Sciatica and lower back pain

​It is estimated that back problems affect about 70% of our population.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), seven out of 10 people have back problems during their lifetime and this cause has become the second leading reason for going to the doctor. Back pain is also responsible for 50% of cases of physical disability in the adult population, leading 400,000 Portuguese to miss work per year.
 
Note that Sciatica is the name given to the pain you feel when inflammation of the sciatic nerve (a large bilateral nerve that extends from the lower back to the feet). Depending on the location of the affected vertebra and nerve, this pain is usually felt from the back or lateral side of the thigh and may extend to the feet. In addition to pain, there may be numbness and difficulty in moving and controlling the leg. The pain is usually concentrated in one leg.

There are different causes for sciatica, including spinal stenosis (narrowing of the spinal canal in the lower back) and the most common, the existence of disc hernias (often located between L4-L5 or L5-S1).
 
Treatment in Western medicine includes anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs, lumbar injections and physical therapy. In more severe cases, surgery is indicated.
 
In traditional Chinese medicine, a natural and holistic approach, the combination of some techniques such as acupuncture, moxibustion, cupping therapy and / or massage is often used. In our view, it is first necessary to know and understand how pain manifests itself: when it arises, when it gets worse, how it improves, if it tends to get worse with cold (or with heat), if the client wakes up better or worse from the pain. among several other issues. In my opinion, it is also necessary to review dialy routines, which often include inappropriate postures that aggravate the problem. Also overweight may be one of the reasons for the manifestation of this symptomatology.
It should be noted that this is undoubtedly one of the main reasons that lead someone to seek help in Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture, seeking answers to the most often chronic problems, without improvement or evolution. The quality of life the customer regains is quite significant and the success rate of our approach is quite high.
The World Health Organization (WHO) itself recognized this methodology as effective and published that acupuncture contributes to pain relief in 82% of back pain cases and is 72% effective in low back pain.
 
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