Sciatica pain affects your lower back, legs, and even buttocks, causing a number of symptoms that result from the compression of the sciatic nerve. Some people experience numbness or debilitatingly sharp pain, while others find one of their legs feels weaker than the other. Learn some treatment options you can turn to.
- Physical Therapy
Once a bout of acute pain passes, you can turn to exercises and physical therapy that have the potential to help improve your posture and flexibility while also building core muscles. All of this helps prevent future episodes of sciatica pain.
- Hot and Cold Compress Therapy
By alternating hot and cold compresses, you can help relieve sciatica pain. Start with applying a cold compress for 20 minutes a few times a day. You can then apply a hot compress. This helps decrease inflammation.
- Steroid Injections
For people experiencing severe sciatica pain, steroid injections can offer relief by decreasing inflammation. Steroids can have side effects when used for a long period, so you may be able to get them only a limited number of times.
- Pain Medications
Analgesics are usually the first treatment people turn to. In some cases, prescription medications are necessary, but these have many potential side effects, so they may not be a long-term solution for most people.
- Platelet-Rich Plasma Therapy
Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy takes a sample of your blood. It separates the blood’s components, adding the platelets into the plasma and injecting the mixture near the sciatic nerve to help reduce inflammation and relieve pain.
- Stem Cell Therapy
Stem cell therapy takes stem cells from your body or from donor tissue and injects them to the targeted areas. Stem cells can reduce inflammation, allowing oxygen and nutrients to reach the site.
Turning to Regenerative Medicine
If you experience sciatica pain, most of your options can only offer temporary relief, but by trusting in regenerative medicine, including treatments like PRP therapy and stem cell therapy, you may be able to tackle the problem at its roots. For many people, it offers lasting relief.
This post was written by a medical professional at Stemedix Inc. At Stemedix we provide access to Regenerative Medicine, also known as Stem Cell Therapy in Tampa. Regenerative medicine seeks to replace tissue or organs that have been damaged by disease, trauma, or congenital issues.