Keeping active can help reduce the effects of agonising sciatica

IT’S become a bit of a parental ritual, I suppose.

A chap came to see me last week who’d just helped pack his oldest teenager off to university in time for the new academic year.

For parents, it’s a good opportunity to make sure the student digs look all right, before the music posters and traffic cones are installed at least.

Dad was lifting a box from the back of the car when he was gripped with a pain in his lower back which radiated down the back of his left leg to his foot. He had slipped a disc. The discs in the back, located between the vertebrae bones, are tough and fibrous on the outside and softer on the inside.

A disc doesn’t quite “slip” – what happens is the softer part of the disc pokes out from a weak point in the fibrous outer section.

There might be no problems when this happens but our unlucky dad’s disc was pressing on the root of the left sciatic nerve in his back.

The sciatic nerve is pretty good at identifying pain but not so good at pinpointing where exactly it is being pressed on.

So, since it runs all the way down to the foot, the pressure from the bulging disc was causing him to feel soreness down to his foot.

Strong painkillers are often needed for sciatica. Diazepam, better known as a tranquiliser, can help to relax the muscles round the spine and prevent them clenching and causing more pain.

Scans and surgery are usually only considered if symptoms fail to settle in six weeks. It seems counter-intuitive but keeping active with sciatica helps.

But no more lifting for a while – and anyone helping students in future would be best remembering to lift using their legs, rather than their back.