Sciatica patients discovering the healing potential of yoga.
(CNN) – Sciatica is a real pain in the butt — and, sometimes, in the leg and foot. That’s because the sciatic nerves, the longest nerves in your body, run bilaterally from the base of the spine through the deep muscles of the buttocks and all the way down the back of each leg. When impinged, they cause significant discomfort, ranging from relentless throbbing in one side of your buttocks to shooting pain down the back of your leg.
Yoga expert, Dana Santas, recommends six positions that can help with sciatica (approved by your health care professional, of course)
- Modified Boat With Block
- Bridge With Knees Together
- Seated Twist Variation
- Pigeon Pushup
- Modified Pyramid
- Supine With Pillow Under Knees
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Just What is Yoga?
For those totally unfamiliar with yoga and are looking for a good conceptual description, try this article from the Self-Realization Fellowship.
“Most of us are accustomed to looking outside of ourselves for fulfillment. We are living in a world that conditions us to believe that outer attainments can give us what we want. It is hard for us to picture a state of complete calmness and repose in which thoughts and feelings cease to dance in perpetual motion…”
(Source: Self-Realization Fellowship) Read more…
Sciatica, or lumbar radiculopathy, is a set of symptoms including pain caused by general compression or irritation of one of five spinal nerve roots of each sciatic nerveor by compression or irritation of the left or right or both sciatic nerves.
Sciatica is a relatively common form of lower back and leg pain, but the true meaning of the term is often misunderstood. Sciatica is a set of symptoms rather than a diagnosis for what is irritating the root of the nerve to cause the pain. Sciatica on Wikipedia
