Disc herniations can bring about back pain and
leg pain for some. Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office welcomes those back pain sufferers due to
a disc herniation. Gentle, relieving treatment
without surgery is what we deliver. Groton back
pain patients are relieved when they find us!
DISC HERNIATION: Size, Weight, Sleep
What matters when a disc causes back
pain? Its size? Its weight? Its effect on quality of life? Spinal researchers have
generated data and published that how the
painful disc appears on imaging doesn’t really matter. The size and shape of an intervertebral
spinal disc’s bulging nucleus pulposus has no link to
a patient’s clinical presentation or symptomatology
or how a patient feels. (1) The weight of a disc fragment did not relate to the duration of symptoms or severity
of pre- or post-operative leg pain nor post-operative leg pain or back pain improvement,
the percent of space the disc occupied in the spinal canal, herniation classification, or vertebral level. The size
of the lumbar disc herniation did not have much effect on clinical
outcomes. (2) Chronic lower back pain and sciatica due to lumbar disc
herniation negatively impacted sleep quality. Treatment benefitted
patient perception of pain in visual analog scale (VAS) scores as well as
in the PSQI Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index scores. (3) Pain lessening
chiropractic treatment of a pain-producing disc entails
decreasing the risk of recurrent back pain episodes as well as decreasing
the pain of the current episode.
MANAGING BACK PAIN AND RISK OF ITS RECURRENCE
Once you’ve experienced a disc herniation and its resulting back pain,
you do not want to have it back! Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office gets
that and shares that managing - as conservatively as
possible - the disc herniation is more accurate than curing it.
6.05% of lumbar discectomy surgery patients had a re-current disc
herniation. What prompted this? On their own, factors
like age, BMI, current smoking status, heavy lifting, degenerative facet joint
disease, operation time, and the time it took to ambulate
after surgery affected the risk of recurrent disc herniation.
Combined, older age, male sex, high body mass index (BMI), and early ambulation
were significant factors in the experience of a recurrent
lumbar disc herniation. Managing weight, not lifting heavy
items, and exercising were suggested risk reducers. (4) One new
study reported that the amount of sedentary time probably did not raise
the chance of a new occurrence of low back pain
as much as the amount and type of physical activity. (5) Pain relief comes
more as a roller coaster than a straight hill to pain relief. A
disc herniation is like a bruise on an apple making the apple (and
by comparison, the spine) never quite the same again. That’s
where Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office comes in with a treatment plan that ensures
you understand the disc herniation, how
to nutritionally take care of it, how to get it
back to being strong with exercise and keeping it that way, and how to do activities
of daily living to prevent (re)injury. A recent
systematic review of ways to approach the management
of back pain listed 10 approaches:
manipulation/mobilization, psychological/behavioral, advice to stay active/bed
rest, reassurance, antidepressants, NSAIDS, opioids, muscle relaxants, and
paracetamol. (6) Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office encourages walking, moving,
careful lifting, and especially being treated with gentle, safe, effective Cox®
Technic spinal manipulation!
CONTACT Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office
Listen to this PODCAST
with Dr. Robert Patterson on The Back Doctors Podcast with
Dr. Michael Johnson as he illustrates the realistic expectations
back pain patients can have with The Cox® Technic System of Spinal
Pain Management.
Schedule your Groton chiropractic
appointment today. Disc herniation sufferers are invited
to our practice for relief and a plan for controlling its future effect
on life.