A White Plains & Stamford Chiropractor comments:

C5/C6 disc bulge or L4/L5 or L5/S1 disc bulge and/or herniation...

So, You've been diagnosed with a disc injury of some type. It could be a bulging disc, or an actual herniated disc. We are going to explore this injury and discuss in a few paragraphs what it means to have this, and what you can do about it...

By definition a disc bulge:

The circumferential annular rings making a disc appear normally round, are altered by a "bulge" similar to your bicycle tire when a young child developing a bubble along the side-wall. The inner liquid known as the nucleus has been disturbed by an increase in pressure forcing it against these circumferential rings that actually contain this gel like substance. Together, the disc acts as a shock absorber in the spine, as well as one of the 3 joints that make up the disc/vertebrae unit. Keeping this simple, you should think of the disc as the point in a triangle. The two other (rear) points making up the triangle are composed of bone to bone connections known as facet joints, and actually contact the vertebrae either above or below vertically. Collectively these are called the motor units, and you have 24 of them.

A disc bulge is not a good thing to have, because it puts pressure on nerves and
throws off the biomechanical advantage of the way the spine was originally intended to work...flawlessly. Disc bulges can be reversed if caught early. Once they remain in a state of disruption for any length of time, they can potentially "dry up" and remain in that "plastic" state, losing most or all of their flexible properties they once had. Chiropractic spinal manipulation as well as Chiropractic spine traction also known as spinal decompression can be very effective in reducing the incipient pressure on such bulging discs. Of course, there is never a guarantee it will work, but very likely so.

If the pressure in a bulging disc increases by itself, or induced by a further trauma, car accident, workers compensation injury; no fault injury; no fault accident, etc... it may progress to a franc disc herniation of the cervical and/or lumbar spines. This is not good either. This is permanent for sure, and can significant neurological effects. We do treat many patients with disc herniations of both the cervical and lumbar spine very effectively in many cases.

Again, cervical and lumbar spine decompression and cervical spine traction, lumbar spine traction, are highly effective in reducing the incipient pressure off of the highly sensitive and painful nerves in the neck and back.

To wit, the semi-circular rings surrounding the soft gelatinous inner portion of the discs are called Annulus fibrosis. The inner Jelly like substance similar to a Jelly doughnut is called the nucleus.

A typical treatment plan would consist of chiropractic manipulation a.k.a. spinal adjustment, cervical traction, lumbar traction as needed. Physical therapy to the neck and back including cold laser therapy; ultrasound therapy; electric muscle stimulation; and deep acupressure to the muscles effected by the whole condition.

Ignoring the spastic muscles surrounding a disc herniation or bulge is a mistake that many doctors make. Many times, we are able to avoid surgery simply by working the muscles loose in the patients neck and lower back... chalk that up to experience!

Thanks for reading!  Click here to purchase the neck traction unit Dr. Sirota uses with his patients...

Dr. Jon Sirota DC, CCSP, PC.

Certified Chiropractic Sports Physican: Stamford, CT.; White Plains, N.Y.