For many people, learning how to live with sciatica nerve pain is a necessity. There are many methods you can use to help minimize the associated pain. Below you will find just a few of the many.

Pain management continues to improve with advances to help alleviate patients dealing with chronic pain. These patients often have to take chronic narcotics and deal with the side effects. The following advances represent the cutting edge in pain management and have given hope along with improved results…

There are several visualisation techniques that we can try that may help with pain control. Visualisation, also known as guided imagery, is used and encouraged by medical professionals in the treatment of many illnesses, including cancer, where the patient may imagine themselves in idyllic and peaceful surroundings feeling unbelievably well and healthy or take an imaginary journey through the inside of their body in order to fight and destroy the cancer cells.

Narcotic pain medications are frequently prescribed in the US for the treatment of acute and chronic painful conditions such as postoperative pain control, reflex sympathetic dystrophy, and degenerative arthritis flare ups. Narcotics may be very effective, but they are not without risks. One of the most concerning risks is that of overdose, which may be fatal.

TENS units are small battery operated devices that deliver an electrical current to the skin by way of surface electrodes. These units are inexpensive (usually less than $100), safe, and are non-invasive. In 1965 Melzack and Wall published their pain gate theory which proposed that a gate existed in part of the spinal cord which could regulate the traffic of painful sensations. In a comprehensive review of published studies on TENS units, it has been shown that the quality of research over the past 2 decades has overall been poorly done. So it is difficult to make scientific conclusions.