SCIATICA - REMEDIES
"Sciatica" is a term used to signify pain along the sciatic nerve, which occurs especially when the nerve is compressed or pinched by the tightened muscles attached to the hip when it emerges from the spinal cord or due to the pressure from an intervertebral disc prolapse or a spinal tumor. There is a shooting or a spasmodic pain that radiates from the buttock or the lumbar region down the back of the thigh to the knee and calf and occasionally to the foot or the ankle. This pain can be associated with numbness or tingling in the affected limb and is worse on coughing or straining and may be better by lying down flat.SOME EXERCISES AND PREVENTION:
1. To relieve the pain, apply cold and hot compresses alternately for ten minutes each. This is done at least twice or thrice daily.
2. Avoid sitting on your large wallet, sitting on hard stools, wearing tight belts and tight pants, since they can bring on the sciatic pain.
3. Regular stretching and movements of the affected limb is necessary for faster relief of the pain. Take a short walk for a few minutes every hour.
4. Ask the patient to lie on the floor for ten to fifteen minutes, with a thin pillow under the neck and the head with the lower legs resting on the seat of an upholstered chair.
5. To relieve the sciatica pain, lie on one side with the knee of that side slightly bent, and then extend the other leg and raise it towards the ceiling three times. Turn over and repeat the same exercise on the opposite side.
SOME HOME REMEDIES
a. Pulses, beans and fried things are strictly prohibited. The patient should not take curd or any other sour things, including sour fruit.
b. Watercress (Jalkumb) is added to boiling milk and some jaggery or sugar is added to it and this is then taken once daily.
c. Saffron should be mixed in some warm milk and given to the patient for relief in the pain.
d. Drinking a glass of fresh, raw potato juice (mixed with juice of beet, carrot or celery leaves) daily, helps to relieve the sciatica pain.
e. Mixture of lemon juice, honey and impure carbonate of potash is given.
