How is a herniated disc causes
What Is A Herniated Disc - Symptoms, Causes, Treatments
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today we have another video from dr.
David Oliver where he's gonna be talking
to you all about herniated disks the
causes of herniated and bulging discs as
well as the symptoms you will feel if
you have them as well as some of the
treatment options you can explore on
your own to treat them from your home so
when we talk about a herniated disc we
have to look at the actual structure
that's involved here so we're talking
about the intervertebral disc which is
the disc that separates the two bones in
the spine so if we look at a model of
the spine you know we had the different
sections of the spine we have our
cervical spine which is our neck we have
our thoracic spine which is our mid-back
and then we have our lumbar spine which
is our low back so we're focused right
now on this low back this lumbar spine
and if we look at the spine itself we
have the bones we have a vertebrae here
which is this white one and another one
below it in between that we have this
tan color material that's called your
intervertebral disc and the way to think
about an intervertebral disc is it's
like a big jelly doughnut so the outside
semi-firm and inside is a jelly like
material if we get enough damage to that
outer ring of that disc that jelly like
material can start to squirt its way out
this is not good because it's not that
jelly like material is not designed to
be in those areas this can cause the
symptoms of a herniated disc
unfortunately a herniated discs are very
common and society at it nowadays and
there's a variety of reasons for that
the number one way to irritate a disk is
flexion so basically flexion if I were
to flex forward this is flexion so if
we're to take the spine model again and
demonstrate that if you were to look at
the spine from the side and you took
looked at this lower back and you flexed
it forward essentially this front area
of the spine you're compressing which
pushes all the material backwards if you
get enough compression and enough load
it's actually going to cause a bulge or
a herniation at this back side of the
disc so repeated flexion we find to be
the most problematic for these spines
the most common time you're you're
flexing that spine is what you're doing
right now sitting sitting is flexion
every time we sit down
we flex our lower spine a little bit
studies have actually shown just sitting
even with great posture will increase
the pressure in that disc 50% you sit
with poor posture you can increase it up
over a hundred percent of what it
normally is repeated flexion repeated
sitting is gonna weaken that disk over
time which is gonna cause a disc bulge
can cause a herniation the most common
symptoms we find with a herniated disc
or a bulge discs are localized pain so
we could just find pain that is just
centered over the low back that can be a
symptom of a bulged disc if that disc is
starting to impinge or irritate a nerve
root we can have symptoms that travel
away from the spine the discs or the
nerves that innervate our lower back so
for a look at the spine again and we're
a look at these yellow nerves these
nerves exit the spine and travel down
our lake they control the muscle
activity to control the sensations of
our lower lower limbs if they start to
get irritated you're gonna start to feel
symptoms down here it can start out with
a general numbness and tingling can
progress to burning pain radiating pain
sharp pain electric like pain is a
variety of nerve like symptoms that can
develop if you get enough irritation to
a nerve root you can actually start to
develop weakness in those lower
extremities if we see muscle weakness we
become more concerned about this
condition and it's something that needs
to be addressed immediately so as
symptoms are herniated discs can be
anything from just general localized
pain in your back it can be a radiating
type of pain which can be either
numbness tingling burning electric like
symptoms that travel away from the spine
these can go down your leg they can go
to your knee then go to the back side of
your leg the front side then go all the
way to your toes these are what we call
radiating symptoms because of
impingement of a nerve root so we talked
about sitting equaling flexion I want to
go into this a little more detail
because some people don't really
understand why that is basically when
you sit down this lower back portion
here you have a little bit of a curve or
you should anyway but most people don't
hardly anybody sits down at their
computer at their table and sits there
like this most people the most common
thing is actually to flatten their low
back out a little and push it against
the back of the chair
that's essentially taking those lower
vertebrae and flexing them forward most
people will sit there at their computers
and type away and again we have that
head moving forward and we're just in
this rounded position so a way to
visualize that is vom sitting here with
good curved posture this is good
we're not flexing forward as much but as
soon as I round out my lower back and
sit down that's what happens so we're
flexing those lower vertebrae
putting more pressure through these
lower discs which eventually is gonna
cause weakness
most people are sitting 8 to 12 hours a
day every day you do that enough you're
gonna weaken those discs and eventually
you'll have a problem so four treatments
of a hernia disks there's a variety of
things you can try to do yourself at
home to alleviate some of that
irritation and that that inflammation
that's occurring at that disc level so
the easiest one to do is avoid the
activities that are irritating
so that means avoiding as much sitting
as possible this is hard for some people
because of work but you need to take
breaks at least get up every 20 to 30
minutes at least for a minute to walk
around the other thing you could do is
ice you know ice is a great way to
decrease inflammation you do not want to
put heat on the low back when it's an
inflamed state like this you can
actually make the symptoms worse I can't
tell you how many times I have had
people come in my office and they tell
me I I fell asleep on a heating pack
last night and I couldn't move this
morning well there's a reason for that
they the heat increase the inflammation
in their low back which cause more
pressure on the nerve more pressure at
the disc level which cause more symptoms
so icing for 20 minutes on and at least
40 minutes off repeating that throughout
the day the first several days of the
injury can go a long way of reducing
that inflammation so you want to ice you
want to reduce the activities that are
stressing those discs when you're
resting instead of sitting what you
should do is lay down with your feet up
on an object either a chair or you can
put pillows under your knees to take
some pressure off anytime your knees are
flexed up you're gonna take pressure off
your low back so when you're sleeping at
night if you sleep on your back try
putting tolls under your knees take some
pressure off if you're sleeping on your
side try actually putting a pillow
between your knees and that'll take
pressure off your low back as well the
most common time for people that have
pain and an irritation is actually in
the morning time because that disc
swells overnight it's very common to see
that you're gonna be very careful in the
morning time getting out of bed so you
don't irritate it so no flexion at all
the first couple hours that you get up
you want to walk around and try and just
get things moving gently you want to
avoid anything that causes pain is the
general rule there are a variety of
exercises you can do to help with the
pain so one of the best ones and one of
the ones I always give patients
initially when they come in with this is
the cat cow it's a simple basic exercise
that we can utilize to eliminate some of
the irritation
eliminate some of that bulging that's
going on it's very good for most people
I did an extensive video on the cat cow
exercise that how to do it properly and
the things to avoid so you could check
it out at back Authority calm there are
also many other exercises you could do
to try to eliminate some of that
irritation and that stress on the the
nerve or the disc level so it's
important to try to look into these and
only do exercises that feel good if
you're doing an exercise and it's
increasing your symptoms are causing
more discomfort it's not a good exercise
when it comes to low backs the the rule
is not no pain no gain if you're feeling
pain you should avoid that activity and
if none of these modifications whether
it's the ice or the the activity
limitations avoiding flexion or doing
your cat cow if that's not helping to
alleviate your symptoms is important use
you see professional help alright we
hope you enjoyed this video and if you
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friend also if you'd like to get a PDF
of specific exercises to relieve
herniated discs as well as low back pain
we can send you that PDF right away
there's gonna be a link to that
somewhere here on the video or there's
gonna be a link in the description below
to get that PDF also make sure to check
out our website back intelligence comm
for more back pain tips
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