Pain in the butt? Acupuncture for sciatica
- Gabriella Sahyoun
- Mar 22
- 3 min read
What is Sciatica?
The sciatic nerve is the thickest and longest nerve in the body. It is a bundle of nerves from the five nerve roots branching off your spinal cord. There are two sciatic nerves, one on each side of the body. Each sciatic nerve runs through the hip and buttock on one side. They then go down the leg on their side of the body until they reach just below your knee. Once there, they split into other nerves that connect to parts farther down, including your lower leg, foot, and toes.
Sciatica is nerve pain caused by sciatic nerve compression from injury or irritation along the nerve pathway. Sciatica is a very common condition. About 40% of people experience some form of sciatica during their lifetime. Symptoms of sciatica include:
Pain that shoots down the affected leg. Most people describe the pain as burning or like an electric shock that is usually worse when sitting, bending forward, coughing, or sneezing.
It can also produce tingling or numbness in your back or butt that can radiate down your leg and into your feet and toes, depending on the specific nerves affected.
There can also be muscle weakness.
Causes of Sciatica
Structural spinal issues such as herniations, degenerative disc disease, spinal stenosis, spondylolisthesis
Tumors, cysts, or other growths
Injuries
Osteoarthritis
Trigger points in the lower back and hip muscles
Piriformis syndrome occurs when the piriformis muscle is tight from trigger points or muscle imbalances. This tightness compresses the sciatic nerve, causing sciatic-like symptoms.
A tight piriformis muscle can compress the sciatic nerve pathway.
In my clinical experience, most sciatic pain is not caused by true sciatica but by muscle imbalances causing sciatic-like symptoms. The good news is that acupuncture is really good at treating muscle imbalances!
Research on acupuncture for sciatica
In one systematic review, they concluded that acupuncture is more effective and safer than analgesics at relieving sciatica symptoms. In addition, this randomized control trial found that in patients with chronic sciatica from a herniated disk, acupuncture treatments improved the symptoms of sciatica more than the group that did not receive acupuncture.
Treating sciatic pain with acupuncture
When treating sciatica, I use a combination of trigger point acupuncture and motor point acupuncture. The trigger point acupuncture helps to alleviate intense pain symptoms associated with sciatica. The motor point acupuncture helps address the sciatica symptoms' root cause: a muscle imbalance. Motor point stimulation with acupuncture and electric stimulation strengthens weak muscles, restores muscle and joint function, and reduces pain and inflammation. Trigger points are hyperirritable spots in muscle fibers that can cause restricted range of motion and referral pain. They can be identified as taut bands or knots in the muscle fibers. Acupuncture needles can deactivate trigger points, release myofascial restrictions, and improve range of motion. Trigger points in the lower back and hip muscles can cause sciatic-like symptoms. See below for some examples. The black X is the trigger point, and the red dots are the referral pain pattern.
Get in touch with us!
Are you curious to see if acupuncture can help alleviate your sciatic pain? Schedule a FREE 15-minute consultation call or book online directly. If you have any questions, please get in touch with us.
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