True Sciatica VS Piriformis Syndrome

Do you know the difference between

sciatica

and

piriformis

syndrome

? They both cause the same symptoms but there are actually two different conditions that need to be treated differently in dr's video. David Oliver, who is a chiropractor, will tell you about that difference. True

sciatica

and

piriformis

syndrome

are often confused. There are two separate conditions, but they share very similar characteristics and symptoms. The word sciatica is actually the problem here. Sciatica is really just symptoms. Sciatica is essentially irritation. to the sciatic nerve which causes the pain to go down the leg, so the sciatic nerve comes out of the lumbar spine here in the lower back and goes down the butt and down the back of the leg.

True sciatica usually comes from some type of impingement along the lumbar nerve roots the most common cause is a herniated disc so if you have a herniated disc like here you may see a pinched nerve root which can affect the sciatic nerve and will cause sciatica. Piriformis syndrome symptoms, on the other hand, are due to sciatic-type symptoms. This is where this gets confusing, but you have a piriformis muscle that attaches, this is the sacrum, it's the base of the spine, it goes from the sacrum to the hip and inserts right there. It's a thin muscle, it's not a huge muscle, but it's a muscle that goes right there and the sciatic nerve actually runs underneath it.

If the piriformis muscle is not working or is too tight or in spasm, it can become compressed against the sciatic nerve and cause symptoms throughout the body. leg, so the real difference here is where the problem is, whether it's in the lower back or in the butt, in the piriformis muscle itself, so with any type of sciatica type symptoms, any pain that goes down through the sciatic nerve can cause everything from shooting to burning. pain, numbness and tingling or even spasms occurring in the leg, so look for a variety of symptoms that travel down the back of the leg, essentially from the hamstring to the calf, which is generally the course of the sciatica-type symptoms in which you may present them. the foot also when we look for general pain, radicular pain or sciatica type pain that moves towards the back, so if you have

true

sciatica or piriformis syndrome again, you can have very similar symptoms, since it is very confusing, but it is necessary to differentiate them. this and there are a couple of different ways you can look at it.

Most people with

true

sciatica or lumbar disc herniation that causes sciatica will have more pain when they sit because when you sit you compress the disc, which causes more herniation or more progression of the problem. the nerve produces more symptoms, whereas when you are standing you usually feel at least a little better. This is not a definitive rule, but it is the general case for most people with this, whereas with piriformis syndrome, when you are sitting, you may not have as many symptoms as you could. your symptoms may actually increase when you stand up and when you stand up, you actually tighten that muscle a little bit more and it might put more compression against the side of the nerve.

That's one way to differentiate it. The other way is to do some tests just to see the simplest one for the piriformis you just have to touch it so literally take your hand or finger and just put it on your butt and again you'll be looking for the hip and the sacrum so to find your hip, go directly to side II here there is a bone and a kind of knobby bone, if you turn your leg in and out, it's called the greater trochanter, if you go from there and slide in with your thumb and just poke around if it feels very sensitive on one side or the other.

You may be afraid of the previous syndrome that is contributing through the symptoms. The other way to test the piriformis besides just palpating it and touching it is if you lie on your back, lie on your bed, or lie on the floor and basically go grab it. knee as you bring it towards you and bring it across your body if you feel a lot of tenderness or a lot of pain in your butt compared to the other side, that's more of a sign that it's your piriformis symptom. If you're looking for a self-test for your lower back or rather a true sciatica or symptom coming from the lumbar spine, this drop test is really important, that's where you sit in the chair and really slouch. poor posture and actually leaning your head towards your legs and see if that increases your symptoms, if so it is more of an indication that it is coming from the lower back.

It's confusing, but they are two separate conditions and it's important that we treat them separately, hence piriformis syndrome. If it's just the purest form of the syndrome, we can get away with doing a lot more because we can do more stretches that involve a little bit of bending, which is why you might see the standard figure-four stretch where you cross one leg and you pull it like towards you, you can just do some simple ball work or soft tissue work on the piriformis muscle and just try to release it, we usually get more of a response to that, whereas if it's a true symptom of sciatica or a true lumbar radiculopathy coming from the lower back, we want to look at. in trying to decompress that, so we don't really want to get into a bending type stress because you can make it worse.

A couple of those exercises in sciatica could be that cat-cow, the gentle mobilization of the spine or that face down press up again. We have other videos you can reference. You have to do these exercises extremely slowly to make sure they are right for you, but again, it's very important to differentiate if it's coming from your back or if it's coming from your butt and you. treat each one accordingly, we hope you enjoyed this video and if you did, give us a like and subscribe to this YouTube channel to see more videos like this and also if you want us to send you three exercises to correct your progress.

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