Acupuncture alleviates sciatica

Sciatica is a set of symptoms, including pain in the lower back, buttock and leg, numbness, tingling, muscle weakness around the leg and foot. The sciatica is caused by the irritation, compression or damage of the sciatic nerve. The slipped disc is the common cause of sciatica and other causes include injury, a narrow spinal canal, infection and a growth within spine such as a tumour.  Sciatica is different to other back pain and it radiates out from lower back, down the buttock and into the leg including calf. Sciatica pain ranges from being mild to severe and is often made worse by laughing, sneezing and bending backward etc. The sciatic nerve is derived from spinal nerves lumbar 4 through 5, sacral 1, 2 and 3; and innervates nearly the whole of the skin of the leg, the muscle of the back of thigh, and those of the leg and foot. So the areas affected by sciatica depend on affected nerve roots. For example, symptoms occurring in the thigh may indicate affected nerve roots being lumbar 4 and 5. Some cases of sciatica may come and go without the need of treatment. Most cases of sciatica can just be alleviated by painkillers. Management of chronic sciatica requires exercise therapy, analgesics, corticosteroid spinal injection and consideration of surgery. However the effectiveness of these therapies is inconclusive.

Acupuncture exerts analgesia by releasing of antinociceptive substance such as adenosine locally and endorphin centrally, reducing inflammation and promoting regeneration of sciatic nerve if it was damaged. Studies of acupuncture on back pain and chronic sciatica showed that acupuncture treatment is significantly better than no treatment and is as good as standard therapy. It is best to approach sciatica using a combined treatments including acupuncture, Tui Na (Chinese medical message), cupping and stretching. Overall, the treatments should relax and stretch the tendons and fascia while strengthening muscles, allowing back to naturally heal. Also practising tai chi, the Chinese exercise and meditation, is very effective to strengthen the lower back and relax it.

Reference:

Takano T et al., J Pain. 2012 Dec;13(12):1215-23.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23182227