Clayton Kershaw. Andrew Bogut. Tony Romo. Tiger Woods. Peyton Manning. What do all of these different athletes have in common? A herniated disc.Of course you don’t have to be a big time athlete to get a herniated disc. In fact every year, 2-3% of the adult population will have one. Most of those are men 30 – 50 years old. Disc herniation can happen in the neck, but 95% of the time it occurs in the lower back, the Lumbar Spine.
What is a Herniated Disc?
Our backs have 24 vertebrae. Between every two is a disc that acts as a spacer and a kind of lubricated cushion. Some chiropractors like to compare the disc to a jelly donut, but I like to compare them to a radial tire. Around the edges is a tough ligamentous band. Inside, instead of air, is a gel like substance. When that outside band gets worn, it weakens and the gel can form a disc bulge into that weakened area. A herniation occurs when the disc material oozes through a tear. About 5.1% of men and 3.7% of women herniate a disc in their lower back sometime during their lives.
Another term you have probably heard is Disc Degeneration. That is more of a general term that means the disc as a whole has worn down. It can happen after a herniation or just from time. It can be seen on x-ray as a decrease in the disc height. The vertebrae the disc is between will be closer together.
Symptoms
All of these disc issues are problematic because the nerves that branch off the spinal cord exit through spaces between every two vertebrae. The disc maintains that space. Without it the nerve can become pinched. Even worse if disc material is bulging or herniated out the the side, it can press on the nerve directly. A herniation is worse than a bulge because the disc material is very irritating to the nerve. If the bulge or herniated disc is toward the back, it can press on or irritate the spinal cord. This is much worse because it affects pretty much every nerve below the bulge.
In addition to back pain, a lumbar herniated disc can cause pain in one of your legs, as well as tingling, numbness, spasms, and weakness. A cervical herniated disc in your neck can cause the same types of symptoms in your neck and one of your arms. I have had two patients in my 27 year career who have had central neck herniations resulting in pain in the arms and legs.
On the up side, not all disc issues are symptomatic, in fact many people have disc degeneration or bulges with no symptoms. What this means is that if you have neck and arm pain or lower back and leg pain and you have an MRI showing a disc issue, that may not necessarily be the cause.
How a SOT Chiropractor Treats Disc Issues
Most chiropractors adjust the lower back using what is called a “side posture” adjustment. This is when the doctor has you lie on your side with the top knee bent up. they put their hand on your back, twist your body and push, with a lot of force on a vertibrae or the pelvis. Even writing it makes me feel a little uneasy. This kind of force adjustment does a good job of restoring motion to stuck joints and repositioning them, but when the disc is already damaged, I have concerns.
SacroOccipital Chiropractic Technique takes a different approach. For a disc herniation, orthopedic blocks are placed under each side of the hips for about 10 to 15 minutes. Where the blocks are placed are determined by the alignment of the pelvis and how the patient reacts. The position that provides the most relief to the patient is where the blocks are left. Sometimes complete relief can be found on the blocks. It may be the first time in weeks you do not feel pain in your leg or lower back. I find a lot of people asleep on the table when I come back into the room.
The blocks do a great job of taking pressure off the disc by aligning the pelvis and lumbar vertibrae as a whole. If individual vertibrae need to be addressed SOT chiropractors have several other techniques that use gentle pressure and tissue tension from bending the knee to ease them into position.
The goal is to align the lower back and enable the herniation to subside. While some chiropractors use orthopedic blocks, only chiropractors trained in SacroOccipital Thechnique really understand and can use this protocol for the gentlly treating sciatica from a disc bulge or herniation. Partial relief is usually had within one to two treatments with complete relief not far behind.
