Disc Herniations Explained

The topic of the day is disc herniations.

Common symptoms that we see with disc herniations are local pain in the neck or the back, and radiating pain down the arms or the legs. If there's a disc herniation in the neck on the left side, we would expect to see radiating pain down the arm, possibly all the way down to the fingertips, numbness and tingling. In the lower back, we can see that same phenomenon all the way down the leg down to the toes.

The disc basically acts like the shock absorber in between the vertebrae. The disc herniation is when the disc herniates and pushes out the back of the disc. The disc is like the jelly in the sandwhich where the vertebra are the bread. When the jelly starts to squish out of the bread on the sides we call that a herniation. When the disc material herniates out and pushes on a nerve then severe pain can ensue. 

When the nerve compression or irritation happens, that's when we see not only the localized pain, but the radiating pain that goes all the way down the arm or all the way down the leg.

Check out our next blog and video on how chiropractic care can help patients with disc herniations without the use of surgery.