3 Things Most People Don’t Understand About Sciatica

With so many commercials and other advertisements targeting medical conditions, you’ve likely heard of sciatica. However, do you really know what this condition is and what causes it? Today, we’re going to take a look at three facts about sciatica that you probably don’t know or fully understand.

Sciatica Describes Symptoms

Sciatica is simply used as a medical term to describe a set of symptoms that a patient can experience. This term is used when a patient feels numbness, weakness, pain, or tingling that starts in the lower back and moves into the leg. Sciatica is a set of symptoms that are a signal of another underlying medical condition. Identifying that other underlying condition can be done by an experienced doctor.

Sciatica Can Be A Signal for Multiple Underlying Medical Conditions

As you learned above, sciatica is simply a name given to a group of symptoms that a patient experiences. This group of symptoms is an indication of another underlying medical condition which can be treated somewhere, like the Florida Pain Center. Various medical conditions can have sciatica as a symptom. The most common conditions by age include:

• Under 60—Degenerative Disc Disease, Herniated Lumbar Disc, Isthmic Spondylolisthesis
• Over 60—Lumbar Spinal Stenosis, Degenerative Spondylolisthesis

There Can Be Different Locations of Pain That Is Felt

The sciatic nerve runs from the hip down the right leg. Five different nerve roots make up the entire sciatic nerve. When one of these nerves is pinched or irritated, it can radiate pain to different areas of the body. By knowing where the pain is felt, your physician can better locate the actual impinged or irritated nerve. For example, if you have pain and numbness in your feet as your symptoms, then your physician will know that the sciatic nerve near the L5 vertebrae is likely pinched. All of the five nerves of the sciatic nerve are located in the sacral spine and lumbar area. More specifically, they start at L4, L5, S1, S2, and S3. This nerve as a whole is responsible for basic sensory and motor functions of the lower body.

Sciatica is a medical symptom that a lot of people don’t fully understand. This confusion can be easily identified because of the complexity of the sciatic nerve. Hopefully, the three facts above have helped you to better understand sciatica and its association with the internal workings of the human body.

Author Bio:

Anica is a professional content and copywriter who graduated from the University of San Francisco. She loves dogs, the ocean, and anything outdoor-related. You can connect with Anica on Twitter @AnicaOaks.