Three ways virtual physiotherapy can be helpful for sciatica sufferers

If you have ever felt the spreading, fiery pain of sciatica, you won’t soon forget it. People who haven’t experienced this condition’s symptoms should count themselves lucky. They have never experienced a pinched sciatic nerve or the pain, tingling, numbness and weakness sciatica can cause.

It’s unfortunate that many people don’t end up in the lucky category. Medical researchers estimate that up to 5% of people develop sciatica annually. It’s also been shown that up to 40% of people suffer from this issue in their lifetime. Those who do end up dealing with the unique symptoms of sciatica should consider turning to virtual physiotherapy for help.

Virtual physiotherapy can help sciatica sufferers in these three ways:

1. Ruling out other conditions — There are a multitude of conditions that can cause lower back pain. Virtual physiotherapy for sciatica is most effective when it’s being used to treat the correct cause of your pain. How can your virtual physical therapist rule out other issues? One way is to ask you questions about your symptoms. They will also perform a comprehensive movement assessment on you. This combo can help them diagnose sciatica or another issue as the cause of your pain.

2. Working to free the pinched nerve — Many cases of sciatica can be linked to tense lower back muscles. Why? These muscles can pull the lower spine out of alignment, which can pinch one of the sciatic nerves. A virtual physiotherapist can help counteract these tense muscles. They can build you a custom stretching program for this purpose, and they can even show you exactly how to do your stretches. Often, the easing of the tense muscle will allow your spine to realign naturally and free the pinched nerve.

3. Helping you avoid a return of sciatica’s fiery pain — Not only do those who experience sciatica pain not soon forget it, they also hope they can avoid it in the future. However, not every patient does. This can be especially true if you self-treat your sciatica. Why? Self-treaters tend to stop when their pain gets better. They don’t know that lifestyle factors like poor posture or lifting technique can bring sciatica symptoms back. Fortunately, virtual physiotherapy for sciatica can address factors that may increase your risk of sciatica in the future.

Struggling to find effective physiotherapy for sciatica? Agile Virtual PT can help you

You might be having difficulty finding physiotherapy that’s helpful for sciatica. Our physical therapy experts at Agile Virtual Physical Therapy can help you find just that. Not sure you want to pay to find out if we can help you? That’s OK. You don’t have to because we offer a free virtual screening that can help you learn if our treatment options are right for you.

Contact our team today for more information about a free screening, our virtual services or to schedule an initial appointment for your sciatica.