5 Jul 2022 What is sciatica? Why sometimes sciatica cannot be relieved by massage therapy? Besides essential oils, what kind of carrier oils should be used during massage therapy?
As a sciatica sufferer, Miss Lily can tell you that there are two different sciatica - 1. Muscle spasms induced; 2. Intervertebral disc protrusion. I personally experienced both of them.
For the former one, it involves the spasms of several muscles, including latissimus dorsi, external abdominal oblique, gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, superior gemellus, piriformis, and quadratus femoris; and the inflammation and swelling of thoracolumbar fascia and gluteal aponeurosis. This can be relieved by proper deep tissue massage therapy.
Yet, the latter one involves the protrusion of intervertebral disc leading to the narrowing of spinal canal. In this case, we cannot perform massage therapy for the case. Instead, this requires persistent stretching and muscle strengthening exercises and proper postures. You may contract your abdominal muscles when you are supine in bed, like you are trying to push your tummy to your back. This is for strengthening the internal core muscles.
Choices of Carrier Oils
I am not going to talk about the blend of essential oils, as you might use the same blend as introduced in previous articles.
This time I in fact focus on carrier oils. St. John’s Wort macerated oil is always my favourite choices when it comes to musculoskeletal disorders.
St. John’s Wort, a ruby-coloured oil, is usually macerated in olive oil. Noticing that olive oil is quite thick and sticky in texture, I usually dilute St. John’s Wort oil in a ratio of 1:1 in Grapeseed oil. The colour of the oil has to be bloody red, otherwise it cannot exert its original function. I once purchased the oil in bulk from an overseas company, the oil was yellowish and the function is obviously poorer than the red one. :(
Although quite a number of research articles stated the functions of dry extract instead, we can still take the information as reference for us to understand the anti-nociceptive mechanisms of St. John’s Wort oil. A study conducted in 2014 mentioned that St. John’s Wort extract can potentiate the analgesic effect of morphine and reduce the reliant on opioid in both rodents and human. The promising results make it the best choice for pain management.
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