Give me space

Oh no, not another slipped disc!

Let’s get this right, discs don’t slip. If there is one way to make an osteopath hold his head in his hands and moan a little it’s to say ‘I’ve got a slipped disc’. The discs in the spine we are talking about here are well and truly glued and welded to the vertebrae in-between which they sit. There is no way one of them can slip. Are we clear on that now?

So if it doesn’t slip what does it do? Like the rest of the body, if a disc is not treated particularly well it wears out. The nice strong ligamentous shell that encases the slightly more fluid gel like centre can dehydrate, crack and warp.  Eventually a bulge can appear on the disc as it fails under the pressure and, on a really bad day the disc may even herniate or burst allowing the central gel core to leak out.

If a disc herniates you’ll know about it. The leaking gel will press on to the nerve arising from the spine at that level and that pressure will be made even worse as a result of the inflammatory reaction that occurs around the disc.  Inflammation means swelling and swelling in a confined space right next to a nerve is not good news. Pressure on the nerve produces intense pain that normal pain killers won’t touch along with pins and needles, numbness and weakness along the path of the nerve.  This most commonly occurs in the bottom of the back and affects the leg on one side but it can also happen in the neck and affect an arm.

If it gets to the herniated disc stage often surgery is the only way forward.  Better to catch the problem at the slightly warn out bulging disc stage so you don’t have to go down that route.  Bulging discs are not uncommon. Many folk with have them and not know that they are there but eventually, a bit of extra stain or pressure on the spine will push things over the edge. There might be localised pain around the area and protective muscle spasm. The muscle spasm itself can be really very painful.  There may also be signs of the nerve pinching if the bulge is big enough to press on a nerve root, so the pins and needles and numbness may occur. This is your body sending you a warning. Treat this the right way and it won’t necessarily deteriorate into the full grown disc herniation.

The way forward is to create space. The disc has essentially collapsed, usually to one side.  It acts like a deformed balloon, as the bulge appears the structure collapses to the side of the bulge so compressing everything on that side, nerves included. The natural tendency for the body is often to lean to the opposite side in an attempt to take pressure off the bulging side. The muscles all around the area want to hold on tight in an attempt to protect the area so spasm sets in. The problem with spasm is that it compresses things together, which is the opposite of what you really need.  We’re looking for space, to decompress the disc and give it room to reduce the pressure on the nerves.

Creating space by stretching and reducing the muscle spasm is the way forward.  And no, we won’t be following that up by ‘putting the disc back in place’.  If it never came out in the first place it won’t need putting back in!