For some of us, sciatica can often be a very difficult pain to manage and flare ups often stop responding to one treatment modality after sometime. Most patients however can self manage the pain and often avoiding those triggers that cause flare ups is one the main things to do while carrying on with usual activities. Top tips to manage your pain are

Improve Your Sitting And Sleeping Habits:
The first and foremost thing is to examine and improve the way you sit and sleep. The sofa and mattress you use for sitting and sleeping might be very comfortable but if you are waking up with sciatica-like pain, then it is time to re-examine the mattress. Memory foam mattresses are becomingly increasingly popular as they provide a possibility of a firm yet supportive surface. This is shown to be more suitable for protecting your back and vertebrae.



Regular Exercises:
There are a number of back exercises that can really help relieve the pain of sciatica. Some of the most recommended exercises for helping with sciatica involve stretching exercises, strengthening and stabilizing the core body muscles, especially the neck and back. To start with, you can go for exercise that concentrates on stretching the lower back muscles and at the front. Performing such exercises 3-4 times a day helps in relaxing the muscles that often cause pressure on the sciatic nerve. After some days, when the pain reduces, you can go for strengthening exercises that would prevent future flare ups. However, it is important that you do not overdo any of these exercises. If in doubt, seek help from a qualified professional physiotherapist or your doctor.

The Frizzy Cure:
You can try cold packs for short term relief from sciatica.. Use either an ice pack or a bag of frozen vegetables(peas) wrapped in a towel Do it upto 20min at any one time. This can be done several times a day. Sometimes warm packs help as well and patients have often got releief by alternating cold packs with warm packs.


If patients don’t get relief despite these treatments, then the next step is analgesic drugs and possibly a visit to their doctor. If sciatica is persistent and pain continues, early investigations such as CT scan and MRI would be useful and these are often done by pain and spine specialists. For more information please go to http://www.berkshirepainclinic.co.uk.