Bulging Discs

Bulging discs are one of the most serious conditions a person could suffer with related to the spine. In fact, this condition can cause intense pain as well as disability. This article will discuss what a bulging disc is, what causes it, the most common symptoms associated with it, as well as the most effective treatments available.

In order for us to understand what bulging discs are, however, we must first discuss what a normal spinal disc is. The discs of the spine are cushions that separate each set of bones in the back. Each disc is composed of a strong outer covering called the annulus, as well as a soft jelly center called the nucleus.

When a person has a bulging disc, the outer covering tears for one reason or another (which we'll discuss in just a moment), and the jelly begins to shift away from the center of the disc toward the weaker part of the disc. This results in a "bulge" in the wall of the disc, which is why the condition is referred to as a bulging disc.

The cause of this can vary, but most often this condition is caused by an injury (such as a car accident, a fall, or lifting something heavy). It may also be caused by a genetic weakness in the wall of the disc, as well as toxins building up in the body. Toxins, believe it or not, will weaken the walls of the spinal discs, predisposing you to developing bulging discs.

These toxins typically build up in the system because of poor dietary choices, not drinking enough water, smoking, drinking excessive alcohol, etc. All of these things make a big difference in the health of your spinal discs.

One thing you may find interesting about the discs of the spine is that they are designed to not feel pain sensations. Now, this may sound odd at first, because this condition can cause quite a bit of pain. However, if you think about it, it makes sense - the main job of the spinal discs is to absorb shock, and if you were able to feel this, you would be in pain all day!

So, if this is the case, why is this condition so painful? Well, the spinal nerves are located directly behind the discs of the spine, so if you develop bulging discs, the bulge will typically apply pressure to these nerves, which can be very painful.

Not only that, disability is often associated with bulging discs as well, simply because the nerves of the spine control everything in the body. If there is pressure applied to these nerves, they will stop working properly, and other problems will develop.

For example, bulging discs in the cervical spine (neck) will not only cause neck pain, but you may also experience headaches, shoulder, arm and hand pain, numbness or weakness, chest pain, thyroid problems (which could lead to weight problems), as well as ringing in the ears and blurred vision.

You may not have thought that these symptoms could come from a problem in the neck, but this is very common because these parts of the body are controlled by the nerves in the neck.

In the thoracic area (middle back, between the shoulder blades), bulging discs can lead to middle back pain, pain radiating around the rib cage, chest pain, heart palpitations (feeling like your heart is beating very strongly and quickly in your chest), difficulty breathing, and headaches.

And finally, bulging discs in the lumbar region of the spine (the low back) can lead to low back pain, pain traveling down the leg (this may also be experienced as a burning sensation or numbness), pain in the feet, bowel and bladder problems (constipation, diarrhea, problems controlling your bladder), as well as sexual organ dysfunction.

So, the question is, how do you deal with this condition? Unfortunately, the traditional treatment methods available are usually not very effective for this problem.

Most doctors will recommend medications (such as pain relievers and muscle relaxers), pain injections (such as cortisone or epidurals), physical therapy, and surgery (usually as a last resort, because the success rate of surgery for the spine is very low).

The reason these treatments are not very effective is because they are all designed for one thing - their goal is to numb the aggravated nerve and reduce the inflammation in the area (which is also primarily affecting the nerve).

While this goal sounds good since the source of the pain is the aggravated nerve, any relief you experience from these treatments is usually temporary because they do not heal the cause of the problem, which is the injured disc.

The problem with bulging discs is that the spinal discs do not receive very good blood flow. Blood is responsible for carrying oxygen and nutrients to injured tissues for faster healing, and because the discs do not receive this blood supply, they tend to be very problematic when it comes to healing.

What are your options, then? There are alternative methods that are usually more effective for getting to the source of the problem, and actually encouraging the disc to heal which leads to longer-term relief.

For example, chiropractic is usually very helpful, as well as massage therapy, acupuncture, axial decompression therapy, and cold laser therapy.

However, after working with thousands of patients with this condition over the past 8 years, I can tell you from experience that it usually requires a specific combination of these treatments in order to achieve the best results.

If you would like to learn more about the combination of treatments that are most effective for healing bulging discs, please visit http://www.HealYourBulgingDisc.com.

Discitis - Symptoms and Treatments

Our spine is made up of a number of vertebrae stacked on top of each other. There are discs, plate like structures made up of cartilage, between vertebrae. They separate the vertebrae from each other and also act as shock absorbing cushions.

Discitis is a disease that occurs in children as well as in adults. It causes inflammation of the intervertebral discs. It may happen when there is an infection in any other part of the body, especially the pelvic region but spreads to the spine via the blood stream. The infection may then spread from the disc to the vertebral bones.

Signs and Symptoms

The first indication of discitis may be too much pain in the back, especially the lower back. Children may refuse to even walk because of the pain. Patients might also show signs like leaning and supporting the back while walking. It might be difficult for them to get up from the floor.

Other signs include mild fever, depending upon the type and degree of infection. Patients find it difficult to raise a leg up while lying on their back. They also feel tired and can experience sudden sweats or chills. Loss of appetite is also common. The pain may spread from the back to the abdomen, hip, leg or groin.

If the infection spreads to a considerable extent, the spine may suffer chronic inflammation. In some cases, the infection may cause the vertebrae to fuse together. If this occurs in a young child, the fused vertebrae grow together. So when the spine grows, it tilts forward. This is known as Kyphosis.

Diagnosis

Diagnosing Discitis is not simple. Blood tests showing infection are not enough to indicate the disease. The abnormalities of the vertebrae or constriction of disc space may be visible in an X-ray but not before 2- 3 weeks have passed since the disease sets in. Bone scans and MRI are helpful in identifying the spread of infection.

Treatment

Depending on the severity of the infection, the treatment may comprise of medicines or surgery. If the infection is because of some bacteria, oral and intravenous antibiotics for a month or so may be prescribed by the doctor.

Rest is very important. Only when there is no pain should you try moving around slowly at first. You may also need a brace or a cast to support the spine. Acupuncture is also an option to ease the pain.

Disc Surgery, though rarely suggested, is needed to clean out severe infections. A fusion plug or metallic insertions can help in movement.

Discitis is not contagious. Also there is no specific diet that helps improve the condition of the patients.

With time, too much of antibiotics can cause diarrhea or allergies. It is important to keep a check on pain levels and temperature. Periodic x-rays and scans must be carried out. Continuous negative cultures might indicate tuberculosis.

Worsening of pain or any new symptoms must be reported to the doctor. Any other infection in any part of the body must be promptly treated.

Lumbar Herniated Disc - What You Can Do to Fix Your Herniated Disc and Remove the Lumbar Pain

Fixing a lumbar herniated disc does not always mean precisely the same to everyone. Generally it either would mean either help me get rid of the back pain, or help me treat the herniated disc. Often the result at first may be the very same but the outlook is without a doubt critical.

Getting Rid of Back Pain vs. Fixing the Lumbar Herniated Disc

In case you purely wish to cover up the back pain you can actually just take one of the several non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications, get regular cortisone injections, or maybe beg your physician for another pharmaceutical drug substitute. Even though you could quite possibly hit the goal of stopping back pain, you certainly have not addressed the actual problem.

On the other hand, if you ever choose to repair a herniated disc by really looking at the root problem as well as the warning signs you'll have a higher likelihood of both reducing the pain and preventing its recurrence.

Before anything else, understand that besides occasions involving shock a disc herniation doesn't show up promptly. It might just seem as if you "threw your back out" suddenly, but it absolutely was a longer process of getting weaker gradually which let your disc to suddenly get significantly problematic. The thing you may find astonishing is many have a herniated disc without having pain. It's when the disc or inside substance from your herniated disc press against a nerve that pain results.

What causes a lumbar herniated disc?

To put it simply, disc herniations are mainly attributable to uneven pressure. Visualize driving a car that is misaligned. Imagine its tires move irregularly due to more pressure being situated on one edge. Keep on driving while not correcting the actual problem and in the end you will get a blowout at the worn out edge.

The impact on spinal discs is actually similar. Unequal pressure because of muscle imbalances cause the less-pressured side of the disc to herniate or rupture, forcing the jellylike interior through the fibrous disc membrane into the spinal column.

There can be of course various other contributing aspects like hydration, nutritional imbalances and excess anxiety and negative beliefs to name a few.

How to fix a lumbar herniated disc

The primary task to fixing a lumbar herniated disc is clearly to eliminate this unequal pressure. A highly useful procedure for removing spine pressure you can do without difficulty is known as spinal decompression.

Through the use of an exercise ball as well as different equipment, negative pressure is used to drag your spinal vertebrae in the direction of your top instead of towards the feet. Probably the most helpful instruments for obtaining such outcome is with the help of an inversion table, which uses gravity to carefully ease disc pressure. This negative pressure has been known to help a lumbar herniated disc to come back to a natural posture on it's own.

As soon as you will have relieved the initial pressure you will still need to take care of the root cause of compression: muscle imbalances. Using a muscle balance therapy self evaluation as well as seeing a provider versed with this course of treatment you'll find certain muscle imbalances leading to unequal spinal pressure. Next you will work with workout routines targeted to strengthen weakened musculature as well as exercises for overused and tight muscles to be able to reverse those imbalances.

Through relieving the pressure to the herniated disc as well as repairing the actual muscle imbalances you will have either repaired the herniated disc or moved on considerably in direction of bettering the problem.

And keep in mind, you can't ignore the other causes talked about before. In order to get true long-term relief you have to find the mixture of treatments that deal with all your fundamental causes.

Is My Pain From My Hip Joint Or From a Low Back Spine Problem?

Pain that is in or around one's hip joint may or may not be present secondary to a hip issue. The pain can also be coming from a low back spinal problem.

The potential generators of the pain can be:

1) Hip joint arthritis or a soft tissue problem inside the hip joint (labrum)

2) Intervertebral disc herniation

3) Spinal Stenosis

4) Soft tissue problem around the hip

5) Fracture in the spine

6) Hip Fracture

Hip arthritis pain or a labral tear may cause significant pain in the groin area on the affected side. Physical examination and x-rays will typically confirm the culprit as degenerative joint disease (DJD) in the hip. If the patient receives a hip injection as treatment and the pain is eliminated even for an hour, one can be certain the hip is in fact the problem with further treatments confined to the hip.

Groin pain can also be a result of a disc herniation. It's not something typically seen in a textbook and it is an atypical presentation, but an L5-S1 disc herniation can in fact cause groin pain on the affected side. So if the exam and radiologic studies of the hip are not definitive for a hip problem, potentially obtain and MRI of the lumbar spine for the answer.

Pain that is around the hip joint may be coming from the spine. It is called radiating pain if it emanates from a spinal problem and then travels down into the buttock area or hip region. One such problem is called spinal stenosis, which represents nerve root compression at one or multiple levels from an arthritic process.

Spinal stenosis typically occurs in older individuals that may also be experiencing pain in the hip from arthritis. So the hip pain can be a combination of radiating pain from spinal stenosis along with the direct pain from the DJD in the hip. How is the diagnosis then made.

The combination of a good history, physical examination, and imaging studies often elucidates the source of the pain. If there's still a question mark, injections can give the answer. Here's an example. Betty is 74 years old and experiences pain on the outside and front of her right hip area on a daily basis. Activity makes it worse, and at times it wakes her up at night. Also it radiates down the front of her thigh a bit.

She is convinced the pain is coming from her hip since she has no back pain at all. On physical examination while moving her right hip all over the place, however, she has minimal provocation of her pain. X-rays show moderate arthritis in her right hip, with the same degenerative joint disease existing on her left side as well.

The physician orders x-rays and an MRI of Betty's lumbar spine which shows numerous nerve roots being compressed as they are trying to get out from the spine on the right side. So she has spinal stenosis.

As a diagnostic test, the physician performs a right hip injection under x-ray guidance. Betty's pain only decreased 20% over the next three days. So the physician sent Betty to a pain doctor the following week who performed an interventional pain management procedure called an epidural injection.

And you know what happened? Betty's pain decreased another 50% after the first injection and another 20% with the second injection, adding up to a 90% pain reduction with the epidural injections. Both the spinal injections and the hip injection therefore served both a diagnostic and therapeutic purpose.

It is important to keep in mind that pain in and around the hip may in fact be coming either partly or completely from a problem in the spine. This can be the difference between a frustrated patient still in pain versus one who shows dramatic improvement.

How Does an Epidural Steroid Injection Relieve Sciatica Pain From a Herniated Lumbar Disc?

Sciatica pain from a pinched nerve can be exceptionally painful. Pain Management treatments available to help the pain from a lumbar herniated disk include physical therapy, pain medication, spinal decompression treatment, chiropractic treatment, and epidural steroid injections.

When a nerve is pinched from a piece of disc that has herniated (slipped disc), the pressure from the disc is not painful by itself. The pressure sparks up an inflammation process, which produces mediators including interleukins, prostaglandins, and cytokines which surround the nerve root and that is what causes pain.

So the theory behind an epidural steroid injection for a lumbar disc herniation is to provide the anti-inflammatory substance to alleviate pain. Pain doctors typically inject a steroid medication under fluoroscopy (x-ray) guidance. The steroid medication is place around the pinched nerve root, bathing the area with an extremely potent anti-inflammatory material. The steroid medication is cortisone, and comes in various brand names such as Kenalog, Depo-Medrol, Celestone, and others.

The various types of steroids have different qualities with respect to what's called particulate matter. the larger the particulate matter, the longer the steroid bathes the nerve root as it takes longer to dissolve.

Injecting steroids around the pinched nerve root can be very effective for sciatica pain, but it does not correct the herniated disc. It does not dissolve the lumbar disc herniation, it merely provides temporary pain relief for a few days, weeks, or months. The hope is that pain relief will be provided while one's own body dissolves the piece of disc herniation that is pressing on the nerve root. If that does not happen before the relief from the epidural steroid injection wears off, then the spinal injection can be repeated.

Some Amazing Facts on Prescription Opioid Painkillers

Opiate pain relievers are a significant factor in overdose deaths and now exceed fatalities from cocaine and heroin combined. In 2008, approximately 15,000 fatalities occurred from prescription drug overdoses. This is 3 times the amount from 10 years ago.

The study from the CDC showed that 12 million Americans have reported using prescription painkillers for non-medical use. Five percent of those in this country over the age of 12 used prescription opiate pain medication for non-medical use in 2010. This was simply to get high.

When Americans use prescription opiates for non-medical use, it costs the health insurance companies over $72 billion a year in direct costs. The amount of opiate painkillers sold in the first decade of the 21st century quadrupled. There were enough amounts sold in 2010 to treat every American adult for a month with standard hydrocodone medication.

Secondary to marijuana, prescription drugs are the second most abused drug category in America. The Office of National Drug Control Policy reports that almost one third of those over the age of 12 who used illicit drugs for the first time started with non-medical usage of prescription drugs. The Department of Defense research has showed that one in 9 active duty personnel misuses prescription drugs.

In the 5 years between 2004 and 2009, emergency department visits due to non-medical prescription painkiller use doubled. If you thought that the older age group was immune to these types of problems, consider that about 2 million adults over the age of 50 have used opiate painkillers non-medically in the past year.

Statistics show that more men than women die of opiate prescription drug overdoses. The highest prescription painkiller overdosing occurs in middle-aged adults with people living in rural counties. The highest incidence of narcotic painkiller use for non-medical reasons occurs in American Indians or Alaska natives. The incidence is double that of the white population and triple that of the black population.

In the United States, sales of prescription aquatics are 3 times higher in the state of Florida then in the state of Illinois. Illinois actually has the lowest rate of narcotic sales of the prescription variety. In line with what she would think, those states who sell more narcotics and medications per person tend to have more fatalities from overdoses.

Admissions to receive substance abuse treatment doubled between 1992 and 2008. Amazingly, the amount of emissions for older individuals abusing prescription drugs increased fourfold over that same time period. These facts are simply amazing and scary. Prescription drug abuse in the United States is an epidemic, and continues to worsen every year.

Knowing the Difference Between a Bulging and Herniated Disc

Do you know the difference between a bugling and a herniated spinal disc? Knowing the difference can save you a lot of trouble in choosing the correct treatment methods.

First, allow me to tell you what the disc does for your spine. The disc is a spongy donut shaped piece of cartilage that acts as a spacer between the bones of your spine. It also acts as a shock absorber. The most important job the disc does, however, is allow room for the spinal nerves to exit the spine.

Now, with that said, what is the difference between these two disc conditions? Well it is fairly simple. A "bulging" disc has a weakness and this weakness is allowing the disc to change shapes. This shape change may contact the spinal nerve next to the disc (and this is when the pain starts). A "herniated" disc has an actual tear in the wall of the disc and is leaking out the material inside the disc. Think of it as a jelly donut leaking out the jelly.

Now that you know the difference between the two conditions, what are the treatment options? Well, for starters, bulging discs are easier to treat and generally have a better prognosis. Herniated discs often require longer treatments and or surgery.

Remember, bulging discs only become a problem once the disc itself contacts the spinal nerve. I often tell my patients that many people go to the grave with a bulging disc (or multiple bulging discs) that never caused them pain once in their life. Again, it takes the disc to contact the spinal nerve to cause all the drama.

Bulging disc treatment options include the traditional medical treatments of anti-inflammatory drugs and muscle relaxants. Cortisone shots are also used. Surgery should be used as a last resort.

Many people are turning to a new technology called Spinal Decompression Therapy, which combines targeted traction to the specific disc in a computerized pattern type of pull. The idea here is to "sneak" the traction in so that your body does not detect the pull (thus allowing your muscles to not fight the treatment).

Herniated discs as stated before have a worse prognosis because your body has much more inflammation from the leaking material. Controlling the inflammatory process and not reinjuring the disc by incorrect movements is concentrated on. With that said, however, we have heard of patients heal without surgery.

Each patient is different. MRI studies are often used to classify the problem and see how severe it is.