Now let’s talk about something that is very common that we hear about almost every single day which is sciatica yes sometimes we hear me duele la sciatica you have heard that too of course what is that I’ve heard it’s just something awful here’s a description of it the pressure on the sciatic nerve causes radiating pain that runs down one or both legs extremely common Wow more than three million cases per year in America Actually the term sciatica is kind of a layman’s terms we typically hear patients describe sciatica as a common term sciatic nerve is actually a peripheral nerve a nerve outside of the spine it’s more in the buttocks radiating down typically more typically though you have a problem actually in the back it’s from the lumbar region so you have three sections of the spine and then it’s a nerve root or several nerve roots that are pinched in the back and then you have a pinched nerve that’s in your back there radiates all the way down your leg which we typically call sciatica. We have a 3d image of what you’re just describing right now I’d like to take that if possible and doctor have you walk over to the screen over there and tell us what is happening here? There’s a lot of different treatment options for acute pain like that there’s pharmaceutical interventions and even surgery but majority patients can get better 90% of patients get better with non-surgical options for sciatica so sciatica if it’s arranging from the back it typically happens from the lumbar spine here so you have five lumbar vertebral bodies so five four three two one and from each vertebral body you have a disc so the discs are named between the body so between l1 and l2 is gonna be the l1 l2 disc and from there the nerve root originates from the neuro foramen or from the nerve hole and then usually it’s either a disc herniation that herniates backwards less likely to the side is going to pinch the nerve that is going down or it’s going to be through arthritis later in age it’s gonna also pinch the nerve sciatica is either from a mechanical compression from arthritis from disc actually contacting the nerve but more likely a chemical irritation because the inside of the disc is a chemical irritant that leaks out and will irritate the nerves even there’s no compression actually of that nerve root.