SCIATIC CAUSE No.1 – Sciatic – Disc Bulge ( Disc Herniation )

Dr. Ben Boudreau: The first cause of sciatic pain is a disc bulge or disc herniation. And some of you have made maybe I’ve heard of this before or are suffering from it right now, from an injury at work. A disc herniation or a disc bulge is when fibrous cartilage between the vertebral bodies becomes compressed. When it becomes compressed, the jelly spews out the side, compresses your nerve and creates that symptom down the back of your leg, known as sciatica.

SCIATIC CAUSE No.2 – Stenosis

Dr. Clayton Roach: Yeah. So very simply put, if you had a Boston cream donut or a balloon that you push more on one side and the other, then it will start to bulge to one side. And unfortunately or fortunately, we have nerves coming down our spine so that bullet starts to put direct pressure on that nerve. So a disc bulge is one of the causes of sciatica. Number two is stenosis. So I don’t know how many of you know about stenosis, but it’s the hole where the spinal cord goes through from the top down that starts to get encroached by most of the time some arthritis.

So bone starts to grow inside that hole, and suddenly that hole starts to get slightly narrow. And now you’ve got the spinal cord that’s being impacted, and obviously, messages from the legs are going up there. So if that’s being choked in the spinal cord, where will the pain be? It’s going to be in your legs. Typically more senior people will get that stenosis.

Dr. Ben Boudreau: Absolutely. And so you’d feel it more in your legs than you would in your back, even though the site of encroachment or narrowing is in your back.

Dr. Clayton Roach: And why don’t you lead Ben to number three?

SCIATIC CAUSE No.3 – Spondylolisthesis

Dr. Ben Boudreau: Spondylolisthesis, big words, so it means slipping less. This means a slip of vertebrae. One vertebra is slipped above the other. As you can imagine, as the nerves exit the spine and go down the back, they’re being compressed by that slipped vertebrae and it causes a sinking. And this causes that compression and nerve-like pain that goes down the back of your leg. There are many different types of listhesises and types of slipping, the most common being degenerative, right? So with trauma over time.

SCIATIC CAUSE No.4 – piriformis syndrome

Dr. Clayton Roach: Yeah. And you can have one where a little fracture allows that vertebrae to slip. But if you can imagine that hole as a vertebra slips that hole is now narrow. Right. So another cause of sciatica. Number four is going to be the very common piriformis syndrome. So piriformis is a muscle in your glute area that lies on top of the sciatic nerve. And many times because of what we do every day, whether sitting or some of the things you might be doing at work, that nerve is being compromised by that muscle being tightened. So we call it a syndrome from that muscle. Be it the piriformis syndrome. Some people have that nerve through the muscle in about 10% of the population. And that can be troublesome if there’s a spasm on that in that piriformis area. Number five.

SCIATIC CAUSE No.5 – Mechanical Low Back Pain

Dr. Ben Boudreau: Number five, mechanical, lower back pain. And so you probably heard us talking about mechanical lower back pain before. And this is back pain that arises from the joints in the back that can become inflamed and then cause the muscles to stiffen in and around to protect that lower back. This is so common in those sitting for long periods or requiring them to do repetitive activities throughout the day. And this can lead to that sciatic nerve-like pain down the back of your leg and into your foot.

Dr. Clayton Roach: And these are the typical cases where we ask the patient what happened and they have no idea what happened because typically it was the culminating effect of everything they’ve done over the last five, ten, 15, 20 years of their life, that created a pattern in their lower back that is now compromising their lower back where the sciatic nerve comes from, from L3 down to the S2 area.

Dr. Ben Boudreau: And it’s very common in those with mechanical lower back pain, sciatica, back pain and leg pain. And like we said in sciatica, it’s most common to have just the leg pain alone, although the site isn’t quite where the pain is.

Review Of 5 Causes Of Sciatica

Dr. Clayton Roach: Exactly. So let’s review. The number one cause of sciatica was a disc bulge or herniation where that disc is putting pressure on that nerve.

Dr. Ben Boudreau: Number two is stenosis. And so the canal where the nerve exits become encroached or smaller, compressing that nerve, causing that leg-like pain.

Dr. Clayton Roach: And number three, the cause of sciatica was a spondylolisthesis, a big word, but means one vertebra slipped on top of the other one creating a narrowed canal where that spinal cord is pure form.

Dr. Ben Boudreau: This is the muscle compressing on the sciatic nerve from tightness, and that’ll cause that numbness and tingling down the back of your leg. And the last or the fifth one.

Dr. Clayton Roach: Yeah. Number five is what we see as the most mechanical, low back pain caused by everything you do in your entire day. Multiply that by days and weeks, months, years, and suddenly you’ve got a pattern that’s not conducive to the sciatic nerve being healthy, developing sciatica.

Dr. Ben Boudreau: So there you have it. The five most common causes of sciatica. Thank you so much. And tune in next time. I’m Dr. Ben Boudreau.

Dr. Clayton Roach: And Dr. Clayton Roach. If you want to follow us, subscribe to our YouTube channel or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter.