Sciatic pain does NOT have to be a part of getting old. And the vast majority of people don’t have to manage pain the rest of their lives.

I’ve worked with people in El Paso suffering from sciatica for over 20 years and seen full recoveries despite patients having years (even DECADES) of constant nerve problems. Many have even had failed back surgeries!

Surgery is not the only option for people that have suffered for years with sciatica. Many people with sciatica have spent lots of time and money trying to find relief, and when surgeons are ready to do what they do best it’s easy to believe that surgery will fix sciatica once and for all.

But sadly, many people are disappointed to find out later that their sciatica problem has come back. Sometimes the exact same pain, other times it may be in a different location on the back, hip, thigh, knee, lower leg, ankle, foot, and even toes.

The reason for this is that the root muscle imbalances have likely never been treated. It’s not something that surgeons would know about. Even the majority of physical therapists don’t know about diagnosing and treating root muscle imbalances because they specialize in helping people recover from surgery.

Nearly every case of chronic sciatica (even if its been there for decades), has a muscle imbalance as the root cause of the problem. And it’s likely that the reason the pain has been there so long is because the treatments that have been done never focused on fixing the root problem.

Adjustments from a chiropractor can bring lots of short term relief for some types of sciatica, but not all. Some actually worsen if the joints and nerves get twisted and over-stretched as might happen from a chiropractic adjustment.

And resolving the root muscle imbalances is what’s needed for ALL sciatica types to get long-term relief.

Chiropractors aren’t usually aware of root muscle imbalances and how to resolve them for the long term. 

So it’s often the case that if adjustments are helpful, they’re only helpful for a short while, then the sciatica symptoms evolve into another form of sciatica that does not get better with chiropractic.

This is one of the first things a physical therapist, chiropractor, or sometimes physician will recommend to you. And it might feel good at first, but most learn within 1-2 weeks that stretching only relieves sciatica for a short time. For some people it does absolutely nothing and even makes it worse!

The root muscle imbalance causing your sciatic nerve pain nearly always needs to be addressed with strengthening the right muscle group to address the muscle imbalance.

Stretching is known in medical research to cause nerve irritation and even muscle weakening in the long-term. It’s best to only do light stretching if it brings you relief and quit it immediately if you feel worse.

Over the years, we’ve worked with patients who have overcome chronic sciatic pain in their 20s, 40s, 60s and beyond.

We’ve seen that sciatica tends to be more connected to 2 factors - 1) being too sedentary and 2) over-doing it in exercise. Not age!

Sciatica is more common in those that have desk jobs or have to be sitting for long periods of time. It is also common in people that started a new workout routine and do more than what their body was ready for.

We’ve been so grateful to see our patients become far more mobile and able to live an active, pain-free life.

Your age might give you a higher chance of aches and pains, but that does not mean that you have to accept back sciatica in your later years. You can get control over how much time you spend sitting and being careful about not overdoing it. But you can’t control aging.

This simply isn’t true - and I appreciate how frustrating it can be when someone tells you that the only way to relieve sciatica is by taking powerful prescription drugs.

A lot of patients come to me because they are desperate for a life without reliance on pills or injections and they’ve heard success stories from friends and family members who’ve achieved natural pain relief and improved their mobility in their back, hips, and legs.

With a variety of drug-free treatment options including massage, stretches, exercises, dry needling, and simple lifestyle improvements, sciatica pain is often drastically reduced, if not completely eliminated.

Surgery can help temporarily gain stability to unpinch a nerve. It may provide relief for some, but there are also plenty of patients that say they had no change or are EVEN worse off now than before having surgery.

Solving sciatica for the long term takes addressing the root muscle imbalance. And surgery does not make the weakest muscles stronger. Nor does it teach you to move in a way that keeps you from worsening the muscle imbalance.

In fact, it makes your muscles weaker overall. If you do physical therapy afterward, you’ll be guided on general exercise to get back on your feet again. 

But treating the root imbalances is just not something that surgeons or physical therapists that help people after surgery are knowledgeable about.