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Sciatica pain is the result of pressure on the sciatic nerve, which just happens to be the longest nerve in the human body. What this means isthat any pressure felt on that sciatic nerve can actually cause anywhere along the length of it, and as the sciatic nerve stretches from the center of the lower back, right down the back of both legs and into the feet, that is a large nerve, and a big area to feel pain and discomfort.

Once you have had the symptoms of sciatic nerve pain before and have been diagnosed by a medical professional, you will know what sciatic pain feels like, and you will know how to best treat it in the future. The best start you can begin for sciatic pain is to begin using a cold compress on the center of lower back at the first signs of sciatic pain. Use this cold compress for ten to 15 minutes every hour or so. This sounds like a lot of cold compresses, and it is, but this will help to keep the swelling down, and as that goes down, the level of pain should too, so it is a smart thing to do.

Naturally, there are some who hate icing and will not make the effort to do this. That is their right, but what it will cause is a longer bout of sciatic pain and more time spent trying to recover from it.

This is hardly on the relatives of a sciatic pain sufferer, but there is little you can do to force someone to ice if they really don’t want to.

Once the pain level has subsided a little, it is then time to start trying some gentle exercises. It used to be thought that this was bad choice, and that bed rest was what was required to stop the sciatica, but research has shown recently that the back needs to keep its strength by plenty of movement or else it loses some of its strength quite quickly, and recovery will take much longer. The simple exercise of walking on the level is a good exercise, provided it doesn’t cause more leg pain, and to start with the walking should only be for a few minutes at a time every few hours, on the level, gradually building up on this as the sciatic nerve and your body allows.

Doctors may recommend anti-inflammatories too to help lower the sciatic pain, and only if after many months of pain there is still little improvement, it may be best to see a specialist, and perhaps even consider back surgery to relieve the pressure on the scaitic nerve. Back surgery is risky, since damaging the spinal column can lead to paralysis, but the surgery depends on what is causing the pressure on the sciatic nerve. It could be due to pregnancy, weight gain, a bony growth, or a herniated disc to mention just a few causes.

So to conclude, start an ice pack as soon as you feel any discomfort or pain on your sciatic nerve, and hopefully you will be able to enjoy life again in no time at all.

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