How do I treat my sciatica?

Having a flare up?

The first thing I have my patients do when they are experiencing a flare up is to get in the position that is the most relieving to you and your butt/leg symptoms and breathe. Doing this intentionally for 3-5 minutes will help with short term relief of symptoms as you're calming down your nervous system and turning off the fight/flight mode. Turn off the lights and put on some music to deep-breathe to.

As you can see, there are many contributing factors to what one may call sciatica, so the solution you heard from a friend or saw on reels may not work for you! Seek a professional.

Disc

Disc protrusions and bulges are common, however most of the time they are asymptomatic! Did you know that 40% of people in their 30's were shown to have a disc bulge? Most commonly, it's at L4-L5 + L5-S1 levels. The L5-S1 level can cause the sciatic nerve pain you feel down your leg.

Piriformis

Everyone's anatomy is different- in some the sciatic nerve runs right through the piriformis muscle. This is actually a hip rotator and pelvic floor muscle! This can give the same leg/butt nerve pain that you may see from a disc protrusion, but you see, nothing is involved with the disc!

SIJ

Sometimes the sacroiliac joint, or SIJ can become hypersensitive. There are all sorts of reasons why this may happen, but oftentimes it can result in coincident nerve pain that starts in the butt, and then moves down the leg, AKA sciatic nerve irritation!