Health & Fitness
Leg Pain: It Could Be Your Back
Many of us suffer leg pain and numbness, but often the source of the problem is not the legs at all.
You know the feeling all too well. After sitting for a period of time, you go to
get up and you feel a deep, boring, aching sensation in the front of your thigh
that extends to your knee. Sometimes you can even feel pain on the inside of your knee or on the side of your hip. You wonder to yourself, “Am I getting old? Do I have a problem with my hip? Is there a knee problem going on here? Did I pull a muscle in my leg? Is this the “sciatica” many people talk about?”
Leg pain, especially in the thigh or calf, is often caused by a pinched nerve in your back. Many people call any pain in the leg “sciatica”, but actually sciatica is only one specific type of leg pain and is caused when the sciatic nerve is irritated. Other leg pains may be caused when other nerves in the legs are irritated, and irritation usually starts in the back. When a “pinched nerve” causes leg pain often there is no back pain so people don’t associate the problem with their backs.
There are many causes of leg pain. Not all problems are caused by a pinched nerve and not all pinched nerves originate from problems in the back, however, a great majority of them do. Only pinching of the sciatic nerve causes sciatica and that pain is generally in the back portion of the leg.
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Pinching of other nerves in the leg can cause pain in other areas, for instance, often pain in the front of the thigh or pain towards the inside of the knee is caused by irritation of the femoral nerve. Many people find they have pain in their hip and their knee and think they have a problem in the hip or knee joint. After examination, it turns out that they actually have some pinching of their
femoral nerve.
Do you suffer from pain in the back or front of your leg? A tingling or numbness in the feet or toes or a burning or aching sensation when you walk or sit? Visit your chiropractor or holistic healthcare specialist and out the true cause of your leg pain and have the cause corrected. Wouldn’t it be nice to live without leg pain?
