Discover sciatica pain vs lower back pain with our comprehensive guide. The MHV Clinic explains each condition’s key symptoms, causes, and treatment options, helping you understand your pain and find effective relief. Learn how targeted therapies and exercises can alleviate discomfort and improve your quality of life.
More than 85% of the population sooner or later experience back pain. Back pain is one of many common causes of absence at work and why people like us are requested to attend to the issue urgently.
However, sciatica and low back pain are often confused, and these words are frequently misused.
Generally speaking, there are two leading causes: mechanical, a problem affecting structures of your body (bones, muscles or ligaments), or functional, which is related to how we use our back.
Mechanical damage to the spine, such as a protrusion or hernia, leads to sciatica by pinching the root of the Sciatic nerve and inflaming it.
On the other hand, ‘pure’ low back pain is usually caused by a combination of factors, including posture and daily habits, which mainly affect muscles and ligaments.
Symptoms given are entirely different, even though they often get confused with one another.
Low back pain is mainly soreness and discomfort. It is a dull pain that is very difficult to localise in the lumbar region of the spine. The pain suddenly gets sharper with specific movements or positions and can take one’s breath away.
Because of this, back movements and daily activities are limited, and the person struggles to stand straight. Since a contracted muscle often causes pain, it can be reduced with massages, rest, and heat.
After an initial assessment, which includes checking medical history, checking daily habits, and observing and palpating the area to appreciate the muscular contraction, the treatment consists mainly of a massage to help relax the muscle, followed by some exercises to stretch the back muscles. Throughout the session, we will give you advice and suggestions on how to better care for your back.
Conversely, sciatic pain involves damage to one or more discs in the lumbar area of the spine. Because of the narrowness of these structures, when a disc breaks, its jelly-like content is squeezed out and might trap the nerve against the vertebra.
As a reaction to this, the nerve gets inflamed and gives symptoms such as pain that spreads to the butt and leg down to the foot in worse situations. This kind of pain is very sharp, running on the backside of the leg.
People commonly describe it as warm or burningered by specific movements, associated with numbness, tingling on the foot and toes, and muscle weakness. This pain is worsened when sneezing, coughing or laughing; the person cannot find relief in any particular position if held for too long. Back flexibility is also limited, and bending backwards to look at the ceiling is impossible. Heat makes it worse by increasing the inflammation.
We will thoroughly examine the back’s mobility during the assessment and evaluate the pain response to each direction. This is an appropriate exercise that will help us plan the programme.
If you suffer from lower back pain, sciatica, or sports injuries, we can thoroughly examine you to determine the best treatment plan for your needs and help you overcome your problems.
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