Largest Nerve in Your Body

I went to the traveling exhibit called Body Worlds, where I saw hundreds of cadavers set up in various positions of activity. You see cadavers with smoker's lung, baby cadavers, tall ones and short ones, and a few athletic ones. But it was the cadaver that looked like it was playing basketball that pointed out (through an information card) that the Sciatic Nerve(s) is the largest nerve in the body.

The Sciatic Nerves start at the base of the spinal cord and extends all the way down through the back of the thighs to the knee joints. They're huge, and I can see why it wouldn't take much to somehow inflict pain in this thing. I was accompanied by a pharmacy major, who explained a bit about the nervous system for me.

My question for her was this: Is it possible to stretch the sciatic nerves in order to gain comfort?

The reason why I asked this was that nearly every person who plays sports believes that stretching will somehow help rid the pain of sciatica. The answer? "What, are you kidding me? Stretch a nerve? It's not a muscle!"

So, most stretching exercises, including yoga, will exacerbate the problem. Some yogis, however, will insist that yoga can help by working your core muscles. There may be some truth to this, but I maintain that Downward Dogs and most twists at the waist, no matter how esoteric, will only aggravate your pain and are designed for those with bodies that are already nimble, not bodies that were once nimble. Repeating these types of exercises will indeed bring comfort in the beginning, but once the inflammation sets in, you can be sure that the pain will return and with a vengeance.

I am not a regular practitioner of yoga so I can't speak for every pose in the book. But I do find some personal benefits in the Child's Pose and have modified some Planks by inverting how I lift my body to gain the most benefit to my core.

I can't prevent people from trying yoga out for themselves, but remember these sage words once gleaned from a Yahoo! Finance message board: While many smart people learn from their own mistakes, the wisest learn from the mistakes of others.