Chinese Medicine Treatments for Sciatica and Lumbago

Pain that radiates along the sciatic nerve is known as sciatic pain or sciatica. This pain begins in the lower spine from a bundle of various nerves from the lumbosacral part of the body. From the spine the nerve branches out to the right and left buttocks and then goes down the back of the legs, the middle parts of the thighs, and then down to the feet. Only one side is usually affected. The origin of the pain, albeit felt in the fleshy part of the body, emanates from a pinch of one or more nerves that exits the spinal cord of the area of the intervertebral disks. At first, an extrusion or temporary prolapse of the disk(s) might occur causing the spinal column to bear down on the nerves. Chronic pain will most probably occur if there is damage to the disks. Also, damage to the vertebra themselves can put pressure on the nerves. If there is significant and severe pressure, the signals transmitted by the affected nerve can be interrupted possibly leading to a resultant wasting, loss of sensation, and weakness of the leg. Sciatica can be aggravated whenever pressure is applied to the problem area, such as what results from common physical activities as well as from straining during defecation, sneezing, or coughing.

So we can see that sciatica is actually a problem of the spine associated with certain instances of lower back pain, which is commonly called lumbago or lumbosacral pain. Arising from similar kinds of disk problems, lumbago is a back condition that isn’t associated with sciatic nerve pain. The pain it generates is localized and does not radiate to other parts of the body. Lumbago can be caused by lower back tendon and muscle strains, regardless if it leads to disk protrusion or compression. Achilles tendonitis is another type of pain syndrome that is highly related to lumbago and sciatica. It may be due to injuries affecting the lower back. Achilles tendonitis is a painful condition which can lead to an abnormal gait.

Currently, the Western conventional treatments for damaged vertebrae and disks include limiting activities, resting, stress avoidance on the spine, and the taking of painkillers. Unfortunately, bed rest has shown to have minimal effects on the long term treatment of sciatica (that involves spontaneous healing within three months for 86.8% of patients) even if it can significantly relieve the immediate pain. Job dissatisfaction and other causes of emotional distress have a high correlation to both the persistence and development of sciatica and back pain. Recurrence of back pain can be prevented by performing certain exercises. Controlled randomized chiropractic treatment studies for sciatica and lumbago has been done, but the methodology has been of low quality and as usual, these corporation-funded studies will almost always conclude that there’s no evidence that chiropractic treatment has significant effects on lumbago and sciatica.

Sciatica or lumbago patients are diagnosed by Chinese medicine practitioners in Bellingham as suffering from a certain kind of bi syndrome. If you have bi syndrome, this means you are suffering from pain and blockage that more or less affects the lower part of your body. So far, the real cause of Bi syndromes is still not known; that is, there may be very few clues as to the reason although a substantial injury to the back would be an obvious cause. Bi syndrome, from the time of the Neijing period (around 100 B.C.) up to the present, was believed to be mainly induced by the elements of wind, damp, and cold. Due to its lower body location, the pain tends to travel downward and the condition can be blamed on a combination of dampness and cold: both of which are characteristics of yin that have a downward natural course. Believed to bring pathogenic influences into the body, Wind is an external pathogenic entity of mysterious nature which is also thought to contribute to the variable nature of the pain.

An Internal inadequacy of yang is known to give rise to damp, wind, and cold syndromes that affect the lower body. In this instance, the pain is not caused by external wind, though it potentially can combine with dampness and cold to aggravate the underlying problem. Chinese herbs for lumbago and sciatica typically entail dispelling damp-cold-wind syndromes (which means using certain “antirheumatic” herbs), clearing dampness (which usually means revitalizing the spleen), removing chill, and warming the kidney yang). For these categories of treatment, a wide range of potentially useful herbs are available although a few specific patent and traditional formulas are more highly recommended than others in treating lumbago and sciatica. Knee arthralgia, gout and other painful lower limb conditions, are addressed with the same formulations and herbs.