October 6, 2006

The Best Wealth is Your Health

Sciatica relief on the way

By Dr. Adam Fields, D.C.
Special to the Times

In my 12 years of practice, the most common self-diagnosis I see is “Sciatica.” I even had a person point to her shoulders (not anywhere near the sciatic nerve) and say, “Hey, doc, I think it’s my sciatica.”

So what and where is this sciatica that people use as a catchall low back diagnosis? Sciatic nerves begin from branches off of the spinal cord, which exit from the lumbar spine. These four to five nerves exit between the bones of the spine (vertebra), group back together in the buttock area to become what is known as the sciatic nerve. These nerves are the largest of the body, reaching about the size of your thumb in diameter and run down the back of each leg.

The term “Sciatica” is a powerful word. Often people describe it by saying, “My sciatica is ‘killing me’!” When the branches, which make up the nerve or the nerves themselves, are irritated or inflamed, low back pain and/or leg pain can ensue. One patient recently described it as “hot burning liquid going down the back of my leg.”

After performing an extensive evaluation of the nerves, joints of the spine, muscles in the buttock area and taking a history to obtain more clues, I find the factors that make treatment/recovery possible.

The lumbar spine is the most frequently injured area of the spine. These injuries can result in vertebral subluxation complex, which can result in sciatica. Vertebral subluxation is when a bone of the spine loses its relationship with the vertebra above or below.

An analogy may be that of a bicycle chain with 24 moveable segments. The chain, like the spine, can get kinked or just not be moving as freely. This can be accompanied by the bulging or herniation of the soft pulpy discs, which separate the vertebra. Both can irritate the sciatic nerve roots as they leave the spinal cord. The result can be pain shooting down one or both legs.

The body is now saying, “Hey, you’d better take care of this or something worse might happen.” If left untreated, sciatica can lead to a loss of muscle strength and size, which in extreme cases, may be irreversible. Gait consequences can result. Because the same spinal problems that commonly produce sciatica also affect the nerves supplying the sphincter muscles of the bowel and bladder, incontinence can result.

What can one do for the pain? Pain-killing drugs reduce the suffering but do not change how the muscles and joints in the back move. Research shows 90 percent of back pain sufferers stop seeing their GP within three months but most are still in pain a year later.

Even bed rest has been shown to worsen the problem if done for more than 2 to 3 days.

Studies are showing that chiropractic care along with gentle specific exercise is very effective in the treatment of sciatica.

On patient came into my office with severe back and leg pain that had plagued him for five years. He had gone to many health care providers but no chiropractic adjustment was ever given. There was a disc herniation in his lumbar spine that was pressing on the nerve and he had a concomitant vertebral subluxation. He was over 100 pounds over weight and frustrated beyond belief.

This was early in my career and the severity of his problem and other factors made me eager, yet anxious. I had not had a lot of experience with 300-pound people at this point. After a thorough analysis, I came up with the vector and line of drive of the adjustment to be performed. Putting him on his side, it felt like I was attempting to do a back flip on a tight rope. However, with an educated mind and a prayerful heart, I applied an adjustive force into his spine. There was a beautiful sound of the bone moving.

James looked at me in total disbelief during a long pause of silence. I didn’t know how to interpret his look, but the pain was 100 percent gone in an instant. We both reveled in joyous awe as I checked all ranges of motion. What a profession!

The results do not usually come as fast as my patient’s did. Results like this usually take weeks or months but I share in these experiences with people on a daily basis.

Why did it take my patient over 5 years to find his way to a chiropractor?

Don’t let this happen to you or the people you love.

Dr. Adam B. Fields is a chiropractor in the Evergreen area at Fields Family Chiropractic, located at 2919 The Villages Parkway, San Jose, Ca 95135. He also has a satellite office in downtown Los Gatos.