Sciatica

I have that cream, I’ll give it a try, feel better!

@katclub I like it glad you tried it

Arnica does nothing for my sciatica. Lidocaine helps - temporarily of course, but at least it breaks the pain cycle so I can start back at 1 (which actually feels like relief after I've been at 5 to 9 for awhile). Peggy

@pfbacon Everyone is different on what can help. I will say I'm into essential oils and mix different ones on the cream I can't get the lidocaine patches here but have had them I agree about lidocaine helping

@liz223 Have you tried a chiropractor for your sciatica? In the past I have gotten relieve I let mine go to long now going in for a shot

Hi @liz223

It has been a while since you last posted. How are you doing? I hope your visit with the neurosurgeon when well and provided you with some answers.

Will you post again?

Recently, I had the biggest bout of sciatica I've ever had - and it was on the other side than the one that usually gets it. I went to physical therapy and they reminded me of the back exercises that helped 20 years ago when I had it. The exercises are all pelvic tilts done standing, sitting, laying down, in every position imaginable. I started doing them again and the pain left. That's the only thing that helped -- pain meds didn't, creams and patches, didn't, massage did for awhile, I do not do chiropractors (a friend of mine was paralyzed for 6 months when a chiropractor did that cracking thing on his neck); shots and surgery are last resorts for me so I didn't try those either. I hope you're all feeling better. Peggy

@JustinMcClanahan and others. You had asked what keeps my sciatica down. I have significantly reduced my sciatica pain by doing especially 2 things: 1. all manner of stretching and exercises 2. all manner of dietary supplements (and adding more veggies to my diet). I have posted all over here before, including the pain in the butt thread, pudendal neuropathy thread and the central sensitization. For the stretching and exercises I use a Pilates Machine and a TRX suspension system and ground stretching, too. I basically do what is in this book available on Amazon and then some: "Sciatica : 20 Easy & Effective Stretching Exercises To Relieve Sciatica And Become Pain Free: FREE VIDEOS Of Every Stretch And Exercise You will Need To Become Pain Free Kindle Edition". Some of the video links don't work - but this is a $2.99 book and shows all the major stretches that help for Sciatica. You will probably need to do these to get rid of it.

2. For the supplements, for me, these cut my nerve pain allowed me to heal. Most are plant goodies. I use: various supplements such as Flavinoids and flavolignins can really help you heal. Some of the supplements include ginger extract to calm digestion and Milk thistle extract (source of flavinlignins) is one of many you can take (silymarin, the active ingredient in milk thistle extract, is a bunch of flavolignins, I believe; I also take diosmin / hesperidin (vein health) and some quercetin (stay below 500 mg or so daily; I discontinued quercetin as of now, though since the ORAC greens may have some); these are all flavinoids, I believe / resveratrol; ORAC energy greens (full of plant stuff and – you guessed it flavinoids), a low dose rutin (vein health) and extra vitamin C (staying below 2000 mg daily) and a tblsp of hemp seed oil, and turmeric. These work together to relieve pain, promote proper health.

The regimen I use along with stretching and exercise reversed or is cutting down on my sitting pain / neuropathic pain in the legs and glutes (i.e. less "sciatica") and reduced fibrosis in the muscles/veins, etc. My legs don't swell as much, either, largely due to the diosmin.

I had one other peculiarity to my situation: I am convinced I was having too much fibrosis of tissues - perhaps depostions of something (fibrin - the blood clotting protein?) in veins, possibly on the tissues. I also supplemented with enzymes nattokinase / serrapeptidase and lumbrokinase, too, taken between meals to help with possible fibrin (or other amyloid type deposits) in veins / tissues. These are counter-indicated if you have clotting disorders, are already on anti-coagulants, or about 10% of people simply don't tolerate these in the gut. These have never bothered me and helped tremendously. Tissues became smoother feeling (not so ropey) and less pain. By the way, I'm off nortriptyline for nerve pain for some time after I changed my diet. The exercises, dietary changes, etc., seemed to need to be done all together to get the needed results. It took a while, but these things really helped.

I would also highly recommend a book by Dr. Greg Fors called "Why we hurt and how we heal", 2nd Edition. I got two supplement ideas from his book (silymarin and ginger). He also describes gut health, other myofascial release techniques, etc. Good luck.

Hi richmond64660 from Georgia in Australia. So you are "plying your body" from the inside with foods and the outside with exercises. Why not simply improve every one of the billions of cells. Yes, as we age the "cells aint made as good as they was" ? So you like to read. Read: David A. Sinclair, "Lifespan" (Harvard Medical Genetic Research) and improve the making of every individual cell. It is easy, cheap and you don't have to do much. Wow, sounds like a "Typical All American Get Rich Quick Scheme".???? (Read Chapter 4. Page 304 is the 3 items to take. ) See what you think. ?

@australia I am aware of some of the work of people like Guarante, Sinclair, etc. Be aware that they are financial stakeholders in their company (Glaxo SmithKline bought some of it but scrapped some products due to possible side effects, so I read - but I'll want to look more into that). I'm not taking things to "live longer", although living healthier is a goal (and proper healing / tissue remodeling; a not so well understood process that might be causing a lot of people's pain). I also wanted some pain relief (quercetin is one that provides this to some degree - but you have to avoid too high a dose as it can be toxic). Also, some (a variety) of the flavinoids may act together in ways that aren't fully understood to promote healing (they may help vitamin C utilization (?) but maybe they're also simply needed more as we age), lower blood pressure, etc.. I definitely think the diosmin / hesperidin I mentioned helped decrease my leg swelling. I perfer my mix for now and I'm systematically adding and subtracting to get to the lowest dose that works. I'll think about adding the NMN (I already take resveratrol and some vitamin D; also be aware that quercetin and resveratrol work synergistically (have a greater than additive effect together). I miraculously saw my triglycerides go down for the first time ever after starting to take this mix. I already mentioned my pain is much lower (sciatica and other neuropathic pain). So, as you can tell, I'm somewhat skeptical of the "couple things" are going to do the trick. Thanks for the info.