A herniated disc is a very painful condition, sometimes the pain can be associated with only the back and other times you may get sciatica. This creates an even more debilitating condition.
A herniated disc is the end product of a weakened out disc called the annulus fibrosis allowing the softer more pliable central portion of the disc the nucleus pulposis to migrate it’s way through.
In research studies only the outer 1/3 of the disc has been shown to contain pain sensitive fibers. Therefore damage can accumulate over time before the person ever feels any pain.
The start of a disc injury is usually repetitive activities like bending or twisting, a traumatic indecent or bad sitting posture. These activities create a weakening of the outer fibers making them susceptible to migration of the inner nucleus.
As the migration occurs and the outer fibers become contacted the pain sensitive nerves begin to become activated resulting in local back pain at first.
Once the back pain begins the usual progression my be a short reprieve from the pain as the offending activities are stopped or altered.
Many people make the false assumption that the pain is gone for good, however the medical literature shows a very different scenario. People are almost always destined to have another bout of back pain within a year, unless proper treatment is applied.
Once the pain returns it is usually worse and as the pain returns over and over again it usually starts with move it’s way down the leg or arm as the nerves become affected.
As pain moves into the lower extremity the term often used to describe this is called sciatica. This is accurate when the sciatic nerve is affected.
In many cases the sciatic nerve is compressed directly from the injured disc and other times it is simply chemically irritated by inflammation associated with the disc injury.
In either case proper treatment is a must. This means actually working to fix the disc problem through proactive means. The best treatment I have come across is for this is spinal decompression.
Spinal decompression actually creates negative pressures in the disc to draw back the herniated material so the disc can actually heal.
This treatment offers the best long term strategy to deal with sciatica caused by a herniated disc.
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