SCIATICA

[pootler]

I have managed to hurt my back and according to the Doc there is an issue with the nerve between lumbar 3 and 4. Consequently I have various pains and numbness. Has anyone any suggestions / thoughts about riding and or treatment? I was meant to be going to Scotland for a couple of weeks late this month.

[meic]

I find that cycling has helped alleviate my back problems but this is probably due to the fact that if I am spending my time cycling then I am not doing other things that are bad for my back.

[horizon]

Chiropractic, chiropractic and chiropractic. Not everyone will agree but then I don't now have back problems - ever.

[[XAP]Bob]

Don't be afraid to try different positions if your previous style is uncomfortable.

From the very upright to a 'bent - there is huge variety, and somewhere in there is likely to be a comfortable (and therefore sustainable) option.

[squeaker]

Very reluctant to give any specific advice as a) I'm only a long term intermittent sufferer, and b) what might work for me would probably not work for you!
Despite the above I would suggest getting hold of a copy of 'Treat Your Own Back' by Robin McKenzie. I'd also add that I find a decently shaped seat on a full suspension recumbent a lot more comfortable than the bent forward position on a DF bike: McKenzie will help you understand why - his book doesn't mention recumbents, so don't let that put you off reading it
Good luck!
PS: ibuprophen can be your friend, but can also allow you to damage things more
PPS: if you really have sciatica - which I know as an excruciating shooting pain down one leg - you have my sympathies - my only attack came on at the end of January, just as I was getting over a lower back pain episode, and took 8 weeks to clear up but it did eventually go

[rjb]

Mrs RJB suffers from sciatica - she always tells me that cycling eases it off and makes it less uncomfortable . Whenever she is suffering from it we have to get the tandem out for a ride. She does have a more upright position on the back of the tandem as it is shorter in the stokers position.
Hope you get well soon or find a way of managing it.

+1 for the Robin McKenzie books - It's worth getting both the back and neck books.

[ChrisButch]

When I had a lumbar stenosis about ten years ago, with the sciatic nerve pinched, I found that cycling was about the only posture which was pain-free. My consultant told me this was because the position opened the gap between the crucial vertebrae in just the right way.

[anniesboy]

Forget the chiropractor, whiskey when its really bad.
Oh and it goes away after seven or eight years,well it did for me.
I found that I could ride when walking was really painful.

[horizon]

Forget the chiropractor

Why?

[al_yrpal]

I had a bout in October. It imobilised me, I could not even dress myself. I rested for a month, ibuprofin to relieve the pain and reduce inflamation. I would not go near Chiropractics, Osteopaths, they have only ever worsened any problems I have had. It got better slowly.

After talking to my quack who is a friend, he recommended Pilates. So I have been doing two sessions a week for the last couple of months, one of Pilates and one called Stretch. Both have really strengthened my core muscles which I think were quite weak. Hopefully this will protect me from future incidents. I will cut the sessions down to once a week later. Meanwhile its nice being the only bloke in a class of 15!

Al

[squeaker]

After talking to my quack who is a friend, he recommended Pilates. So I have been doing two sessions a week for the last couple of months, one of Pilates and one called Stretch. Both have really strengthened my core muscles which I think were quite weak. Hopefully this will protect me from future incidents. I will cut the sessions down to once a week later.

Have to agree that improved core strength is a useful general goal.

Meanwhile its nice being the only bloke in a class of 15!

Has it's good points, doesn't it, although there's now usually 3 or 4 blokes at the weekly class I attend

[Al Wright]

I also have ben bothered by sciata on and off for over 40 years, I seem to be bothered by a bout on average every 5 to 6 years. It comes on over a couple of weeks as severe pain right and/or numbness down either leg from thigh to ankle and eventually becomes too severe to walk, but recovers following rest on flat surface for a period of a few days.
For me the 'leaning slightly forward' cycling position is comfortable, my cycling position has the saddle about 2 inches higher than the handlebars. During periods when the sciata is 'active' I follow easier routes, avoiding hard climbs.
I have been advised by the specialists that the exercise is contributing to easing the problem, but at some stage in the future it shall require back surgery (a course that I was strongly advised against by an old school GP back in 1968 because then, a chance of successful outcome was 50-50)

I hope that it works out for you

[Halla]

+1 for Pilates and Robin Mckenzie. Do not like taking Ibubrofen though. Have had several episodes of laying on the floor totally crippled by sciatic nerve problems. Doctor advised to potter around when in pain, which eventually eased problems. The pilates/Core exercises keep it at bay most of the time.

Best of luck hope it gets better soon.

[horizon]

I would not go near Chiropractics, Osteopaths, they have only ever worsened any problems I have had. It got better slowly.

I may have had something like sciatica or perhaps it was only back pain, I'm not sure. Nevertheless I have had it about half a dozen times over many years, usually following long drives of several hundred miles. The last time, about three years ago, I was doubled up with pain and couldn't move off the bed. I managed to be driven at slow speed to the chiropractor. As with my visits to the osteopath on the previous occasions, I was back on my feet, fit as a fiddle within days. Whatever was wrong with me might have been quite different from what other people describe as back pain, sciatica or other ailments. And yet my experience of my recovery differs so remarkably from what other people report about chiropractors/osteopaths that I wonder if we are talking about the same back and the same treatment. I was in huge pain and discomfort in the area of my back and right leg. I went to a chiropractic for two appointments. I took no drugs and it cost £40 the two. Within one week I was fit and well. What more can I say that doesn't meet with dismissal and derision?

[ossie]

I had a microdiscectomy in Feb for my sciatica after 4 years of suffering and it seems to have worked..worth considering for long term sufferers.