Sciatica – Ayurveda Treatment at Dheemahi

Sciatic nerve is considered as the longest and thickest nerve in your body. Which starts in your buttock or gluteal area and travels down to your leg, ending just below the knee. The sciatic nerve branches into other nerves,which continue down your leg and into your foot and toes.

Sciatica is the pain that is caused due to any irritation, inflammation or compression of the sciatic nerve. Sciatica is an important cause of back pain. At Least40% of the people world wide affects sciatica once in their lifetime.

Most important causes of sciatica are herniated or ruptured disc, degenerative disc diseases, spinal stenosis, spondylolisthesis, osteoarthritis, tumors, muscle spasms or injuries.

Ayurveda considers sciatica as GRIDHRASI (low back pain), in which KATI GRAHA (stiffness in pelvic girdle) and TRIKA SHULA ( pain in sacral joint) are common symptoms.

Sciatica Causes according to Ayurveda

Major causes of sciatica are:

1. Herniated or ruptured disc: pressure on the nerve root occurs due to herniated or ruptured disc. It is considered the most common reason for sciatica.
2. Degenerative disc diseases:  natural wear down of the discs between vertebrae of the spine causes narrowing of the nerve passageways. It may lead to spinal stenosis and sciatic nerve pinching.
3. Spinal stenosis: abnormal narrowing of the spinal canal is called stenosis, it reduces the available space for the spinal cord and nerves. It creates pain in the nerve root causing sciatica
4. Osteoarthritis: due to age bone spurs can be formed in spines. It causes compression in the lower back nerves.
5. Tumors: if a tumor occurs in the lumbar spinal canal it compresses the sciatic nerve 
6. Trauma: trauma in the lumbar spine or sciatic nerve causes sciatica
7. Spasms: spasm in your core muscles causes sciatic nerve compression.

There are numerous triggering factors in sciatica, some of them are previous injuries, age, overweight and obesity, lack of strong core muscles, excessive physical activities, improper posture, diabetes, osteoarthritis, sedentary lifestyle, smoking, etc.

Sciatica Treatment at Dheemahi

Treatment of sciatica starts first with diagnosis of the exact cause of the condition. Treatment will start by improving the strength of the muscles of the back. In the meantime digestive improving therapies also will start in the form of internal medications. This will help to speed up the cure.

Sciatica will be the only problem showing but the underlying lack of fitness will also need to be addressed in the initial stage itself. For that full body therapies like Dhanyamla dhara, Lepana ie application of medicine paste on the affected areas, Full body massages, steam bath etc will be done.

After an initial few days of cleansing the body of toxins and improving digestion, a regime of Vasthi is started for 8 to 30 days depending on the severity of the condition. The vasti regime will be a combination of Kashaya vasti- herbal decoctions and Anuvasala vasti – oil enema.

The Kashaya vasti will be administered for varying benefits like Cleansing, correcting the muscle nature, pain relief, strengthening etc. The anuvasana vasti will be used for balancing the high efficacy of kashaya vasti and normalising the Vata of the colon. Colon is the seat of Vata.

The therapies will be improvised on a daily basis during the consultation. The final stage of treatment will be a regimen of Nasya- Nasal medication to further correct the balance of the body, sleep and mind.

Cure prospect for Sciatica

The cure for your sciatica depends more on your disease status. Severity in pain, AMA, BALA ( strength) of the patient all are determining factors for the cure. With proper and subtle diagnosis and treatment, your back pain can be effectively managed.

A combination of an expert panel of doctors with a calm and rejuvenating environment are the facilities we provide at DHEEMAHI.