Sciatica from lumbago is a combination diagnosis that is rarely heard anymore, but the term still appears in the letters we receive from some patients, especially from countries with less developed medical systems.
Lumbago is a diagnostic term which used to be common generations ago, describing sore and achy back pain often linked to poor posture habits or cold and damp weather. When this lower back pain is accompanied by pain, tingling, numbness or weakness in the legs and/or feet, sciatica was added to the diagnostic conclusion. Lumbago is a less than specific term for lower back and buttocks pain and is also associated with another outdated diagnosis: rheumatism.
This essay examines the lumbago diagnosis and how it may be thought to play a role in some sciatica pain syndromes.
Sciatica from Lumbago Causes
Lumbago presupposes much about back pain which has since been proven to be incorrect. Lumbago, like rheumatism, describes a flu-like condition which may cause soreness in the back, but may not a back pain condition unto itself.
Cold, damp weather will not cause chronic back pain and sciatica, although very bad posture may. Posture-related sciatica sometimes occurs in patients who have very exaggerated posture, for the better or the worse.
People who slouch constantly might endure some back pain and people who stand military straight, on a regular basis, might also suffer a similar fate.
Lumbago Facts
It is well known now that lumbago is not a legitimate diagnosis, since the causative issues suspected of causing it, years ago, have been proven to be coincidental and innocent of blame. We routinely advise patients to abandon any doctor or therapist who even uses the diagnostic term lumbago, since this shows they probably have no concept of modern medicine.
Sciatica is a common additional effect of a great number of low back pain concerns and most care providers associate the incidence of symptoms in the legs with a pinched nerve in the lower lumbar spine. However, this is an unfair and often incorrect assumption, since sciatica can be sourced from a great number of spinal and non-spinal structural issues, as well as many non-anatomical reasons, as well.
Treatment for Sciatica from Lumbago
While most patients simply want their pain to end immediately, they should never hurry into treatment. Statistics clearly show that misdiagnosis of sciatic nerve pain is rampant, creating an actual epidemic issue in the healthcare system.
If the true cause of pain is not properly diagnosed, then any therapy attempted will fail. Patients should take time to research their diagnostic theory, and be sure that it is correct, before moving on to the treatment phase of care.
This will prevent wasting time, effort and money on unsuccessful treatment and may just save you from the horrors of failed sciatica surgery.
Lumbago Synopsis
Finding the way to an accurate diagnosis and successful treatment should be every patient’s right. However, curative statistics for most therapies demonstrate that something is incredibly broken within the back pain industry, as most patients with chronic sciatica already know. The best way to ensure that you will eventually get better, is to truly understand what you should and should not be doing to facilitate a cure for your pain.
If the diagnosis is accurate, then treatment should work. If it does not, then go back to square one and re-assess the validity of the diagnostic conclusion. This is advice that most patients simply do not take and therefore, they suffer needlessly and endlessly.
Lumbago should not be used as a diagnostic term in modern medicine. If you have been proclaimed as suffering from any antiquated rheumatic condition, we sincerely advise you to seek a more enlightened opinion from a doctor who has been educated in the modern age.
Lower back pain and sciatica go hand in hand for many patients, so this symptom set is a very real concern. Most cases are treatment-resistant, making the diagnosis questionable, regardless of the terminology used.
We implore patients to learn the facts about sciatica and always consider their diagnosis carefully, especially in cases where the condition has defied a variety of appropriate therapy options. In the majority of these patients, the diagnosis is proven to be faulty, leading to a long and unfulfilling history of failed treatments. If the original diagnosis was lumbago, then how can you ever expect to find a cure?
