Ask The Chiropractor? Submit questions for publication in the Hampton Town Crier. Sample questions which have been published will be found here! Send questions to DrBobb@bobbchiropractic.com. Asnwers will be E-mailed back to you in a timely response. Please include your return e-mail address.   Ask The Chiropractor? Dear Dr., What causes pain to shoot down my right leg? My medical doctor called it sciatica, and gave me pain medications and an anti-inflammatory drug called Motrin. The pain medications have helped ease the pain but I still have it, and I?m on my third prescription. Can Chiropractic help this problem? T. R. , Hampton Dear T.R. Pain extending down the back-side of the leg is usually diagnosed as sciatica. Depending on your age, blood clots should also be ruled out. This is more common if standing on the leg causes an increase in pain. If the pain occurs with movement such as getting up or down from sitting then it is more likely to be caused by a pinched nerve. The sciatic nerve is the largest nerve in your body. It carries a great many messages to and from the brain to your leg and muscles. Because it is made up of several spinal nerve branches it can be caused by one or more misalignments of the lumbar spine (low back). Many times herniated disc must also be ruled out with MRI exam. If your symptoms have continued now for more than one prescription you should re-visit your family MD or Chiropractor for further evaluation and testing. In the mean time, try to limit periods of sitting to 30 minutes or less at a time, apply ice to your lower back 20 minutes at a time while lying down flat. Icing works best at the end of the day. It helps remove swelling around the nerve bundle, thus decreasing the pain. Articles Nutrasweet can be bad! more topics Do's and Don'ts of Snow Shoveling