Is There Life After a Herniated Disc?

The answer, almost always, is YES.

As some of you may know, I ruptured a disc in my lower back when I was 13 years old. We were playing a running & dodging game at recess, and after a quick cut to the side, my back and legs suddenly seemed to stop working and I hit the ground.

Many years later I saw x-rays of my lumbar spine, and it became clear what had happened back then on the playground: I had damaged my 2nd lumbar disc.

The evidence was easy to see. My entire lumbar spine looked great, except for L2. That disc was dramatically thinner than the rest of them, the vertebrae above & below were thickened and misshapen, and there were large, hooked bone spurs (osteophytes) surrounding that joint.

Your spine is made up of 24 bony vertebrae, and in between each of them is a disc. The discs perform 3 functions:

1. They act as ligaments, by holding the vertebrae and spine together.
2. They act as shock-absorbers, by carrying the downward weight (axial load) of your body while you're upright.
3. They act as pivot points, allowing the spine to bend, flex and rotate.

The disc itself is designed like a jelly danish. The outer rim (annulus) is tough and fibrous, while the "jelly" center (nucleus pulposis) is about the consistency of toothpaste. It's when the nucleus starts to protrude through the layers of the annulus that problems start. When a damaged disc bulges outward, the "bubble" can compress or irritate spinal nerve roots, which can cause the numbness, radiation pain, weakness and tingling associated with disc injury. This most commonly happens in the cervical or lumbar spine.

The good news is, many disc injuries (even old ones) can be dramatically improved without surgery. Don't get me wrong -- we can't replace damaged disc material, or remove osteophytes. What CAN help is to rebuild the muscular support system around the damaged joint, fine-tuning it to take over the job of the disc. Traction, McKenzie exercises, core stabilization, joint mobilization and flexibility training can all help make your disc injury a non-issue. Even more importantly, good spinal maintenance can help keep your pain from coming back.

If you're in pain, don't despair -- for the huge majority of patients, there IS life after a disc injury, if you get the right therapy. A good chiropractor or physical therapist can equip you with the tools you need to keep your spine happy and healthy for a long time.