The sciatic nerve is almost 3 feet long and it goes from the bottom of your spine down the back of your leg,  right down to the tips of your toes.  It’s the biggest nerve in your body.  Sciatica pain is most frequently caused by a bulging disk. 

As the disk bulges it can cause irritation of the sciatic nerve, which causes the pain. People can actually have bulging disks and not experience any pain, but when there’s pain, it could be rather extreme and it runs through your buttocks and down the back of your thigh. The pain only happens on one side of your body.

People are often mis-diagnosed and any back pain is tagged as sciatica.  Actually there are a lot of other conditions that could cause back and leg pain.  It’s only sciatica if the sciatic nerve is irritated, otherwise it is something else completely.

Your physician can perform tests to determine if you pain is actually sciatica or something else.  It is important to get the problem accurately diagnosed in order to provide the proper treatment.  

Anybody who has ever suffered from sciatica knows how excruciatingly painful this condition could be.  If you’re a sufferer the only thing on your mind is to find a way to  relieve sciatic nerve pain.

Prescription drugs to relieve pain are expensive, could have potentially dangerous side effects, and might even be addictive, and if you do not relieve the underlying problem you will suffer from continual flareups.   Besides you will not be able to stay on the pills forever, and then what?

It is always better to get the proper diagnosis and treatment for your pain, by addressing the cause and not just relieving the symptoms you’ll hopefully reduce any further painful flareups.

A lot of people would prefer to find natural forms of relief  and prevention rather than using drugs that just mask the pain but do not do anything to cure the problem.

Keeping your muscles flexible and strong with exercise can help prevent sciatica.  Also any low impact activities such as walking, swimming, bike riding, etc, can help by increasing blood circulation.

A better alternative for a lot of sciatica sufferers is to use various physical therapies to help prevent painful flareups.

A lot of people have had good success in keeping sciatica pain at bay by implementing stretching, yoga, pilates, or a combination of all three into their daily routine.

 These stretching exercises will help keep your muscles loose and increase the amount of space in between each vertebrae.  Stretching back, buttock, and leg muscles can relieve sciatica.  

A lot of health care professionals also advise exercises to strengthen the lower back muscles.  The idea is to form a ‘muscular girdle’ that will help keep your discs in proper alignment.  And the exercise will provide the added benefit of improving your overall health.

The most important thing I want you to take away from this article is that there are other ways to relieve sciatic nerve pain rather than resorting to prescription drugs.  Find one, or more, methods that work for you.  Your body will thank you!