dr. Liveriadis will take the time to investigate the issues with you thoroughly so you can identify what could be contributing to your sciatica.
One of the most common reasons for why people end up with sciatica is related to the way they are sitting. When you sit, your body must be symmetrical. Your muscles are symmetrical, and the symmetry makes it easy for you to be balanced. However many women sit with their legs crossed, or unintentionally favor one side of the body as the lean to talk on the phone in an office chair or repeatedly use the same arm for operating a mouse while on the computer.
Many people have the habit of sitting on their wallet. A wallet can be quite thick, and jacks up one hip higher than the other. Some back muscles then end up contracting, compressing the sciatic nerve and causing sciatica. Additionally sitting itself places a large amount of pressure on your spine, subjecting you to the same forces experienced as a person with an overuse injury.
If you participate in one-sided sports, such as tennis, fencing, baseball, and badminton, the muscles on one side of your body get a good workout while the others don’t, eventually creating a lack of symmetry.
If you stand at work all day, perhaps you're unintentionally putting most of your weight on one side of the body, locking your knees or rolling your behind upwards, or doing any number of postures that can contribute to lower back pain.
Your Oakleigh chiropractor, Dr. Liveriadis, will provide you with chiropractic treatments to relieve pressure on the sciatic nerve. He'll also teach you ways that you can prevent sciatica in your everyday life, so you can get back to living without pain. If you live in Mt. Waverley, East Bentleigh, Clayton, or Oakleigh, call North Road Chiropractic today!
