In even the simplest of tasks, you need your legs for strength and support. Whether it is doing your job, hitting the gym, walking your dog, or spending quality time with your family, you can’t be immobile.

The health of your legs is critical to how you move and live your life. Pain in your leg is not only annoying but stressful.

To keep up with the fast pace of your life, you must be healed. Sometimes pain can be short lived, but when it is long lasting, it can have serious effects on your overall health.

Pain left untreated in your legs can change your entire lifestyle. You use your legs in everything you do, therefore you need to seek medical attention. In finding the right treatment, you can get back to living a healthy and free life.

Common Leg Injuries

In order to find the proper care for your injuries, it is important to be able to better understand your symptoms. This way, you can identify what your injury may be when speaking to your physician.

Conditions include knee injuries, sciatica, sacroiliac joint pain, and meralgia paresthetica.

The most common knee injury is a torn meniscus. If you place too much weight on it, through heavy lifting for example, you can twist or rotate the cartilage.

This essentially locks up your knee, making walking very challenging.

Another injury is in the sciatic nerve, which is the largest nerve in the body.  It begins in your lower back stretches down through the toes.  

The pain experienced may vary; it can be isolated to one area or you may feel it through your entire leg.

Misaligned vertebrae in the lower back can pinch the nerve and cause compression, irritation, or inflammation. The vertebrae can be out of place due to herniated disc, which means the cushioning between the vertebras is essentially “slipping” out.

Sacroiliac Joint Dysfunction (SI Joint Pain) also begins in the lower back. The joint is underneath the spine and above the tailbone to connect the sacrum to the pelvis.

This joint is responsible for supporting the weight of the upper body when you are standing, and then shifting this weight to your legs.

That being said, pain in this area will have detrimental effects on the way you walk.

Just like the sciatic nerve, the cause of pain for the joint is due to pressure that creates inflammation.

Similar to several other injuries in the joints, the cause can result from overuse or repeated movements, like running or working out.

Arthritis in the spine can also lead to damage in the joint. The type that specifically affects your SI Joint is ankylosing spondylitis,in which the cartilage is wearing away.

Meralgia paresthetica is another injury that results from a pinched nerve, specifically the femoral nerve. When pinched, the nerve creates a numbness or burning pain beginning in the thigh.

The nerve controls the sensory of your skin as well as the strength of your quadriceps. This condition could also affect the way you walk, and is usually characterized by a limp, making stairs especially difficult.

The numbness can also result in loss of the knee jerk reflex or a weakened hip flexion.

If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, you need medical attention. These injuries drastically change how you walk and inevitably how you live your life.

The best treatment for this pain is chiropractic care.

How Chiropractic Heals Lower Body Discomfort

Chiropractic care is rooted in the idea that manipulation of the joints and bones sets the entire healing process into motion.

The first consultation with your physician will include going over your medical history as well as a physical exam. The questions might include when you first noticed the pain. This will be the followed by the physical examination which may include walking to demonstrate how the pain affects your movement.

The consultation will help the doctor to understand what caused the pain, and where it is. In identifying these two critical concerns, the chiropractor can develop a strategy for your individualized treatment, tailored to your needs and goals.

As it is often the result of misaligned spine, sciatica is treated most commonly through manipulation. In realigning the vertebrae pinching the nerve, inflammation is greatly reduced.

This is also due to increased blood circulation that allows for a faster healing process.

SI Joint treatment also uses manipulation. The chiropractor will either use a technique called high velocity, low amplitude (HVLA) thrust or spinal mobilization.

Though each achieves the same result, the techniques differ in how much force is used, spinal mobilization being less forceful than the HVLA thrust. The treatment plan is, of course, based on your comfort level, so which technique is used is up to you.

The HVLA thrust is the traditional technique in which the chiropractor applies pressure to the SI joint to relieve pressure.

In a way, it is a lot like cracking your knuckles, in that you can often hear the release of pressure and have the same instant release of the stress on your joint.

Visit this link to about stretches that can help to relieve SI Joint pain.

Meraligia paresthetica is typically treated with hip flexion stretches as well as quad stretches. In relieving tightness in your hip and stretching your thigh, you can also increase the strength and elasticity of your muscles.

An example of a stretch that works to heal both of these are lunges. Check out this link to learn more stretches and how to do them.

See A Chiropractor For Help

All of these leg conditions seriously affect how you live your life. From minor to severe pain, how you move and feel depends on the strength of your legs.

Many of the injuries are the result of unaligned joints and bones. Chiropractic care can readjust your bones, and therefore readjust your life.

It is also a way to healer better and stronger. Manipulation will get you back onto your feet and stretching will increase strength, preventing injury in the future.

Take a stand against leg pain. Call 513-247-9045 to schedule a visit with your local Montgomery chiropractor, Dr. Scanlon.