Sciatic
The Sciatic nerve is the largest in the human
body. It comes from the lumber spinal cord, goes through the
pelvis and down the legs.
Normally there are two types of sciatic pain.
One is the lumbar disc protrusion, which compresses the sciatic
nerve root in the spinal canal. The symptoms of lumbar disc
protrusion are mostly lower back and leg pain. Some of these
patients also experience numbness when they cough or sneeze.
They may feel pain shooting down the leg. In general lumber
4/5 or lumbar 5/sacro 1 is the main level of the spine where
the disc protrusion occurs. Another type of sciatic pain is
piriformis strain, which often squeezes or compresses the
sciatic nerve behind the hip joint. Most of these patients
suffer from the leg pain or leg numbness, which is similar
to the symptom of lumbar disc protrusion. They also suffer
from severe hip pain.
In general, recovering from sciatica is a slow
process for most patients. However, the healing may be accelerated
by acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine.
The TCM theory on sciatic problems says they
are due to obstructed meridian channels that cannot deliver
Qi and Blood. Therefore, sciatica can be treated with Chinese
herbal medicine and acupuncture. The Chinese medical way mainly
focuses on obstruction of the meridian channels with individual
Chinese medicine formulas and acupuncture methods. After the
specific meridian channels, which link the lumbar region to
the legs, become cleared, the symptoms will be relieved and
the patients will recover.
During the process the patient must have complete
rest, avoid sitting for long periods, bending, lifting heavy
weights and any other physically demanding work, especially
involving their lower back. Keeping warm is also very important.
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