Debbie Allen is a renowned American actress and plays various roles as a choreographer, television producer, director and a member of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. As a choreographer, she has worked with legends such as Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Gwen Verdon, Whitney Housten, Mariah Carrey and many more. In one of her interviews she said that dance is as beautiful as painful. The stress on various parts of the body by flexing, stretching, bending and leaping through dance can lead to physical injuries and long term ailments. Debbie has been living with sciatica or lower back pain for a long time. But she has effectively managed her pain through regular stretching exercise, acupuncture and medicines. The renowned basket ball player, Earl Monroe has sciatica too due to excessive strain and extreme physical exercise. Sciatica is an ailment wherein a ruptured disc puts pressure on the sciatic nerve. The sciatic nerve is the largest nerve in the body and runs through the spine and extends to the pelvic from where it has nerve fibers up to the leg. It is of two kinds, one that lasts for six weeks called Acute Sciatica and the other than lasts longer than six weeks called Chronic Sciatica. Sciatica pain is not a critical condition and can be effectively treated at home and only in critical cases requires surgery. There are various techniques mentioned below through which you could relieve yourself from sciatica pain.
Remedies For Sciatica Pain Relief
- A simple home treatment to reduce sciatica pain could be through ice and heat treatment. You should use a cold compress on area that is causing pain and leave on for 20 minutes. This should be done several times a day. After 2 or 3 days, a hot compress should be used relax muscles and increase blood circulation. Though it is not a scientifically proven remedy, hot and cold compresses are known to reduce inflammation and increase mobility in many cases.
- Bed rest is advised to help reduce pain. But you should not rely only on bed rest as a treatment. Sometimes sleeping excessively has been found to be the cause of increase in pain.
- Medicines are available over the counter at drugstores for pain relief. Typically medicines like pain killers, counterirritants, anticonvulsants, antidepressants and opioids are usual used. Doctors should be consulted before taking medicines as they could have side effects.
- A natural way to heal and reduce pain is through physical therapy. Exercises like some of the yoga postures or other routines like progressive aerobic routine, swimming, exercise bicycles, help in strengthening of your spine, back and abdominal muscles.
- Prolonged standing or sitting can increase sciatica pain and must be avoided.
- In critical conditions where rest, exercises and medicines fail to work, surgery may be required to alleviate the back pain. It helps in removing the back pain on a long term basis but it also to a certain extent reduces flexibility.