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You sit down at your desk to start work: within minutes, a familiar pain begins, a burning, searing sensation that travels down the back of your leg. That padded chair starts to feel more like an old-fashioned suffering thing. If that sounds a little too familiar, you’re probably one of the hundreds of millions of people in pain with sciatica.
But have no fear, fellow sufferer! Sitting doesn’t have to be a prison sentence for your pain. There is a cure: a collection of sciatica-killing strategies to help you find comfort in sitting.
There is no need for sitting to be painful. So how about sciatica that shoots down the back of your leg when a compressed or pinched nerve in your lower spine causes searing electric shocks? Bad sciatica can make normal sitting impossible.
But good news – there are things you can do to help, with 14 effective and proven treatments for sciatica that can get you back in the chair.
1. Straighten up
especially if you’ve been slouching. Bad posture impacts the spine and sciatic nerve. Correct your posture to sit, stand, walk and sleep. Think of a string pulling your head’s crown upward and slightly toward the ceiling. Shoulders back and chest open, bumping out your boobs slightly, and core engaged.
2. Heat It Up
Tense muscles can be relaxed and warmed up with the help of a heating pad. Or, a warm bath can help increase blood flow. Sore muscles and joints can benefit from gentle movement and prolonged stretching in a bath, increasing circulation to help ease stiffness and pain.
3. Cool it
An ice pack can reduce inflammation and provide relief for acute pain. Be sure to wrap a towel around it and apply it for no more than 15 to 20 minutes at a time, several times a day.
4. Get Your Fluid On
light stretching and exercise can help improve flexibility and decrease pressure on the nerve Pilates or yoga, aimed specifically at sciatica, are great options. Either type of exercise focuses on the core, flexibility and mechanics, all of which can help alleviate the pain from sciatica.
5. Bye-Bye Bad Back!
Get rid of hard chairs that provide poor support or uneven distribution of body weight. Find chairs with ergonomic lumbar support or buy a separate lumbar support cushion. If possible, your chair should have some control over sit height, armrest height and angle, and seat tilt.
6. Listen to Your Body
Stay away from activities that make your pain worse. Sitting for more than 30 minutes at a time, for example, can make arthritis symptoms worse, so take regular breaks and walk around every half hour. Set an alarm on your phone as a reminder to get up and move around.
7. Hydrate Like Crazy
Dehydration will exacerbate your sciatica pain. Being two-thirds water, being well-hydrated is important for all body functions. Healthy muscles and nerves depend on getting enough fluids, so drink your water all day long, particularly when you sweat a lot and exercise.
8. Plantain Powers
Consider a natural anti-inflammatory supplement, such as turmeric or fish oil, only after checking with your doctor. Natural anti-inflammatory supplements can reduce inflammation and pain, but get the green light from your doctor before initiating.
9. Acupuncture reduction
Pain relief is provided by traditional Chinese medicine in which thin needles are inserted in the body at special acupuncture points to stimulate healing and relieve pain.
10. Massage Magic
A massage therapist can help relieve sciatic pain by relieving muscle strain and increasing blood flow via targeted massage to the thighs, lower back, and buttocks.
Often times, sciatic pain results from taut muscles in the buttocks, hamstrings, and lower back putting pressure on the sciatic nerve, so targeted massage therapy can go a long way to relieving pain and bringing back functionality.
11. Biofeedback to Control
Biofeedback helps you manage your body response to pain through teaching you relaxation. This approach records your bodily signals such as muscles tension and heart rate and feeds back the information to you in real time so that you can become more aware of your body’s responses when you are in pain and help reduce it.
12. Over-the-counter relief
If you suffer a severe flare-up of sciatic pain, ibuprofen and other over-the-counter (OTC) pain relievers can be helpful in reducing inflammation and providing temporary relief.
Of course, with any OTC medicine it’s important to use recommended dosages and to check with a physician before using them for an extended period of time. Like other treatments, pain-relieving pills can help you manage the ‘above the barrier’, but they don’t solve the ‘below the barrier’ issue.
13. The Doctor is Always Right
If your pain is persistent or severe, see your doctor for pain management, which could involve prescription medication or physical therapy. Your doctor can evaluate the cause of your sciatica and develop a plan to regain your balance.
14. Ergonomic Advantage
Traditional chairs often lead to slouching which puts added pressure on the lower back and the sciatica nerve. Getting an Ergonomic Seat Cushions will go a long way in aiding and assisting by providing additional lower lumbar support, evenly redistribute the weight and help you sit in the right posture.
Seat Cushion actually helps anchor your lower back in place and provide better support to the sciatic nerve that runs down both sides of the body and through the buttocks. When your weight is distributed evenly, you have less of a gauge of pressure in particular areas.
By sitting on the edge of your chair/bed with the hips elevated above the knees on some pillows, you are also helping to achieve better spinal alignment, and a proper cushion in the right position is more likely to encourage good posture, especially when used in conjunction with daily pain management exercises.
Make sure the cushions you choose have high-density memory foam for convincing personalization, an ergonomic design for tailored relieving support at important pressure points, and a removable washable cover.An Ergonomic Seat Cushions is an excellent prop to supplement other sciatica treatments such as range-of-motion exercises, keeping hydrated, and more.
Keep in mind that sciatica is a journey and hopefully, by incorporating these strategies (and those that best fit you) you will continue to move back toward a pain-free, comfortable life.
ready to go deeper? Check out our “Knowledge Center Page” on back pain relief and posture tips, plus ergonomic set ups to stay healthy.
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I have suffered for years with back and hip pain that often shot down my leg. I recently purchased the Sitcushion and from the very first use could feel an incredible difference. I often have to drive a great distance which has been becoming increasingly difficult I recently made a long drive and the amount of comfort over the same long drive made before the Sitcushion, was spectacular!! A great product!! Highly recommend to anyone suffering from hip and back pain