7 Astonishing Truths About Sciatica 

Under 50 and I stumbled upon your videos! I’m a 36 year old mom of 4 and I hurt my back carrying my daughter 7 weeks ago. I’ve been dealing with lower back pain and sciatica pain in my left leg since. The pain is AWFUL and debilitating at times. Forums are depressing to read as it’s all doom and gloom. I’m almost 7.5 weeks in and I’m finally seeing some light at the end of this miserable tunnel. Thank you for the positive video. More people would benefit from videos like this during such a terrible time!

Two severe bouts of sciatica - 2014 (Slovakia) and 2018 (Kurdistan). My mistake in 2018 was being lazy about the preventative exercises. McKenzie once a day while lying stomach down on a yoga mat, pillow under my knees in bed, 2 cushions under my knees for my 30-min. afternoon nap and two 30-min. walks a day and keeping the weight off. I've had a few spasms, usually when I've neglected the exercises. It requires CONSTANT attention and vigilance.

Will Harlow I am impressed the way you explain everything in your videos. God bless you

After listening to you, i don't feel hopeless...I have sciatica for 2 weeks with daily pain of scale 8. Thanks Doctor.

7 reassuring things. 2 1/2 minutes in says hopefulness for sciatica. 1.) 95% can get better 2.) Disc healing is not same as recovery from sciatica 3.) most ppl 99% movement & exercise helps problem-movement tells body it’s needed & send blood & recovery. Don’t do hurtful things, find right movement 4.) only 1-3% w/sciatica need surgery, give it time & do conservative things even if been painful & debilitating 5.) cauda equine syndrome is very rare, severe form only in 1-3 ppl per 100K ppl. 6.) even if arthritis is causing sciatica - symptoms can improve. Arthritis is not a life sentence! Nerve entrapment improves, muscles loosened up, etc. all helps a lot. Get rx. 7.) sciatica does not have to become recurrent. Especially if you do the right things and keep them up sciatica can recover & be prevented w/attention & doing the right things. Get to the bottom of what’s causing it to come back. Get another opinion. Do the right things for you. No need to recur.

You have addressed so many of my questions on sciatica from this video alone. Even my orthopaedic doctor could not explain it as well as you did, Will. Thanks so much!

Thank you so much for this video!! You actually gave me hope. I suffered a fall and I have had sciatica since September 2022. I have been out of work since May 2023, and I can hardly walk because the pain is so severe. It starts in my groin and goes all the way down my front leg to my ankle. It’s very discouraging because I used to walk 6 to 8 miles a day at work and now I could hardly walk. I fell twice because sometimes the nerve pain is so severe my leg just gives out and I fall. I have to walk with a cane because my right leg is so weak now. You are amazing and I thank you so much for all of your wonderful videos!!

I started getting Sciatica 7 years ago with the pain increasing. It was diagnosed as stenosis. I tried almost every alternative therapy and even did a session of steroid shots…no results. I started to do intermittent fasting with a low carb diet and not for the Sciatica. To my surprise, with in a week I start to get relief from the pain. It’s been a year now and it’s good, unless I do something that I know will aggravate it. To me it’s been a miracle to me.

Great video , thanks Will ,full of very reassuring information.

Another great and very instructive video again! Thanks Will!

Wonderful Information Will!! Many Thanks ❤

I am learning a lot from your videos. Keep up the great work!

This video is very encouraging. Thank you !!!!

Such great video. I’ve been down for 2 1/2 wks. It’s very debilitating. I wish I could go to you for PT!!!!

Thank you doctor for your advice and information Very nice supportive information

The best info in RU-vid. Thank you

Sciatica I developed many years ago (>20 yrs) was due to an injury at the lower back, a condition known as - Spondylolisthesis is a condition that occurs when one vertebral body slips with respect to the adjacent vertebral body causing radicular or mechanical symptoms or pain. I have managed to overcome the pain by doing some relief exercises. Dr Steven Schwartz, a chiropractor mentioned in an article that losing balance can be one of the side effects of sciatica, which I am experiencing now. What exercises do I need to do to correct this neurological disorder.?

Most sciatica don’t improve bec people get lazy and forgetting to exercise and do proper body mechanics when they don’t feel any pain. Consistency and regular treatment regimen with life style changes body mechanics prevent all this to happen. Be discpline and you will be rewarded, be,ieve me I suffer too and I know how it looks like this is the no pain no gain scenario.

There are also a load of therapists and Specialists who want to do their own thing without having and taking time to analize the complaint and if it is a combined issue instead of sciatica and talk to you 3 min and say they want to give you a painkiller or a treatment or an MRI scan.... long live the healthcare who are completely uneducated and do not know where to look or do not want to look but onlly treat and make cash.... whatever the concequences.

Your videos are really the best

Hi Will, I have degenerative compression of L4 and L5 . You said core exercise is not the top treatment, so what are your top choice? Thank you ! Cecilia

How long does it usually take ? its been 2 months for me :< It dont hurt like the first week but pain is still there

Am with left leg sceatica

Hi so uh,,, I've asked many, many people about this but I havent gotten a single clear answer and I'm desperate for something and am willing to try my luck asking yet another person seems knowledgeable on the subject. My sciatica appeared entirely at random, completely overnight. I've never had anything like it before in my life, And the most change in my routine I had was having to take long bus rides due to being homeless endurable to drive due to a separate disability. It has been almost a full year since the pain started, and it's been entirely debilitating. Ever since the pain started, I've been almost entirely unable to so much as walk without a cane- and even then, sometimes the pain is just so unbearable that I have to stop. I have to have an ice pack every second of every day because nothing else numbs the pain enough and even then the ice pack sometimes doesnt help at all. I've been on roughly 800mg of Naproxen per dose, I've tried ibuprofen and tylenol and essentially every pain med in the book. I've tried stretching, exercising, walking, water aerobic therapy- and how I cant even do that anymore because every single exercise or stretch every single PT, Doctor, and ortho has recommended to me has caused severe pain. I cannot lift my leg or bend at the hip at all, even a little bit. I've been on steroids, muscle relaxers, and arthritis meds. All tests and examinations have shown NOTHING- doctors just assume it's my piriformis, and that's the best I've gotten. I cannot sit, I cannot lay on either side, and I can barely even lay on my back without pain- but I cannot stand or walk without incredible pain or difficulty, either. Its completely taken over my life- i cannot clean or cook, I cannot walk to the store when I need to, I've been fired from my last 2 jobs for this issue specifically and can no longer do any form of work [physical labor was my last ability, as mental handicaps have barred me from other jobs] ad I'm at risk of being homeless again for the 3rd time in the past year because I cannot work, and therefore will be unable to pay rent after my rent assistance is up. I turn 22 in a few weeks. I feel like I'm far too young to have my life completely taken away by something like this, and I'm terrified. I just looking for something. Something I can do without money that the doctors havent already tried with me. Is there any advice to be given here- I am at my wits end, and I cannot risk being homeless AGAIN because of this. Thank you in advance for any information you can offer.

I have gluteal pain leg pain down my foot on both sides ftom 1.5 yrs,it shifts sides.

my injury keeps reoccuring each month , it happen when bend forward, i feel a sharp shooting pain in the lower back and i have to rest for a day for the pain to go away

bro how can i speak with you please

How about Spinal stenosis is there any hope?❤

Great video - except I think the exercises are lowest amongst the priorities when it comes to getting better.

the sad thing is that you make these videos for over 50, but most people are under 50