Most mornings you can catch me walking my three dogs down Central Ave. It’s one of the things I love about my UC neighborhood. Everywhere I go, especially when traveling by foot, I find myself petting all the dogs along the way. What can I say? I’m a dog lover! This is why I grew concerned when one of my favorite dog/people combinations went absent from my morning routine.

 

Where’d Jilly and her adorable, pit-mix Sasha go? I stopped by their front porch to inquire. It turned out that Jilly was experiencing an ailment that many of us have heard of and too many of us have dealt with: sciatica. Its symptoms had made the duo’s morning stroll too painful for Jilly.

 

So what is sciatica (pronounced “sigh-attic-ah”) and what can be done if you have it?

 

Sciatica is a common condition in adults that includes pain and inflammation in the lower back, buttocks, and sometimes thighs, knees and ankles. It almost always makes a burden of walking, standing, sitting and sleeping. The condition gets its name from the sciatic nerves, the biggest nerve group in your body. They emerge from the lower portion of your spine, pass through the sacrum, and travel all the way down through the back of your legs; branching off into smaller nerve pathways on the way to your feet.

 

Your sacrum is a large, strong, triangular-shaped bone that forms the foundation of your balance. It has a series of holes, called foramen, that allow blood vessels and nerves to travel through them and down the back of your legs. It is positioned where your hip bones attach and is where your spinal column sits. The sacrum is to your body what a fulcrum is to a seesaw. The muscles of your entire pelvic region attach to your sacrum, hip and pelvic bones in a series of overlapping girders. This arrangement of muscles in your buttocks, thighs and abdomen – in addition to your spinal muscles – is essential for balance and proper walking.

 

Imagine all those muscles getting used every time you shift position, walk or do anything. Now imagine pulling one of those muscles. The tightness, stiffness and knots that accompany a pulled muscle can be painful and irritating no matter where in your body they occur. But in your lower back or buttocks, the injury can easily cause a pinch or compression of the sciatic nerve resulting in sciatica.

 

Holistic care – especially acupuncture – excels at treating sciatica. From a Chinese medicine point of view, its diagnosis is usually simple localized Qi and blood stagnation.

 

Qi (pronounced chee) is like energy or life force. So if you have Qi and blood stagnation, you have a situation where the movement of these two vital substances is not happening as it should. The imbalance needs to be corrected before your pain will be relieved.

 

Using acupuncture to make the correction involves placing hair-thin needles at particular points along the energy pathways of your leg, lower back and buttocks. Once the flow of your Qi and blood are restored to a proper pattern, your pain will gradually subside.

 

Gradually? Yes. In most cases sciatica sufferers will be pain-free with approximately three to six treatments. Just like Western medicines, everyone responds differently and there is no one-dose, magic pill. However, most acupuncture patients do feel a substantial degree of relief after only one treatment.

 

The UC is filled with holistic caregivers (some listed in the Business Directory) who can help remedy sciatica and many other ailments. As always, I encourage you to consider your alternatives!

 

About the Author:

Becky Rubright is owner of Living Harmony Healing Center (4203 N. Central Ave.) and has been an acupuncture physician since 2002. She received a Masters of Traditional Oriental Medicine from Emperor’s College, Santa Monica, Calif. After establishing a successful clinic in Apollo Beach, Fla., Becky moved her life and office to the UC in 2006. To contact Becky, call (813) 892-6909 or visit www.myspace.com/LivingHarmony.