IS MY LEG PAIN COMING FROM MY LOW BACK?

Many people come into my office with leg pain and aren’t sure what is causing it. They may have asked a friend or done some light googling to see what was going on and come to me saying they think they have sciatica. 

This term is kind of a catch all for leg pain and doesn’t always apply. Classic sciatic nerve pain or “Sciatica” starts in the lower back or buttock down into the leg past the knee. Sciatica most commonly is caused from a bulging or herniated disc in your lower lumbar spine. 

Sometimes when a patient's leg pain does not go past the knee it is due to sacroiliac dysfunction which sounds like “Sciatic” but is not the same thing. Your sacroiliac joint connects your pelvic bones to the sacrum, the triangular bone just below the lumbar spine and the primary function of the sacroiliac joints is to transfer the weight of the upper body into the lower extremities. Frequently I have someone come in with pain in their hamstring, groin or thigh that is due to a fixated or unstable sacroiliac. 

Also there is piriformis syndrome which can cause sciatic pain. The piriformis is a small muscle deep in the buttock and the sciatic nerve runs directly beneath it or in some people right through the muscle. If this muscle is irritated, in spasm or injured it can cause buttock and leg pain. 

Sciatica can not only cause pain but also numbness, tingling, burning, weakness and loss of sensation anywhere from the lower back down to the toes. The symptoms can be felt all the way down the leg, in the back, in the buttock, in the leg, in the foot, in all of those places or in one or more of those places. 

If you are having leg pain and you know it is due to a bulging or herniated disc you only have a few options:

Option #1 is to live with it... I don’t like this option because it is a chronic condition and will only get worse with time. 

Option #2 is physical therapy or chiropractic. Which either singularly or in combination can help relieve the symptoms in the short term but for some are not curative options. 

Option #3 is injections and surgery, these are the last things that we want to try because injections will only make you feel better but don’t actually help the problem and surgery should always be a last resort. 

The last option I want to tell you about is Intradisc Neutrosis or IDN which is a combination of high-tech therapies that move the spine in a manner that helps the natural pump mechanism of the spinal discs to work on it’s own giving the disc tissue the ability to self-repair and heal naturally. If you are having leg pain and would like help finding out what is causing it and the best way to treat it please give us a call at the office, email us or fill out the contact form and we can see if I can help you.