Sciatica is one of the most commonly discussed, least understood components in what I refer to as the back pain complex. The back pain complex being any manifestation, alone or in concert with one another, of neck pain, back pain, and sciatica or sciatic nerve pain. There are a myriad of factors involved in creating sciatica, I have attempted to list 9 of the more common contributory factors. There is still a great deal we don’t know about when it comes to defining pain, particularly sciatica, a distinct expression of pain and an indication of an underlying condition…but not a singular condition. This article attempts to list the more common causes and some of the reasons for them. This article is the first in a series on sciatica and will be used in conjunction with a video series on the same topic.

What is Sciatica?

Sciatica is one of the most difficult conditions for medical practitioners, even those experienced in treating back pain and sciatica patients, to identify and treat. Sciatica often presents itself as a tingling and/or numbness, not unlike the feeling one may experience with a pulled hamstring muscle, the biceps femoris at the back of the leg. The sensation may be dull, almost an ache, with periods of tingling and/or numbness occurring during certain activities. The tingling and/or numbness experienced, if not treated, may develop into a full-blown chronically acute phase with pain shooting across the buttocks and radiating down the leg. Sciatica may affect one or both legs, usually one, beginning as a pain radiating from some point in the lower back, the lumbar spine, then across the gluteal muscles (the buttocks), and finally down the back of the leg. In advanced cases, sciatica reaches all the way into the feet and toes, causing discomfort and an eventual loss of feeling.

Interestingly, sciatica is not a specific condition, it is simply a catch-all medical term applied to a constellation of symptoms in order to describe a state the back pain sufferer is in. In this case, sciatica is used to describe a patient’s complaint of pain radiating across the buttocks, down the leg, and into the feet and toes…along with the associated tingling and/or numbness. Sciatica may be caused by a number of conditions, from stress and trauma at a specific location on the spine, the lower back or lumbar curvature, to a more generalized condition such as obesity or pregnancy. There are a number of other conditions associated with sciatica, all requiring varying degrees of medical intervention and treatment. Some of the conditions likely to present with sciatica are:

1. Osteomyelitis: An infection of the bone or bone marrow. Osteomyelitis may be debilitating and in extreme cases may even cause death. It is difficult to diagnose and may go undetected for a long time unless appropriate blood tests are ordered and the medical practitioner is well trained in infectious diseases affecting the bones.

2. Tumors on or near the spine: Tumors, particularly tumors or abnormal growth (e.g., scar tissue) affecting the nerves or nerve roots as they exit the spinal canal and intervertebral foramen, will sciatic nerve pain or sciatica.

3. Degenerative Disc Disease: Once again, degenerative disc disease is not a disease any more than sciatic nerve pain, called sciatica, is a specific condition. Degenerative disc disease is a breakdown of the IVDs, the intervertebral discs, and is usually a consequence of aging combined with the any or all of the 5 principal factors affecting the spine as we age.

• Excess weight and/or obesity
• Muscle weakness
• Muscle Imbalance
• Inadequate nutrition and diet
• Inadequate hydration or dehydration

4. Herniated (i.e., ruptured) or bulging disc: This condition may be particularly problematic if the herniated disc or bulging disc is protruding posteriorly (to the back) and into the spinal canal, or impinging on the nerve root at the intervertebral foramen, thus placing pressure on the spine and/or nerve root; and, sciatica is the result in many instances.

5. Piriformis syndrome: We will cover the piriformis syndrome and how it relates to sciatica in depth in a subsequent video and article. Recent research has demonstrated that this little-known syndrome, at least in the lay community, may be a factor in as many as eight out of ten sciatica cases. The piriformis muscle works particularly hard in runners and others who are physically active, often resulting in RMI or repetitive motion injury.

6. Spinal stenosis: This is a narrowing of the spinal canal and/or intervertebral foramen. In fact, any narrowing of a structure can be defined broadly as a stenosis. The stenosis, the narrowing affects and/or obstructs the pathway for nerves, thus exacerbating pain…in this case creating the sciatic nerve pain associated with sciatica.

7. Spondylolysis: In layman’s terms, it is a stress fracture at the back of the vertebra, the vertebral body (the front part) breaks away from the back part of the vertebra (everything else). In osteological terms, the break occurs at the pars interarticularis of the vertebra, usually at the fifth lumbar vertebra, the last vertebra before the lumbar spine articulates with the sacrum or tailbone. This is usually associated with spondylolisthesis, the next contributor to sciatic nerve pain.

8. Spondylolisthesis: Usually associated with spondylolysis in younger back pain and sciatica patients but may present without spondylolysis in older adults. Spondylolisthesis is the result of an anterior (forward) shift in the vertebra body, in fact the entire vertebra when spondylolysis is absent, or the vertebral column in relationship to the remainder of the vertebral column below. There are a number of reasons why this condition may occur but in younger patients it is usually found with spondylolysis. We will discuss this condition in depth in a subsequent article and video but suffice it to say that any change in the overall structure of the spine, particularly at the lumbar curvature, will create sciatic nerve pain.

9. Trauma: Trauma and stress go hand in hand when it comes to back pain and sciatica. Trauma may be localized, meaning the spine will take the brunt of the stress at a specific location, or it may be generalized and affect several levels simultaneously. The better equipped we are in terms of muscle strength, muscle balance (or imbalance), and the other factors affecting spine health, the better equipped we will be to handle appropriate levels of stress. The IVDs are remarkably resilient and very strong but if the discs undergo change as a result of any of the 5 factors listed above, or the traumatic event is profound enough, damage to the spine may occur; and, sciatica may be the outcome. In this case, a medical practitioner should always be the first step in any bad back treatment strategy.

In reality, any one of the factors above, or several of the above mentioned conditions together, may cause low back pain and sciatica. Sciatica is, once again, the presentation of a specific type of pain. The actual condition causing the sciatic nerve pain may be any of the above or a number of other conditions not discussed here; these are some of the main ones.

Your medical practitioner may refer to sciatica as radiculopathy, particularly lumbar radiculopathy, because sciatica originates in the lumbar curvature or lumbar region of the spine. This has become a catch-all, in much the same was sciatica has; and, both are used when a more appropriate designation should be applied. But for now, understand that if your medical practitioner refers to sciatica and/or lumbar radiculopathy, he or she is usually referring to pain radiating from the lumbar region of the spine, at times across the buttocks, down the back of the leg, and even into the feet and toes. We will discuss sciatica in much greater depth in upcoming articles and videos.

For an amazing free resource, get this book:

The 7 Day Pain Pain Cure

For a complete, step-by-step system for recovery on your way to a pain free life…go to:

http://www.TheBadBackGuy.net

For additional resources dealing with neck pain, back pain, and sciatica, including additional treatment plans, go to:

Additional Sciatica Pain Relief Article!

Additional Sciatica Article!

AWESOME Sciatica Stretch Video!

I hope this has helped! Contact me any time and don’t forget to visit my YouTube Channel!

Professor John P. J. Zajaros, Sr., The Bad Back Guy
216-712-6526
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@ultimatebadbackstrategies.com

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Act now! This is the answer and you are entitled to a free trial, you have nothing to lose but the pain!

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Professor John P. J. Zajaros, Sr.
216-712-6526
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@ultimatebadbackstrategies.com

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This program will change your life! You can either continue to deal with your pain in a haphazard manner or you can step up and change your life! It is up to you. If you would like to reclaim your life and live pain free? Do this now!

Click this link, watch the video in its entirety, and act! Change your life forever! Live your life pain free and join me in a celebration of what is possible in life once again!

Best wishes for a wonderful life! Before you go, sign up for The Bad Back Guy’s Ultimate Bad Back Strategies Newsletter, it will add to and supplement the wonderful journey of a pain free life you are about to embark upon! Imagine, if you will, waking up in the morning without pain…for the rest of your life! How amazing would that be? How much would that be worth to you?

What do you have to lose…but the pain?!

Professor John P. J. Zajaros, Sr.
216-712-6526
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@ultimatebadbackstrategies.com

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Back Pain, Sciatica, & Surgery, What You Need To Know Before You Undergo Surgery: From The Bad Back Guy’s Personal Experience

In 1970, I was a normal kid, involved in everything and afraid of nothing. I had never experienced back pain in my life and couldn’t even spell sciatica! Bad back? A bad back was something old people had and complained about, not me. In other words, I was the typical fifteen or sixteen year old kid. It was at a wrestling match, before-hand actually, when my world changed forever. Prior to a wrestling match, as was always the case, our coach would crack our backs. Getting your back cracked was kind of a ritual and involved getting back to back with the coach, hooking arms, and then being hoisted upwards while hyperextending the spine. Yes, I can hear the groans from here, but it worked…and it was ritual. You see, wrestlers, like most athletes, are really big on habit, ritual, and tradition. I once knew a wrestler who wore the same socks, never washed, for an entire season. Of course, we stayed away from him after a while, particularly towards the end of the season. So, we had our backs cracked.

Ritual! Tradition! Habit! Superstition!

Well, the season progressed, I’d felt a twinge that night but nothing to get upset about, just a twinge, certainly no back pain or sciatica. Up until then, I had only lost once, in the ninth grade, to a human wrecking machine by the name of Scott Clifford. Scott had been wrestling since birth, or so it seemed, particularly on that day! But since then, never…not once. A funny thing happened on my way to sixteen, I started to lose, and lose big. After a while, I was hearing phrases like “flash in the pan” and ” glory boy,” and “it went to his head.” Kids and high school coaches, as we all know, can be very cruel, especially when the “king” is dethroned. And I was summarily dethroned and dismissed by the end of the season.

Anyway, I went on to track, I was never so happy to start running again in my life, all fifteen and a half years of it. Well, I had a horrible time! I went from holding school records to not being able to get around the track. Kids who had never come close to beating me were blowing by me. It was a terrible season. Halfway through, disgusted and completely disillusioned, I went to see the family doctor. I described my symptons, minimizing and denying of course. I told him about losing in wrestling and then in track, I complained of about the pulled muscle in the back of my leg. I had no idea what sciatica was…but he knew. By that time, I did know what back pain was and, in a moment, I was going to be educated about my pulled muscle.

A Pulled Muscle: Back Pain and Sciatica

The Doc asked me if I had injured myself, felt anything pull in my back? The rest is history! A light went on, I told the doctor about the back cracking incident, told him about the pain, I came clean and admitted it all. What a relief! I had completely removed the back cracking from my consciousness, never giving it another thought, until that moment, but in an instant it was all clear. It was also clear to Dr. Rush and he immediately sent me to an orthopedic surgeon, the next day. I learned all about back pain, sciatica, and leaned new words like spondylolysis, spondylolisthesis, and spinal fusion. On June 12, 1971, I learned all about real back pain. I woke up in the recovery room at Fairview Hospital, Cleveland, Ohio…it wouldn’t be the last time.

Fast forward and it’s twenty-nine years later, the year 2000…Y2K! I am in a whole new world of back and sciatic nerve pain, sciatica, by now. In fact, I am on so much pain medication, have had so many back surgeries, many doctors wouldn’t even see me. The ones who would see me said things like arachnoiditis, chronic pain syndrome, failed back, and a whole array of terms meaning everything and nothing. By 2000, I had undergone 10 major surgeries on my spine, I was to suffer through 4
more. That’s right, fourteen major “procedures” on my lower thoracic, lumar, and sacral regions by the age of fifty.

Little did I know it at the time, and every doctor I saw missed it, I had advanced, chronic osteomyelytis. Osteomyelitis may present with no symptoms at all or may have signs and symptoms so hard to separate from other conditions that doctors miss the diagnosis entirely. Osteomyelitis of the back (vertebrae/spine) or hips
(pelvis) may have few overt signs and symptoms, no back pain, and no sciatica. Osteomyelitis that occurs after surgery or a fracture or deep wound may present with
swelling and pain but you may attribute that to the traumatic event, not an infection. And it was the infection, in 2000, probably there since 1994, that almost took
my life. Had it not been for an amazing doctor at a noted Cleveland hospital, the other one, the one attached to the noted eastside university, the really famous hospital missed it too, I wouldn’t be writing this today.

So, five surgeries and nine years later, yes, that’s a total of fifteen, I am finally getting my life back. As far along as a year ago, it was still touch and go, major complications as a result of the osteomyelitis, combined with other health issues, almost did the job that we avoided back in 2000. Yes, that’s right! The math doesn’t work. That’s because I also crushed my shoulder in 2007, a consequence of weak bones due to the infection and other problems. Now, the only metal left in me is in my shoulder and that makes fifteen!

Now, should you have surgery number one? No one can answer that for you, that’s something you must face, and answer for, yourself. Back pain and sciatica can be
terrible and there comes a time where anything will do, any solution seems OK…as long as they get rid of the pain. However, before I opened Pandora’s Box again, for the first time, I would do everything humanly possible, exhaust every option, before having back surgery. Don’t open Pandora’s Box if you can avoid it! You will never be the same and, of the half a million or so who undergo surgery every year, only 30-35% have a total and complete recovery, 20% never recover and are worse off. Not the kind of odds I’d go to Vegas with, if you know what I mean. Back pain and sciatica can be terrible, I’ve been there, this isn’t just a topic I drew out of a hat. My doctoral research was on the spine and sacroiliac (hip joint, the ilium meets the sacrum or hips to tail bone), so I know the situation, inside out you might say.

Back pain and sciatica? Yes, they are a reality after so many surgeries, they really can’t be avoided. Are they as bad as they were? No, absolutely not. A program of
exercise, to regain muscle tone and lose weight; ice, with the use of an ice-compression brace, to reduce inflammation; sleeping with five pillows (yes, five!) or, when I need to, in a recliner fully reclined and a pillow under the knees, try it, it really works wonders on the nights when nothing else works; and finally, and a good pair of New Balance running shoes. Yes, New Balance and, if you must wear a harder shoe or boot, orthotics for cushioning. No, another kind of running shoe isn’t as good, I’ve tried them all over the years and New Balance, for the heel cushioning, are the absolute best. And no, you can’t get the relief or the cushioning from the insoles of Doctor S, it’s not the same! Am I “spamming” you? No! Go anywhere you want buy anything you wish. But if you want relief, these are the ultimate in bad back strategies, strategies developed over three decades, give or take, for dealing effectively, and not so effectively, with back pain and sciatica.

The following programs are excellent for neck pain, back pain, and sciatic nerve pain or sciatica:

http://www.HowToStopSciatica.com

http://www.HowToStopSciatica.info

Or! Dr. Graeme Teague’s X-Pain Method! New and Exciting, 4 Simple Steps!

John Zajaros, The Bad Back Guy
216-712-6526
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@ultimatebadbackstrategies.com

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