CHIROCARELA.COM: Blog

If you’ve ever had pain in your leg, you may have tried adjusting your posture in a way that also put strain on your lower back. But the connections between our legs and the lumbar region go deeper than that. ChiroCareLA.com in Glendale offers a variety of complementary therapies for reducing pain in a holistic, safe manner, so to help our patients understand why we use them, we wanted to take some time to discuss some of the ways in which the back and legs are connected.   The nerves that lead to our legs emerge from the spinal cord in the lower back. They exit the lumbar vertebrae through small holes called foramina and weave through the muscles and bones of the pelvis. Compression in these nerves could cause a shooting pain, tingling, or numbness down the leg, which are the symptoms of sciatica, but the pressure causing the pinch could have several origins. Swelling from a dislocated facet joint or herniated disc, or a back muscle stretching over a spinal spur, could compress nerves...

At ChiroCareLA.com in Glendale, Dr. Jack Alajajian and his staff offer a multitude of safe, minimally invasive treatments for sciatica. When a patient complains of numbness, tingling, or a shooting pain down their leg, we employ advanced technologies to reduce their swelling and remove pressure from the sciatic nerve. But there are several ailments that can cause sciatica, and treatment varies between them. One potential cause patients should be aware of is Piriformis Syndrome.   The sciatic nerves branch off from the spinal cord in the back’s lumbar region, which is the lower part. The piriformis muscles connect the sacrum, the part of the spine below the lumbar vertebrae, to the top of the femurs. They are wedge-shaped and located deep within the body. To travel from the lumbar spine to the legs, the sciatic nerves must pass through or around the piriformis muscles. Consequently, when the piriformis muscles are inflamed, the sciatic nerves are compressed, causing a person to feel sc...