“Remember that nobody will ever get ahead of you as long as he is kicking you in the seat of the pants.” – Walter Winchell
Guys love their wallets like women love their purses. If you’ve ever seen the Seinfeld episode where George has his entire life in his wallet, you know what I mean. Every picture and receipt is in there. The thing is two or three inches thick. He starts to develop pain in his back and his chiropractic doctor tells him to get that wallet out of his back pocket.
I see this in my office all the time. The problem is that if you have a George Castanza wallet, when you sit down it is propping up your low back on one side. This is like putting a brick under one buttock cheek. Your pelvis gets tilted and this strains the rest of the back.
The normal posture of the lower spine is altered and becomes curved while you are sitting down. This increases the pressure on the discs and nerves unevenly, altering the muscles. The longer you sit on a wallet throughout your life the more damage you will inflict.
Often guys have sciatic pain due to the same source. Sciatica is when the nerve roots exiting the spine are compromised and cause pain down one or both legs. This is also known as a radiculopathy.
The sciatic nerve is made up of two lumbar nerves and three nerves from the triangular-shaped sacrum, which is below the lumbar spine, all at your waist. As they combine, they become the largest nerve in the body and travel down both legs, also referred to as, the lower extremities.
So the nerves supply the necessary information to your legs so you can go about your daily life. When the slightest pressure disrupts the sciatic nerve it can cause an increase or decrease in information relayed to your body.
You might feel less on one side, have weakness in some of the muscles or have a change in your reflexes. In an effort to reduce the pressure on the nerves, a person will lean away from the side of pain, known as antalgia.
A common muscle that can irritate the sciatic nerve is called the Piriformis muscle, which is located diagonally in the buttock behind your pants’ “back pocket.” It is connected to the outer hip and the sacrum. If this muscle becomes enlarged, tight or inflamed, it can press on the nerve.
Besides having a p
