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78 East Main Street,Somerville www.drcharmoydmd.com 908-722-9266 Member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine Diagnosed with Sleep Apnea? Can’t wear a CPAP? Do You Snore? Services Now Covered By Medicare There is an alternative treatment with an oral appliance! Dr. Charmoy is experienced in the right appliance for you AP-5000609538 East Main Str et, Somerville .somervilledentalsleepmedicine.com 908-722-9266 R ICHARD P. C HARMOY , D.M.D., LLC D O YOU OR ANYONE YOU KNOW SUFFER WITH LOW BACK AND LEG PAIN OFTEN REFERRED TO AS SCIATICA? By: Dr. Steven Balestracci, Total Health Chiropractic In today’s article we will be discussing some of the causes and solutions to addressing these common problems that 95% of human beings suffer with at least one time over a lifetime. For Sciatica sufferers, a good night’s sleep may be past and with this low back condition simple things like walking, bending, turning, sitting or standing up can become difficult or impossible. What is the Sciatic Nerve? Your sciatic nerve is the longest and largest nerve in your body. It begins in your low back and is the sum total of five nerves that join together like a web to form one large nerve that extends into the backside of your pelvis, buttock, thigh, knee, calf, ankle, foot and toes. When this, the largest nerve of your body, becomes inflamed and causes intense pain into the back of your leg the condition is called Sciatica. This pain may follow the path of your nerve down the backside of your entire lower extremity into your toes or can simply radiate across and into your low back. Although Sciatic pain is usually in the back side of the legs or thighs, in some cases the pain can be on the side or front of the legs and hips. Other symptoms associated with this pain may be burning, pins and nee- dles, tingling, prickling, crawling sensations, tenderness and even numbness. This pain and its accompanying symptoms may vary through- out the day and can last for days, weeks or even months if not addressed properly. How does this nerve become inflamed? Like many conditions Sciatica has many causes. Injuries to the spine are the main reason and can occur through auto accidents, sports injuries, slips and falls, improper lifting or bending, poor posture, house work, garden- ing, and even childbirth. These causes inher- ently create misalignments of the spinal verte- bra through ligament damage and are called Spinal Subluxation. Other causes of Sciatica are slipped/bulging or ruptured/herniated or degenerated discs, arthritis, constipation, tumors and even vitamin deficiency. How would someone go about taking care of Sciatic pain? People who only want pain relief may consider treating only the symptoms with painkillers, muscle relaxers, anti-inflammatory medications, injections and in extreme cases surgery while others choose a more natural treatment approach such as massage, yoga, physical and physio therapy, nutrition, acupuncture and of course chiropractic spinal adjustments. In many cases it is a combination of treatments that work best. As a chiroprac- tic physician we utilize a host of therapies, as mentioned above, in conjunction with spinal adjustments in order to decrease nerve and muscle inflammation, muscle spasm and joint inflammation. Spinal adjustments are admin- istered in order to remove nerve pressure, disc pressure and joint dysfunction which creates a lack of balance and continued irritation. Many sciatica sufferers have experienced dra- matic relief after chiropractic adjustments have been administered by a chiropractic physician who is highly trained to treat such a condition as well as many other spinal and joint conditions. Many sufferers of sciatica and leg pain have found that chiropractic adjustments were superior to general traction and pain injections, and often saved them from spinal surgery. In one controlled study four different approaches were used to deal with low back pain in sciatic problems. These treatments were spinal care, general traction and two types of injections. The group that had spinal experienced the greatest degrees of recovery. Interestingly enough a large num- ber of the general traction category eventual- ly required surgery. In another study, 20 patients age 20-65 with low back relatedly leg pain were divided into three groups that were given medical care, chiropractic care and steroid injections. After 12 weeks the medical and steroid injections showed no advantage over the safer, non-drug related improve- ments the chiropractic patients experienced. Chiropractic treatments appear to have been most effective on sciatica when used first. Unfortunately many people think medical care first. However, even in this group of peo- ple, excellent results were obtained with sub- sequent chiropractic treatment as mentioned earlier. In another study 3,136 people with lower back pain and sciatica pain who previ- ously had physiotherapy and medications with no positive results were given chiroprac- tic care. A follow-up two years later showed that 50.4% had excellent results with no painful relapses, 34.4% had relapses but then responded favorably after further chiropractic care while 15.2% showed no significant improvement. Finally, if you do have sciatica, from whatever cause, you should seek treatment from a chi- ropractic physician in order to receive chiro- practic spinal adjustments for the purpose of removing spinal subluxations that cause nerve, disc, and joint pressure as well as inflammation and muscle spasms. Eventually these issues can lead to sciatic and other types of pain. Interestingly enough, in order for a person to be in pain from these problems he/she must lose as much as 60% of the nerve function in that region. Therefore, if you or a loved one are interested in discovering and experiencing the full bene- fits that chiropractic care can provide please mention this article when calling our office, Total Health Chiropractic at 908-231-8088 and our staff will be happy to set up a com- plimentary consultation in order to discover how we may help your health care needs. We've redesigned our website with our readers in mind. It is now easier to navigate, user friendly, and more interactive. 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