Idalis is a 46 year-old female university teacher who presented to us a year ago with a 4-year history of persistent lower back pain and neurological symptoms in the legs. The symptoms came on during a period of high stress, initially in the form of isolated back pain, which over the last year before seeing us progressed to a pins and needles sensation in the legs and numbness in the foot, which she reported feeling much worse when wearing more restrictive clothing (yoga tigh

Almost everyone reading this will have experienced or know someone who has experienced the strange phenomenon commonly referred to as “sciatica”, where pain magically travels from the back, down through the sciatic nerve, into the leg, calf and sometimes even the foot. These symptoms can affect different people to differing degrees, with some people complaining of a dull, annoying ache in the thigh that comes on after repetition of a certain activity, whereas others may exper