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What is a disk bulge?
A bulging disc is a common spinal injury that affects yourspine’s intervertebral discs, which act as shock absorbers betweenyour vertebra. Also commonly called a slipped disc, a disc bulgecan be sustained in your lower back (lumbar spine), upper andmiddle-back (thoracic spine), or your neck (cervical spine). When adisk bulge occurs, it may irritate the nerve where it exits thespine, causing discomfort, pain, and other symptoms.
While a bulging disc is often associated with the normal agingprocess due to the gradual loss of fluid, athletes and people whoperform heavy physical tasks, such as for their work, are oftenprone to bulge discs.
What is disk herniation?
The disk bulge may become so significant that it cracks thedisc’s outer layer, or annulus, which is known as disk herniation.Usually, a small area of the disc is compromised, allowing the softmaterial within that makes up the nucleus pulposus to protrude –something that doesn’t happen with a bulging disc, where there isno crack and no material protrusion.
Disk herniation can be caused by wear and tear as discsgradually lose fluid and become less flexible, stressful repetitivemovements such as with athletics, physical jobs, or lifting thingsthe wrong way, or injuries. Obesity and genetic factors alsocontribute to the susceptibility of disk herniation.
Disk bulge symptoms
Symptoms of bulging discs may include:
• Significant pain in the shoulder region or over the shoulderblade.
• Pain when you move your neck or low back
• Radiating pain in your fingers, forearms, or upper arms
• Numbness, tingling, or weakness in one or both legs
• Hyper reflexivity in your leg(s)
• Changes in bladder or bowel function
If you experience aggravating pain as you sit, bend forward,lift something, or even just cough or sneeze, you may have abulging disc injury.
Disk herniation symptoms
Aside from experiencing some of the symptoms associated with abulging disc, herniated disc symptoms may also include:
• Shooting pain in your low back, buttocks, thighs, orcalves.
• If the herniated disc is in your neck, you may experienceintense pain in your shoulders or arms.
• Numbness, burning, or tingling in the region where theherniated disc occurred.
• Weakened muscles
• Symptoms worsening at night
Multilevel disk bulge and multilevel diskherniation
Multilevel disk bulge and multilevel disk herniation arecharacterized by something far more serious, degenerative lumbarspinal stenosis (DLSS) which can prove difficult to treat.Unfortunately, DLSS has become more commonplace due to our agingpopulation, the prevalence of obesity and inactivity, and otherlifestyle factors.
Chiropractic treatment for bulging and herniateddiscs
Chiropractic is a great first option for the treatment ofbulging or herniated discs since it is non-invasive and doesn’tinclude injections, addictive painkillers, or risky surgeries. Intheir initial diagnosis, a chiropractor will go over your medicalhistory as well a thorough physical examination where they test fornerve function, reflexes, muscle tone, and more. They may evenorder an MRI or x-ray when needed and review the results withyou.
Most patients will benefit from focused chiropracticadjustments, where your Doctor of Chiropractic will use low forcetechniques to manipulate and adjust your spine at and around thearea of the bulging or herniated disc.
Your chiropractor may elect to use a cervical or lumbar tractionmachine, which can help alleviate the problem and aid yourtreatment by gently opening the joints of the spine, takingpressure off of the damaged disc, and allowing the bulge orherniation to reintegrate correctly in place.
Additionally, a chiropractor will usually offer an all-bodyapproach to wellness, offering guidance with diet and nutrition,exercise, sleep, stress relief, and other health initiatives.
Numerous credible studies and decades of empirical research haveshown that chiropractic treatment is a safe, efficient, andeffective way to treat bulging or herniated discs, treating theroot cause, so you experience relief from pain, discomfort, andother aggravating symptoms.
Chiropractic care can help treat disk bulge or a diskherniation, resulting in a better quality of life!
Upper Cervical chiropractic is concerned with correcting theunderlying reason spinal and postural imbalance occurs in the firstplace. Correcting interferences to the spinal cord in the neckthrough precise, gentle correction, the spinal muscle tone canbecome more balanced. Muscle s that are tight can relax andnot only can disc problems improve but also the overall body willfunction better.
This process generally takes several months for stabilizationand is not an overnight miracle. We have found in our offices thatmany patients come in for a particular condition and are happy toreport that things that they did not know were related to theirneck improvement.
The most common health problems we see improve by correcting theupper cervical spine are vertigo, neck and back pain, insomnia,migraine headaches, fatigue, fibromyalgia, and more.
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