- (Upbeat intro music) Bob and Brad,
the two most famous physical therapists on the internet.
- Hi folks I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist,
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist,
- Together we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet!
- In our opinion of course Bob.
- Today we're going to ask, answer, or
we're gonna go over a four vital questions to be answered,
to fix sciatica .
- Right, and actually it's these four questions,
or answers to these,
questions are done routinely by the doctor,
physical therapist that sees you,
and you may, may not be aware of it,
but if answers are wrong,
it may change your direction of treatment,
at least for a little bit,
for real crucial reasons
- They're kind of screenings.
- Exactly right.
So before we go any farther, Bob, do we?
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- Oh yes!
So again,
these four answers to these questions
- Screenings
- Screenings are done very quickly and easily
by a professional.
- Yes
- And you may not,
you may not even know they're doing it.
For example, number one.
- It's really just a question.
- A simple question.
The doctor, the therapist will say,
"Are you having bladder or bowel movement control issues?"
- So like, if you're not able to control it,
you just suddenly go without realizing, you know.
- Right, that could be a problem with the nervous system.
And in the mid to low back is called Cauda
- Cauda Equina Syndrome.
- Right?
And if that's the case, if you have that,
you are going to the doctor.
- It could be an emergency surgery.
- Right.
- That you might need
- They, this doesn't,
I've never had this happen to a person.
I think you saw one person
- I've had a couple of people,
- Couple of people over
- I had one person that had it and didn't go in and was
paralyzed from the legs down.
- Right
- So there's not anything you want to mess with.
- Right, exactly.
Other symptom with that is they call it "Saddle Paresthesia"
- Yeah.
- So in the groin area and where you sit,
that area becomes numb and tingly.
- If you were to sit on a saddle,
the parts that contact for the saddle, if they're numb,
- Right.
- You said
- That's a serious situation.
Go to the doctor immediately.
Number two, if the person,
and this is typically done by the doctor or the therapist,
just watching you walk in down the hallway or into the,
the exam room,
if your gait is unsteady and both legs seems to have a loss
of control and maybe even in your arms or some strength or
coordination issues,
that could be instead of having a problem in the low back,
it could be it's called "Cervical Spinal Stenosis",
where in the cervical spine,
the area, or the frame, and where the.
- Well it's actually Central Stenosis.
- Right.
- So the spinal cord where it goes down the canal,
- There we go, that's what I was trying to say
- Actually gets pressure on overwhelming it
maybe from arthritis.
- Right.
- And it's putting too much pressure on the spinal cord and
sending the wrong, wrong signals to the arms
and the legs, so.
- Right. So,
that's one of those things that you don't want to treat
the back with Sciatica when it's from up here. So that.
- I had a friend that went through that surgery, he was 50,
some years old.
He was starting to lose his balance on both legs
- Yeah.
- And his arms too.
And he went through it and he stabilized it.
- Sure.
- I mean, it's not getting worse now.
- Right, right.
Number three.
This is a real common test that you've probably had done if
you'd been to the doctor for a number of things.
But can you go up on your toes and rock back on your heels?
Or they may ask,
- Walk along, yep.
- Can you walk on your toes or walk on your heels?
And that's testing two specific muscle groups for two
different levels.
L5 and S1.
If, one side you, you can't lift a toe up.
It goes like this
- You have a foot drop.
- Right.
It's telling a level that is of a nerve root that is having
the problem. So it's a good, quick screen.
If you're,
if you cannot do this and they have extreme foot drop or you
can't go up on your toes at all, then it's more important.
You've got to see the doctor, get things assessed,
get a MRI,
that kind of thing.
- Right. And, and you know, hopefully it's not too late,
- Right.
- Hopefully you can do some physical therapy
and maybe reverse it.
- Exactly, exactly.
And number four, if you only have pain or symptoms,
numbness, tingling,
all these symptoms that go along with Sciatica only at
night, when you sleep,
you wake up in the middle of the night and is bothering you
like crazy. And throughout the day,
it feels normal, consistently.
That's one thing you need to go to the doctor.
- Yes, that's considered a red flag,
and maybe some other medical issue.
- Right
- We want to have the doctor sort it out and decide.
- Get it, get it screened out.
- Right.
- So we know we're looking at,
it is a Sciatica, it's probably,
you know, it's almost certainly from a,
a disc or is Piriformis syndrome versus some other
medical issues that the doctor will screen out for.
- Right.
- And that needs to be done by the doctor.
- And then now if you find out you're fine, medically fine.
You can go to Bobandbrad.com go to the program section.
We have the section called "programs"
- Right.
- And look for a sciatica.
We have 40 videos
- Right.
- On Sciatica that will help you just about
any problem they might have.
- You're not going to watch all 40, just screen quickly,
go through it. You'll see the titles.
If that title pertains to your question or your issue,
click on it. They're usually about 10 minutes long.
And there's a PDF printout that goes with each video.
So you can print it out.
- It's really nice.
- Yeah. It's a review. It shows the exercises,
it's very complete.
Bob is the man who mastermind this and actually does most of
the work, you know, say thanks to him,
but there's no cost
- That's right.
It's our gift to you. You know,
we feel that we're trying to help us as many people as we
can.
- Right.
- And this hopefully,
is one of the ways that we can do so.
- There's no email.
So it's completely, no strings attached,
- No friction
- No, frictionless. Frictionless.
Yeah. So good luck with your Sciatica.
We want to get you better and healthy.
- Yeah, check out our program!