Question
I was wondering if you could put this into terms I can better understand and also what are my options as far as therapy or whatever. I recently had an MRI of my Lumbar spine and the findings are as follows, at L-4 and L-5 there is disk bulging without herniation or spinal stenosis with bilateral facet effusions. What exactly does this mean and what are some ways of helping with the pain?

Answer

Lawrence Gold Somatics   Hi, Ian,

It means that your back muscles are so tight that they caused your discs to bulge and parts of the vertebrae to rub.

Please see these articles.  They explain more and point you to a definitive way to help the pain.  You need to get enough improvement of control of your back muscles to relax them and take the pressure off your discs.

http://somatics.com/back_pain_terms.htm
http://somatics.com/back_pain.htm
http://somatics.com/wordpress/chronic-back-pain/