Improve Your Posture
May is correct your posture month! Throughout May, we encourage our patients to be conscious of their posture! Though you may have heard it a hundred times growing up–good posture is important.
A bulging, ruptured, or herniated disc can be an incredibly painful obstacle for people to face- especially those with particularly busy lives. Those suffering from any of these conditions will likely find themselves restricted to a bed due to pain and the inability to move as usual.
When the symptoms associated with bulging, ruptured, or herniated discs occur, it’s essential to seek treatment from an expert immediately. By consulting with a knowledgeable chiropractor at the earliest signs of trouble, you can avoid further complications and damage. While many procedures for bulging ruptured, or herniated discs require surgery, this isn’t always, and non-invasive treatment methods are sometimes available.
Today we’ll be discussing in-depth what to look for in the case of bulging, ruptured, or herniated discs as well as the non-invasive treatments available to help you recover.
A herniated disc occurs when the tough outer exterior of a disc is torn, leaving the inner substance to extend through. This substance, known as the spinal disc, has a significant role in protecting the spine from damage and acting as a means of shock-absorption.
There are a variety of things that can cause disc herniation with the most common being degradation through the aging process. Another common reason for this injury is overexertion due to repeated use of the back’s muscles through heavy lifting. When all the weight of lifting heavy objects or twisting is put directly on end rather than the leg or thigh muscles, you’re at a higher risk for disc bulging, rupture, and herniation.
So what are the best means of correcting these issues aside from surgical treatments? The first step in the treatment of herniated discs is known as conservative therapy. To determine the extent of damage done, your physician may begin with this method rather than immediately jumping to more invasive means of treatment.
Conservative therapy begins with the act of merely avoiding the activities and positions most likely to bring on the pain. While you may assume this means lying still, this is far from the case. Your chiropractor will likely give you several exercises to perform that can, in a sense, kill two birds with one stone. While practicing these exercises, you’ll be actively reducing pain while also strengthening the spine. If conservative therapy exercises fail to alleviate the symptoms associated with your condition within a few weeks, your chiropractor may recommend physical therapy to reduce further the pain associated with these symptoms.
As another means of non-invasive treatment, likely, your provider will also prescribe you certain anti-inflammatory medications. These medications are prescribed to effectively reduce the irritation surrounding the nerves most directly positioned around the herniated, ruptured, or bulging disc. Some medicines will be over the counter options while others may require cortisone injections- again, depending on the severity of your injury.
While non-invasive treatment for bulging, ruptured, or herniated discs have been shown to deliver effective results, conservative therapy will sometimes be generally ineffective in addressing the issue.
If this is the case, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll have to undergo invasive surgical procedures! There are, in fact, a variety of minimally invasive surgical treatment options. With the recent developments in minimally invasive spine surgery, these procedures have been found to both minimize the trauma brought on by more traditional means of surgical treatment while also reducing the risks for a domino effect brought on by more invasive procedures.
Don’t despair if more conservative means of treatment are unavailable to you. These minimally invasive options have been found to drastically reduce recovery time, risk of complications, and incision size while also proving to be less costly to you.
Core Rehab Can Help!
If you believe you may be suffering from the symptoms of bulging, ruptured, or herniated disc, Core Rehab can help you! Our Chicago chiropractor can help alleviate your painful symptoms and form a treatment plan designed to meet your unique needs most effectively.
Contact our office or stop by to book an appointment today!