Does this scenario sound familiar?
You bend over to pick a Kleenex off the floor. Your back locks up. You begin to experience lower back pain radiating into the buttocks and down the leg. You consult with your doctor who orders an MRI. The MRI report identifies a herniated disc.
Bad news?
Maybe but in all likelihood, it's not as bad as you may think.
You may have heard people say they have a "slipped" or "ruptured" disc in the back. You may have even heard terms like "bulging" or "protruding" discs. These are common "street names" that describe a herniated disc.
The Truth About Herniated Disks May Shock You
Did you know that if we were to perform an MRI on people with NO back pain, as high as 85% of those people would show evidence of a herniated disc? The truth is that if you have back pain, there's a good chance a herniated disc has NOTHING to do with your pain.
Low back pain will affect 80% of the American population at some point in their life. And, of the 80% who experience a first time episode of back pain, the pain will resolve with little or no intervention. In fact, only 10% of all back pain sufferers ever require surgery.
Yet, despite these favorable back pain statistics, a herniated disc diagnosis continues to cause concern in people suffering with back pain.
To alleviate this concern, it's important that you understand the process for determining the significance of a herniated disc. Plus, you should know the steps you can take to reduce the chances of a herniated disc ever becoming an issue.
How to End Your Worrying & Your Back Pain
1. Understand that the presence of low back pain, pain radiating down the leg, and a positive MRI do NOT necessarily implicate a herniated disc as the source of your back problem.
Pain that radiates into the buttocks and down the leg is often referred to as sciatica. Yes, sciatica pain can be caused by irritation of the nerve root from a herniated disc. But, chances are your sciatica symptoms are the result of irritation of the sciatic nerve from a structure outside the spine.
To make this determination, a thorough physical examination must be performed and the findings corroborated with MRI films.
WARNING: Your report of symptoms and a study of the MRI film DOES NOT constitute a thorough physical exam. It should include a detailed medical history, an actual assessment of your movement, strength, reflexes, sensation and any pertinent clinical tests plus a review of the MRI film.
2. Increase your awareness of specific symptoms that may implicate a more serious back problem.
These include:
- Fever in addition to intense back or neck pain.
- Inability to manage daily activities.
- Severe pain, which worsens over a period of weeks.
- Pain returning often.
Seek immediate medical attention if you should experience:
- Numbness around crotch or genitals
- Difficulty in passing or controlling urine
- Numbness, pins and needles or weakness in both legs
- Unsteadiness while standing
3. Realize herniated disks don't just happen because you leaned over to pick up a Kleenex.
Spinal discs are tougher than what was once thought. They can tolerate a tremendous amount of physical abuse. Just ask the Navy SEAL recruits who entered SEAL training with diagnoses of herniated disc problems. After 14 weeks of the most physical and mental challenging training on the planet, they experienced no changes in their herniated discs.
Degenerative disc disease and subsequent herniated discs are linked to two factors:
As we age, the deep muscles of the spine begin to deteriorate. This creates a dynamic instability to your back. At the same time, the discs begin to lose their water content resulting in a loss in disc height and strength. This ultimately leads to failure of the disc material.
4. Stop or reverse your spinal aging process by exercising and retraining your affected back muscles.
Tight back muscles need to be stretched and weak back muscles need to be strengthened. Too many times back treatment is geared towards symptom management rather than addressing the specific muscle imbalances, which are responsible for your back pain problems.
Treatment such as ultrasound, electrical stimulation, massage, and moist heat, while soothing, do nothing to address your muscle imbalances. Even surgical intervention is ineffective if you don't first address the underlying muscle imbalances.
5. Stop pursuing treatments that will have zero effect on your herniated disc problems.
Instead you should seek out a musculoskeletal specialist that has the skills to identify and address underlying muscle imbalances. Chances are that once identified and treated, your back pain and sciatica pain will go away completely.
