Lazy Diagnostics (We're Looking At Your Sciatica!)

I’m almost certain you will have heard of the term sciatica before. You may even have been diagnosed with it yourself or have someone close to you who has. In fact, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence found that between 13-40% of us are likely to experience sciatica in our lifetime.

Now, I can already hear you thinking ‘13-40%, that’s such a large range!’ and you would be correct. There are multiple reasons behind this statistic, but one reason is that sciatica is not actually a diagnosis. The term sciatica is really just a collection of symptoms that COULD be coming from an irritated sciatic nerve.

Basically, you’re presenting with back and/or leg pain and you’re getting diagnosed with….back and/or leg pain.

The main issue with this unfortunate reality is that it still leaves the important questions completely unanswered. What is causing it and how are you supposed to treat it?

To give you some context, here are some reasons why you could be experiencing some of these pains;Disc bulgeIrritated/inflamed facet jointBony morphic changes in spine/hip/kneeNeuroplastic changes in the brain and nervous systemDiabetic neuropathic changesSoft tissue growthsTight/overworked muscles in hip/legTreating each one of these issues requires different management. Some may ease with the NHS recommended anti-inflammatories and stretching but we often find that they don’t, or if they do, they don’t stay away forever.

We at Peak prefer instead to get to the root cause of the symptoms and make sure they stay away for as long as possible.