When a part of your spine presses against the sciatic nerve running through your spinal canal, it will cause an intense shooting pain in your lower back. Sciatic nerve pain can be caused by a herniated disc or a bone pressing against the nerve, and severe cases can be debilitating. It may be difficult to walk or even get out of bed in the morning without experiencing severe pain.
While surgery can be quite effective at treating sciatic nerve pain, it can be expensive and risky. People who are seeking pain relief from less invasive methods often choose either chiropractic care or physical therapy in order to manage their pain, as both can be effective at treating it. However, there's no reason that you're limited to choosing one or the other for your care. Combining the two approaches is often the best option. To learn more about how chiropractic care and physical therapy work together to help reduce sciatic nerve pain, read on.
Chiropractic Care Reduces the Initial Pain of Starting Physical Therapy
For many people with sciatic nerve pain, one of the biggest barriers to starting a physical therapy treatment program is that the exercises can initially be painful. Chiropractic care can help alleviate your pain by performing adjustments on your spine, making it easier to perform your exercises.
If your sciatic nerve is being compressed by a herniated disc, for example, then a quick spinal adjustment from a chiropractor can reduce your pain by moving the herniated disc away from your sciatic nerve. With less pain, you'll be more motivated to begin your program and more likely to stick to it.
Physical Therapy Helps Maintain Spinal Adjustment Benefits
When treating sciatic nerve pain, therapeutic exercise regimens are primarily targeted at improving your core strength. Strong abdominal muscles help to keep your spine in position, and they also make it less tiring to maintain a good posture. This has a synergistic effect with chiropractic care—after a chiropractor adjusts your spine to a position that alleviates your sciatic nerve pain, strong core muscles developed through targeted exercise will help your spine stay in that position for longer. By combining the two approaches, you'll help extend the relief from your sciatic nerve pain after a chiropractic adjustment.
If you're suffering from sciatic nerve pain and are seeking a non-invasive treatment method, combining chiropractic care and physical therapy is often the best option. Chiropractic care can give you the acute pain relief that you need in order to begin your exercise regimen, and physical therapy can help extend the benefits of your chiropractic care by providing extra stability to your spine. If you're interested in this approach, it's best to find a chiropractic clinic that offers a physical therapy program as a supportive treatment for spinal adjustment—receiving both types of care at one location makes it easier for your providers to coordinate, aiding your treatment.
To learn more, contact a physical therapy clinic.
