Sciatica Point and Sciatica Setting: two treatments for pain running down the leg

Overview

Sciatica is a sharp, pricking pain running from the waist towards the leg. It may come and go, or stay for hours. Some people feel it in one leg only; others feel burning or pain in both legs.

Sciatica Point is given face down, with the therapist's weight carried on two chairs. A light pressure is given on either side of the L5 bone of the low back, and then the heel travels down the painful leg from the hip to the heel, either pressing or turning in small clockwise circles. It is given only on the leg whose nerve is troubled, and no fixed count is written: the leg decides.

Sciatica Setting is given lying on the back, with a pillow under the foot, entirely with the hands. The heel is held still while the forefoot and then the toes are gently bent up and down against each other, moving across the foot one toe at a time. The source calls it very useful for disc bulge. Bending the toes and ankle upward is the same move doctors use to test tension along the nerve line from the sole to the low back.

The sciatic nerve is the largest nerve in the body, about as thick as a little finger, formed from five roots at the low back and the sacrum. The trouble usually starts at the top, where a root is squeezed by a bulging disc deep inside the spine. The exact methods of both treatments are taught hands-on in the course.

Key points

• Sciatica Point works only the painful leg, following the course of the sciatic nerve.
• Sciatica Setting is a gentle hand treatment of the foot, described as very useful in disc bulge.
• The sciatic nerve is the largest nerve in the body.
• Pain down both legs at once is a reason to ask the warning-sign questions first.

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This topic is part of: The Low Back: Treatments for the Back, Hip and Sciatic Leg