Are you suspecting that your low back pain is being caused by sitting on a thick wallet?
This is actually a myth, says Dr. Meghan Murphy, a neurosurgeon with the Mayo Clinic Health System.
What she goes on to explain is that a bulky wallet in your back pocket is more likely to cause leg or hip pain than true back pain.
Sitting on it can tilt the pelvis and press on the sciatic nerve.
The sciatic nerve is shown in the image below.
The sciatic nerve. Shutterstock/Nathan Devery
The sciatic nerve runs from the lower back through the hips and down the legs.
When it’s compressed, you may feel numbness, tingling or pain, especially while sitting or driving.
The sensations are often felt only in the leg rather than the low back.
One of the more common situations of sciatic nerve compression is that of being on a toilet seat for an extended period.
The seat is hard and, due to its shape, does a good job of pressing into this main nerve.
This can then cause a tingling sensation in the leg while you’re on the toilet.
Simply shifting your weight more to the other side will relieve the tingling.
But tingling isn’t the same as discomfort in the back.
As for a thick wallet in your pocket, it’s only natural and quite logical that sitting while something like this is in your pocket would cause discomfort.
Shifting position to relieve this discomfort can actually put strain on muscles, causing those muscles to feel sore.
The solution is simple: Remove the wallet when you’re seated.
But if symptoms of pain, tingling or numbness continue, it’s best to check with a healthcare provider, says Dr. Murphy.
Dr. Murphy treats spinal and brain pathology. Her focuses include degenerative spine disease, and traumatic brain and spine injury.
