Your MRI shows a disc bulge.  Now What???

So you have pain somewhere along your spine that radiates down into the arm or leg.  What do you do?  The pain is starting to affect important parts of your life and you’re not sure the next step.  Is it surgery, is it exercise, am I doomed forever.

Get a good explanation:

Disc bulges are complicated.  If your doctor speaks to you in language that’s too complicated talk to someone who will talk to you like a normal human, so that you completely understand what you’re going through and how to best move forward.  There are good people in any profession who can speak to you in normal language.  The problem is, it’s easy for a doctor to talk in doctor speak, but it’s more important to speak to you in a way you understand.  Find a doctor that’s willing to do that.

Determine the extent of the bulge:  Disc Bulges happen in a number of ways, many times it’s a small bulge, that pushes out from underneath the vertebral body, but it doesn’t actually touch important structures like the nerves or the spinal cord.  There are other disc bulges that are coming too close either to the spinal cord or the nerve roots along the sides. Those are more dangerous and need more careful attention

Know the facts:

it’s important to note that roughly 40% of people over 40 and 80% of people over 60 have disc bulges that they can’t even feel.  That means most people have bulges that they don’t know about.

But you’re hurting, if you have a bulge then it’s definitely the cause right?

Not necessarily.  As we take care of your disc bulge, you’ll feel better but chances are you are still bulging a little.  And that’s okay, keep taking good care of yourself and you’ll be fine even with that slight bulging.

What do I do is I have a disc bulge?

Decrease inflammation:

When a disc in the spine is bulging, higher levels of inflammation in the body can cause it to hurt much more.  So you’ll want to take some steps to improve your body’s inflammatory levels with nutrition.  Sugar, wheat, dairy, and lots of other foods can be pro inflammatory. There are also anti-inflamatory supplements that can make a difference in how you’re feeling and healing.

Stay Active:

The greatest outcomes happen in people who are really active so definitely take as much time as you can to be active.  The medical recommendation used to be complete bed rest to give your body a

chance to heal. Until they realized people were getting sicker. Now the generally accepted recommendation is activity.  Stay as active as you can and you will see your health and your disc symptoms improve.

Create More Space:

When there’s too much pressure on the individual bones in the spine, they place pressure on the discs, causing them to bulge.  Specific exercises for your condition and corrective care from your family chiropractor will help you to create more space.

See your Chiropractor:

No non-surgeon is going to understand your disc bulge better than your chiropractor.  They are trained to understand the structure of your spine, discs and nerves and we correct those imbalances every day in our offices.

They should provide a thorough evaluation to determine how they can assist you in improving the condition in your spine and also know when to refer you to someone else if needed.  But realize just because there’s a disc bulge, surgery is not the only option. Safe, Natural Chiropractic care is the way to care for your disc bulge in a way that is going to improve your pain, function and health long term

What the research says:

Even the research is behind it.  A JMPT article on radiculopathy on MRI studied natural methods to improve pain from disc herniations and radiculopathy.  Each of the positive studies included adjustments of the spine.  This result was positive even when someone received injections from an orthopedic surgeon. In fact, those who are adjusted when they received injections felt better much longer than with injection alone.  It makes sense, because when the injection wears off, the underlying problem is still there.  Chiropractic care corrects the problem so that your pain and discomfort improve and the improvement is much more long term.

So, if your MRI shows a disc bulge go see your family chiropractor.  If you haven’t been to our office before and you want to get that disc bulge looked at, then go to the link above the video and you can schedule an appointment for a new patient evaluation and we’ll figure out how we can improve that disc bulge and help you to move your health in the right direction.  We’ll likely be doing some orthopedic tests, we have a computer that reads the function of the nerves that travel out of the spine. We’ll take x-rays if we need to so that we understand the mechanics of the spine in a weight bearing position.

If we find that we can help, then we’ll come up with a plan of care to get you feeling better and get your life back.

 

So click the link or just go to https://tompkinschiropractic.com/special for a special offer for a new patient appointment in our office.

Thank you for trusting us with your healthcare and we’ll see you soon.

Read Next: 4 Steps To Relieve a Bulging Disc

 

 

 

 

 

 

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