Many people suffer with pain that goes from the lower back down the leg, sometimes all the way to the feet and toes. This pain is called sciatica and is from the irritation of a group of nerves from the lumbar spine. Many times, doctors prescribe pain medication for patients with sciatica, but new research from the prestigious British Medical 
Journal reveals that there may be little evidence these drugs help.
23 studies were reviewed by researchers comparing placebo pills to various drugs typically prescribed for sciatica. In every study, there was no proof that the prescription drugs gave any more pain relief than the placebos. Also, the radiating pain many times associated with sciatica was not significantly reduced. Two of the drugs may have reduced overall pain but the long term effects were unclear. The important fact one must note is that any pain medication that might provide temporary relief is just masking the symptoms of the pain and is not correcting what is actually causing the pain. On top of that, every medication has serious side effects that a patient should look into before taking them. Wouldn’t it make more sense to do something that corrects the cause of the pain naturally?
In this research, it was concluded there is no proof showing pain medications commonly prescribed for sciatica were affective.
There is a much more affective approach to helping a patient suffering with sciatica: CHIROPRACTIC!!! Another study done in 2010 shows that chiropractic is just as effective as surgery, but is much less risky than surgery and extremely more cost effective.
Dr. Russell Brokstein, the chiropractor at Hometown Family Wellness Center in Freehold, NJ has been treating sciatica patients effectively with chiropractic for over 13 years. If you or somebody you know has been suffering with sciatica, wouldn’t you like to finally get the cause of the pain corrected, rather than taking pain medications with numerous side effects and proven not affective in the treatment of sciatica? Call our office at 732-780-0044 and find out more information on our website at www.chiropractorfreehold.com
McMorland G, Suter E, Casha S, du Plessis SJ, Hurlbert RJ. Manipulation or microdiskectomy for sciatica? A prospective randomized clinical study. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics. 2010; 33(8): 576-584.
Pinto,Rafael Zambelli. Chris G Maher, Manuela L Ferreira, Paulo H Ferreira, Mark Hancock, Vinicius C Oliveira, Andrew J McLachlan, Bart Koes.Drugs for relief of pain in patients with sciatica: systematic review and meta-analysis. British Medical Journal. 2012, February; 344:e497 doi: 10.1136/bmj.e497.