Sciatica Treatment Options - You Do Not Have To Suffer

Recent studies from the Mayo clinic have shown that one of the best treatments for sciatica is bed rest for a period of two weeks.  This worked in a large percentage of the time compared to the persons suffering from sciatica who took other treatment options.

What are some of the other sciatica treatment options available to those who are suffering.  There are a wide variety.  The treatment chosen depends on the doctor and the patient.  Some of the noted options that have helped is physical therapy several times a week for a period of about four weeks.  This is of course expensive.  There are the chiropractic visits that some people rave about as having helped.  Most insurances cover chiropractic care, some do not.  You would have to check your insurance.  There are trigger point injections of prednisone given by rheumatologists.  Some people may prefer to try acupuncture, a process whereby a series of small needles are inserted into different parts of the body to provide pain relief.  There are some people who claim this is the only way that they have found relief.  A problem with this form of treatment is finding a doctor that does acupuncture.

There is of course the medication route of sciatica treatment options.  If the problem is muscular, there are many muscle relaxers and muscle relaxers that are combined with pain medication that do wonders like Gabopentin.  For strictly pain relief, one can start small with over the counter treatments like ibupropen, then gradually build up to prescription medications like Ultram, or even narcotics like Vicodin or Oxycontin.  These last two must be used with great caution since they are addictive and can be used for only a short time.

Sciatica can be caused by a disc injury, especially to the L5 or L6.  Sometimes these traditional treatments listed above just do not work and it is time to be referred to a surgeon.  Back surgery is usually a last resort as it is very risky, and many times it does not work as hoped and caused more problems than it has fixed.  Recently there have been major advances in the field of disc surgery, and there is much hope for the future.  It should still be considered as the last resort, but it is much better that it used to be.