The Secret About Sciatica

The Mayo Clinic Health Letter (Vol 40 No 11), November 2022, concludes that the cause of sciatica is too much sitting: “Our spines weren’t designed for us to be sitting for hours at a time.” (It’s a paid subscription so I can’t provide a link.) 

Upon reading this I hear myself shout, “It’s not sitting, it’s HOW people sit!”

So, here’s the story.

This is what a healthy spine looks like:

A healthy spine has an even indentation from the sacrum to the neck. This indicates that the vertebrae are stacked with no undue pressure on the discs. This alignment is the same when standing and sitting.

Most American spines look something like these when standing:

Most American spines look something like these when sitting:

What these images show is that when we stand, the bones in our lower back tip backward. This narrows the back of the rubbery spinal disks that sit between the bones of our spine.

In contrast, when we sit, the bones in our lower back tip forward, narrowing the front of the spinal discs.

In each case, this narrowing puts undue pressure on the discs, which leaves us vulnerable to slipped and herniated discs, as well as sciatica.

What makes it such a problem?

Consider the following explanation of the pressure exerted by high-heeled shoes:

What puts greater force on a hardwood floor? Measured in pounds per square inch (psi), a car has a load of 28-30 psi, an elephant 50-100 psi, and a 125-lb. woman with high heels, when she takes a step and those heels hit the floor, 2000 psi!

High-heeled shoes or boots transfer the force through a much smaller area, which causes a much greater pressure. It will hurt more if a person steps on someone’s foot in high heels than if they are wearing flat shoes. When using a sharp knife, the small area of the blade creates a large pressure, making cutting easier.

When we stand and sit out of Balance, our vertebrae tip, instead of remaining flat. So, instead of transferring through the relatively large area of a flat vertebra, our body weight goes through a much smaller area. It’s as if we changed from sensible flats into stiletto heels, only in our spines. Because we habitually stand leaning back, and sit leaning forward, this undue pressure continues every waking moment of our lives.

Currently, we sit a lot more than we stand.  So the Mayo Clinic  Health Letter is correct, excessive sitting causes undue pressure on the discs.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had sciatica and it’s no fun. It hurts like hell. When you’re in it you are begging to figure out what you are doing that caused it and what you can do to make it stop.

You can imagine what I am going to say:

The way you get rid of sciatica is by learning how to comfortably align your vertebrae. Your best chance of staying sciatica free is is to maintain that comfortable alignment all day, every day. 

Comfortably aligning your spine means getting into Balance and practicing like a madman, or woman, for the rest of your life.

No complaining. It sure beats doing what the Mayo Clinic Health Letter recommends which is to “Wait it out” or to “Cut it out.”

“Cut it out” refers to some type of surgery. Many are available, most of them have less than impressive success rates.

(My husband says I am having a crabby day. Could it be?)

Please, please, join me this Friday, November 18th, at noon to practice sitting for meditation. Once we are aligned and comfortable I will lead a guided relaxation for Thanksgiving.