Posts Tagged ‘Benefit’

Easy Sciatica Exercises

Help for shoulder pain

Sciatica exercises come in many different forms, but the last thing you need when you’re in pain is to have to learn a complicated exercise routine. But using exercise to alleviate sciatica doesn’t have to be difficult. Getting relief can be as simple as doing just one exercise and doing it frequently until such time as the pain is gone or at least much improved.

To figure out what exercise will be of most benefit, it is important to try to distinguish whether you have sciatica from a lumbar disc bulge /herniation, or whether you have a condition called “piriformis syndrome”, which produces symptoms very similar to disc-related sciatica but is caused by contraction of the piriformis muscle in the buttock area.

An easy method to help you determine what the problem is can be done by doing a couple of tests while sitting in a firm chair. In the sitting position, try straightening your knee on the painful side, so that your leg is parallel to the floor. If this increases your symptoms, chances are you have true sciatica related to a disc problem.

The second test is to bend your leg to pull the knee toward your chest. Begin by first bringing the knee on the painful side toward the shoulder on the same side. Then release the leg slightly and pull the knee toward the opposite shoulder. If pulling the knee toward the opposite shoulder increases the pain significantly more than pulling it toward the same side shoulder, chance are you have piriformis syndrome. It should be noted that it is possible to have both true sciatica and piriformis syndrome at the same time.

Once you determine whether you have true sciatica or piriformis syndrome, or both, you can usually get considerable relief from just a single exercise for either condition (two exercises if you have both).

For true sciatica, most people will find relief through the basic McKenzie extension exercise (named for physical thearapist Robin McKenzie). This exercise is performed by lying face down on a firm surface and then propping yourself up on your elbows, creating an increase in the curve of the lower back. Getting into this position may be painful at first, but within about 30 seconds, most people will notice a decrease in the severity or the range of the sciatica, or both. A positive sign is when the symptoms furthest from the spine decrease.

As long as the symptoms are decreasing furthest from the spine, the exercise described is beneficial, even if the symptoms closer to the spine seem to increase at first (they’ll usually improve with repetition of the exercise over time). I suggest you remain in this position for a couple of minutes and then take a break by either just lying flat, or by getting up and walking for at least a few minutes in between the exercise repetitions in order to avoid developing a lot of tightness in the low back muscles.

For piriformis syndrome, you can do a simple stretch of the piriformis muscle. I recommend you do this by lying on your back, pulling your knee on the painful side toward the same side shoulder for a few seconds, then partially releasing the leg and then pulling your knee toward the opposite shoulder. Hold this stretch for about 10 seconds at a time, then carefully release your leg for a a few seconds before repeating the stretch.

Whether you need the McKenzie extension exercise, or the piriformis stretch, or both, the sciatica exercises work best when repeated frequently – up to several times per day while you are having signficant symptoms.

When the symptoms have subsided, it is extremely important to learn what sciatica exercises you can do to prevent the symptoms from returning in the future. Don’t be fooled! Just because the symptoms go away, it doesn’t mean that everything is back to normal. All too often, sciatica sufferers go from one episode of pain to the next, with episodes becoming more severe and more frequent over time, because they fail to manage the problem correctly so you can avoid the common problem of developing chronic pain and disability.

Use ice to decrease pain

Shoulder Pain Treatments: Steroid Injections

Help for shoulder pain

Steroid injection represents a useful tool in the management of chronic shoulder pain. Ideally, steroids should be thought of as providing temporary relief. When injections are used appropriately, and in conjunction with physical therapy, they can serve as a sort of Band-Aid for the shoulder pain. In this way, steroids will give people a temporary period of time in which physical therapy can really start working. This is because steroids act as an effective anti-inflammatory, which will relieve the pain that is caused by normal use of the joint.

If a doctor deems steroid injections to be of use to the patient, they will typically use a lateral approach to inject the subchromial space, particularly with rotator cuff problems. At different times, the doctor may use an anterior approach or a posterior approach to actually put steroid into the shoulder joint. To conduct these straight injections would be less common though.

Steroids have multiple actions. As an anti-inflammatory agent they frequently will reduce pain in an area affected with inflammation. Also, and essentially a side effect is that, they will cause destruction of protein.

This means that steroid injections do include a risk of complication, and it is possible to get too many steroid injections into a shoulder. Where previously it was unknown as to the exact number of injections which equated this “too many”, recently, there has been research to suggest that if someone were to get more than 3 steroid injections into the shoulder, it could make the subsequent rotator cuff repair surgery more difficult.

When it comes to making a decision with regards to the use of steroid injections, one should realize the possible benefit of the drug when it is used appropriately. When used in conjunction with physical therapy, they can be a very effective tool in alleviating shoulder pain. Further, the doctor will perform the steroid injection under sterile conditions as to not introduce germs into the joint space, which further decreases the chance that a problem will arise. One should also consider the fact that steroids are actually created naturally in the body before the simple fear of the injection causes them to discard the treatment.

The steroids injected into the joint are generally safe and do not have the systemic side affects normally associated with steroid pills. For those concerned, steroid injections typically will not increase blood sugar levels to a significant degree.

However, possible side affects/adverse affects of shoulder steroid injection would include bleeding into the joint if the needle goes through a significant blood vessel, an infection, and skin ulcerations if too much is injected closely underneath the skin. Another side affect could be a “dent” that is formed where the steroid was injected. Additionally, there can be tendon rupture and overall weakening of the structure receiving the steroid.

Use ice to decrease pain