Should You Get Treated With Non Surgical Spinal Decompression For a Disc Tear?

Your back started to suddenly hurt. If you get an acute episode of back stiffness, the following recommendation should help you in the short term, however if your discomfort continues for over some days, it is urgent that you seek medical recommendation. Please do not let yourself get to the persistent agony stage just for the sake of not asking for medical help quickly enough.

Don't lie in bed unless the agony is so bad, you do not have any other choice. Even then, keep the bed rest to a minimum.

So try and keep moving as much as you can.

In the first 24-48 hours of pain, you should only apply ice packs, not heat. Always remember though to make certain your hot water bottle (or frozen peas, etc) are covered with a towel or something to prevent burns, and do not leave it on for more than 20 minutes.

If your back pain does not resolve within a couple of weeks, and you go to the doctors, you might eventually be diagnosed with a disc herniation or a disk, especially if your doctor orders an MRI.

So, what's that thing called a cervical disk or a lumbar disk?

For point of anatomy, the spine is divided in cervical spine, thoracic spine and lumbar spine.

The thoracic spine is your higher back, and it extends from T1 (thoracic one) to T12 (thoracic twelve). Your lumbar spine extends from L1 (lumbar one) to L5 (lumbar five). The end of your backbone is where your sacrum is.

The sacrum consists of five fused bones into one massive bone. The disks are located between each bone of your cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine. The disk divides the bones of your spine (the skeletal structures).

During your waking hours the disks leak water, due to gravity effects. When you sit you are adding weight to the backbone and the disk and water comes out. The water is revived into the disk, when lying down, etc, but it is revived at a slower pace.

When somebody starts aging, the fat and water within the discs go from thick to thin, and this can cause degenerative disc illness. The loss of liquid from your backbone is a leading reason for back trouble, particularly at the lumbar area. The annulus fibrosus makes up the marginal portion of the disk structure. The inner area of the disk is protected by the nucleus pulposos.

The pulp makes up the heart of the disk, which is polished and soft. The disks make up the first supporting force that regulates the spinal column, muscles, bones, and so on.

The annulus fibrosus is made of cartilage and collagen (connective tissue). A disc tear takes place when there's an interruption of the annulus fibrosus and the disk starts leaking. This liquid can irritate the encompassing ordinary tissue around the disk.

At times the connective tissue, lead to aberrant thickening, creating scars. A thin layer of scar tissue at the periphery of the tear may seal the leak of liquid but leave the disc subject to re-tearing.

An annular tear is more frequently than not due to an injury that increased the intradiscal pressure noticeably.

Will spinal decompression help in the case of a disk tear? Spinal decompression appears to be better in treating cases of lumbar herniated discs, than on cases of disc tear, because disc tears are more difficult to treat and they don't respond to treatment as well as herniated discs.