Power Over Sciatica, Low Back & Disc Pain

When it comes to both acute and chronic recurring sciatica, low back and disc related pain, Homeopathy can be your secret weapon to take your results over the top. Even failed surgical attempts can be helped with Homeopathy.

Although surgery can be helpful in some cases, the majority of cases of sciatica are best helped by Homeopathy and Chiropractic. The more conservative approach of Homeopathy and Chiropractic best correct the underlying causative factors leaving the patient stronger and healthier following treatment. While allopathic drugs are suppressive in nature, Homeopathy and Chiropractic are more expressive in nature, awakening the body’s ability to express healing. Corrective, expressive and regenerative care are the Homeopathic and Chiropractic way. No need to risk surgical damage, scar tissue buildup and addiction to suppressive drugs.

The “Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality” has found that heat, acupuncture, exercise, massage, yoga, and spinal manipulation can help with low back pain. A compression fracture usually heals on its own in 8 to 12 weeks, as do most cases of back pain. Experts caution however, that spinal surgery is called for in extreme cases, when a herniated disc is pressing against nearby nerves, causing a person to lose bladder and bowel control (http://www.mayfieldclinic.com/pe-caudaequina.htm) or loss of reflexes. In such cases, surgery is the only way to relieve the pressure on nerves and restore the bodily functions. [1]

Back surgeries do not have a very good success rate. In fact, there is even a clinical term that has been acknowledged since the advent of spinal surgery called “FBSS “Failed Back Surgery Syndrome”. It’s the only diagnosis named for a treatment that hasn't worked. There are as many patients with FBSS as those with rheumatoid arthritis. Sadly, FBSS patients experience higher levels of pain and a poorer quality of life and physical function, than those with osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis. [2]

The incidence of FBSS has been estimated to be between 10% and 40%, depending on the type of surgery performed, responsible for more disability than any other condition. Other studies show that 5% to 36% of people who undergo a discectomy for a lumbar herniated disc saw their leg and back pain return just 2 years after surgery. With each spine surgery you have to correct the original failed back surgery, the chance of success drops:

• 50% success rate after the first repeat surgery

• 30% after the second

• 15% after the third

• 5% after the fourth [3]

A study by Global Advances in Health and Medicine concluded that the combination of “conventional medical therapy” and “complementary alternative medicine” modalities for treating low back pain appear to be the most promising approach to the management of chronic cases of this complex condition. [4]

A 2018 study published in JAMA Network Open is among the latest to weigh in on the pros and cons of chiropractic care for treating low back pain. Researchers enrolled 750 active-duty military personnel who complained of back pain. Half were randomly assigned to receive usual care (including medications, self-care, and physical therapy) while the other half received usual care plus up to 12 chiropractic treatments. After six weeks of treatment, those assigned to receive chiropractic care:

• reported less pain intensity

• experienced less disability and more improvement in function

• reported higher satisfaction with their treatment

• needed less pain medicine [5]

And an article in PubMed reviewed a study of homeopathic treatment for patients with chronic low back pain and other diagnoses. 129 adults and 48 physicians participated in this study, which showed that classic Homeopathic treatment represents an effective treatment. The patients received an average of 6.5 homeopathic prescriptions, that resulted in:

• marked and sustained improvement with the severity of the diagnoses and the complaints

• improvement in quality of life

• the use of conventional treatment and health services decreased markedly

• the number of patients using low back pain-related drugs was half the number of the baseline [6]

Homeopathic remedies specific to neuralgia (nerve pain and altered sensations like numbness and formication) and neuritis (inflammation and swelling in and around the nerve) correct causative factors by awakening the body’s ability to establish homeostasis or balance biochemically and bio energetically to eliminate the source of the sciatica.

The following homeopathic active ingredients are the most effective remedies I have found in my 40 plus years successfully integrating Homeopathy and Chiropractic.

Aesculus hippocastanum - Horse Chestnut – Boericke: Backache affecting the sacrum and hips, aggravated by walking and stooping forward. Back gives out when walking. Paralytic feeling in arms, legs and spine. Tearing pain in loins.

Ammonium muriaticum - Ammonium Chloride –Clark: Sciatic pain as if tendons were too short. Tension in the hips. Shooting pains and pulling in the hip.

Arsenicum album - Arsenious Acid – Boericke: Trembling, twitching, spasms, weakness, heaviness, uneasiness. Sciatica. Clark: Sciatica. Acute drawing pains in the hips, extending to the groins, the thighs, and sometimes even to the anklebones. Tearing and stinging in the hips and legs. Fatigue in the legs.

Belladonna - Deadly Nightshade – Boericke: Shooting pains along limbs. Jerking limbs. Spasms. Involuntary limping. Clarke: Pain in sacrum.

Capsicum annuum - Cayenne Pepper – Boericke: Aching and jerking of muscles. Sciatica. Clark: Sciatica. Shooting-tearing from hip to knee and foot. Stiffness in the legs, with numbness and sensation of tingling.

Causticum - Potassium Hydrate – Boericke: Tearing, drawing pains in the muscular and fibrous tissues. Progressive loss of muscular strength. Left-sided sciatica, with numbness. Clark: Drawing pains in the thighs and legs. Trembling of limbs.

Colocynthis – Bitter cucumber – Boericke: Cramp- like pain in hip. Sciatic pain, left side, drawing, tearing. Pain down right thigh, muscles and tendons feel too short, numbness with pains.

Colchicum autumnale - Meadow Saffron – Boericke: Pain in front of thigh. Limbs are lame, weak, and tingling. Clark: Special indications for its use in sciatica and lumbago. Tearings in the legs. Tearing twitches, like electric shocks, through one side of the body, with sensation of lameness. Shootings in the muscles. Weakness, with sensation of lameness through all the limbs.

Gnaphalium polycephalum - Common Everlasting – Boericke: For sciatica, with associated numbness. Intense pain along the sciatic nerve; numbness alternates with pain. Chronic backache in lumbar region. Lumbago. Clarke: Sciatic pain. Pains dull or darting or cutting from right hip-joint posteriorly downward to foot. Numbness occasionally taking the place of sciatic pains. Special indication for its use in sciatica and lumbago. Chronic backache in lumbar region. Shooting pains into thighs.

Ignatia amara - St. Ignatius Bean – Clarke: Sciatica with weakness of back and lower limbs. Incisive, tearing pains in the posterior surface of the thighs. Trembling of the limbs. Tension in the legs on walking. Convulsive startings of the legs. Violent pains like shooting or pulling. Aching at pubis.

Magnesia phosphorica - Phosphate of Magnesia – Boericke: Sciatica. Twitchings and spasms. Cramping of muscles with radiating pains. Clark: Sciatica. Sensation in limbs like a streak of electricity, followed by soreness of muscles. Aching in legs, with weakness and trembling. Spasmodic muscular contractions. Aching in small of back like vertebra missing.

Rhus toxicodendron - Poison Ivy – Boericke: Tearing down the thighs. Sciatica. Numbness or trembling. Clarke: Sciatica. Sensation of trembling in limbs. Drawing or jerking tearing in thighs and legs. Aching pains in legs. Shootings and tearings in hip-joint. Tension and stiffness of the muscles of the hips, thighs and legs. Spasmodic twitching of the limbs. As if bruised vertebrae in small of back. Distortion of vertical column.

The above homeopathic remedies can be applied as single remedies or in combination together. The remedies can be applied orally to correct from the inside out and applied topically for an added localized effect to correct from the outside in. Additionally, they can be applied to neuritis and neuralgia in other areas of the body such as the arms, hands and jaw areas.

To fully compliment the sciatic pain remedies in the article, I recommend the remedies listed in my Acute Pain article that address low back and disc causes related to sciatica.

Applying these Homeopathic remedies will also help complement the healing, restorative processes, even when surgery is implemented. Homeopathy will also help with the many failed surgeries and the times when recurrences manifest in the years following surgery.

Homeopathy is a great help to correct the genetic predispositions towards Sciatica, low back and disc problems. When these conditions show up in families, you can do both Homeopathic and Chiropractic care to prevent the devastating problems, by correcting the genetic predispositions in family members both young, and old and all those in-between.

I do hope you take the minimal time and effort to implement the many benefits of Homeopathy into your practice. You will be glad you did and so will your many patients. Enjoy the journey…