You must have noticed that many people do not involve themselves in a healthy lifestyle and neither they are involved in physical activities. It is difficult to explain, but not many of us really think about this until we develop a problem that majorly happens to those who live a sedentary lifestyle.
Sciatica is one of them, people who experience sciatica pain in the lower back that further travels through the hips, buttocks, legs, and feet. When the largest nerve in a human body known as the sciatic nerve experiences irritation due to various reasons, like dysfunction of the nerve, compression of the nerve, bone spur, or an injury, etc, this leads to sciatica pain.
It can be difficult to treat sciatica pain in case you ignore the pain in the initial stage or do not get the proper treatment for sciatica pain. However, there are some herbal supplements that are prepared by expert herbalists to provide relief and treat sciatica nerve pain.
In Ayurveda, the sciatica problem is known as Gridhrasi. You can relate the meaning of the name with the posture of a person who has sciatica; similar to the eagle walk. In Sanskrit eagle is known as Gridhra and the posture of a person with sciatica problem looks like an eagle’s beak.
According to the Ayurveda, sciatica nerve pain occurs because of the imbalance of Vata dosha. When your digestion process is not good, that also causes excess toxins in the body that can lead to such problems.
Therefore, in Ayurveda, they use some herbs that are helpful to reduce the buildup of toxins and improve your digestion process as well. There are some herbs like demulcent and toning herbs that are rich in mucilage. This helps to improve inflamed and irritated internal tissues and also nourishes the nervous system to reduce the imbalance of Vata dosha.
Foods to Avoid in Sciatica are:
- Beans
- Ladyfinger
- Sugar
- Alcohol
- Eggplant
- Chickpeas
- Artificial sweeteners
- Vegetable oil
- Taro root
- Petha
- Cauliflower
- Black gram
- Curd or yogurt
- Processed and fried foods
- Fine flour or foods with excess gluten
Whether you are on bed rest or recovering, do not eat this type of food. Yes, this can be helpful for you because when you are in a recovery mode, you should not consume foods that can reduce the recovery rate.
Symptoms of Sciatica Nerve Pain:
- If you experience pain in the lower back area.If you experience numbness in the legs.
- If you feel weakness in the legs.
- If the pain travels from the lower back to the feet.
- If the pain occurs only on one side of the leg.
- If you find it difficult to walk or feel pain while moving your leg.
- If you feel pain while sitting, standing, sneezing, and lifting anything heavy.
If you see any of the above symptoms, the first thing that you can do is to consult a doctor and the second is to avoid foods that can increase your pain and inflammation. These two things can be more effective for people who are in the initial stage of sciatica pain.
Causes of Sciatic Nerve Pain:
- Obesity
- Injury in the spine
- Bone spur
- No physical activity or exercise
- Lumbar spinal stenosis
- Spondylolisthesis
- Degenerative disc disease
- Herniated disc
- Wrong posture
Let’s understand what are the things you should not eat in sciatica nerve pain treatment. Most people think they should rely on medicine, but they forget that food can play a vital role as well. There are certain foods that can increase and decrease your pain and inflammation and you should know about this.
Do not eat these foods during the Recovery Phase:
- Make sure you are not consuming sugar or anything that has sugar in it because sugar spikes the insulin level and when the insulin level increases, your pain can become worse.
- If you are on bed rest, it is better to avoid foods that are heavy on the stomach, like dairy products and meat, because this can cause indigestion and constipation. You should avoid going to the washroom again and again during bed rest time.
- Do not consume processed and packed foods like chips, white bread, rice gram, refined flour, pizza, and burgers.
- You should definitely avoid having fried and acidic foods.
- You should also remember to drink enough water, but do not drink too much water because then you need to rush to the washroom and you should not do excess movement during the bed rest. This does not mean you will not move at all. Movement is also important, but not in excess.