Sciatic Nerve Pain Causes

Pain in the sciatic nerve results from irritation of the sciatic nerve. The sciatic nerve is the longest nerve in the body, which runs from the fourth or the fifth lumbar vertebra down to the back of the thigh, behind the knee and into the hamstring muscles to end into the feet. The sciatica pain and symptoms can be felt in the lower back, buttock and different parts of the leg and foot. Along with pain, some people may also experience numbness, muscular weakness, or tingling sensation. It may be difficult for some people to move or control the leg. These symptoms are often felt on one side of the body. The treatment for sciatica depends on the causes of this condition.

Causes of Sciatic Nerve Pain

The spinal disorder is often caused due to compression of the spinal nerve and the sciatica nerve. The most common causes of sciatica are as under.

Herniated Disc
Sciatica pain is often caused, as a result of herniated disc pressing directly on the nerve. The nerve compression and irritation caused with the herniation, cause inflammation and pain, which leads to numbness in the extremities, tingling sensation in the lower body and muscle weakness.

Spinal Stenosis
Spinal stenosis means narrowing of the spinal canal. It is a nerve compression disorder. The pain starts while standing or walking, or sitting down for an extended period of time. Nerve roots pass through the openings and extend beyond the spinal column to other parts of the body. When the passageways become narrow or clogged, they give rise to nerve compression, it gives rise to stenosis.

Trauma
One of the lower back pain causes is trauma. Nerve compression can be caused by trauma caused by external forces to the lumbar spinal nerve roots. If the impact of the injury is high it can injure the nerves or occasionally fragments of broken bone may compress the nerves and give rise to sciatica.

Piriformis Syndrome
When the piriformis muscle irritates the sciatic nerve, it gives rise to sciatica. This muscle is located in the lower region of the spine, which connects the thighbones and assists in hip rotation. The sciatic nerve runs underneath the muscle. Piriformis syndrome develops, when the muscle spasms develop in the piriformis muscle, which leads to compression of the sciatic nerve.

Spinal Tumors
Abnormal growths, which can either be benign or cancerous are called spinal tumors. When the spinal tumors develop in the lumbar area, the risk of sciatic nerve problems increases due to nerve compression.

Spondylolisthesis
This condition is caused due to degenerative disk disease, when one vertebra slips slightly forward over another vertebra. The displaced bone may cause a pinched nerve, where the nerve leaves the spine.

Apart from these sciatic nerve pain causes, there are other causes for this condition as well. The sciatica symptoms, causes and treatment is different for different patients. The doctors will be assess the symptoms to know the exact cause of the condition. The sciatica treatment options often include rest, anti-inflammatory medicines and muscle relaxers. Once the pain subsides, the patient may be prescribed sciatica exercises. Pain causes can be varied, but with exercises it helps in relieving the patient of the condition, hence is often one of the option in treating sciatica pain. The sciatica exercises include the cat cow stretch, child's pose, downward facing dog, hamstring stretch, knee stirs, etc. Some of the other sciatica stretches also include knee to chest stretch, piriformis stretches, elbow press up, etc. You may feel that this method takes much longer, than anticipated, to relieve you of the condition, but exercises are said to be the best sciatica relief method.