Can Your Maple Grove Chiropractor
Help With A Herniated Disc?
When a disc is healthy it acts as a shock absorber, allowing the spine to bend, twist, turn and maintain proper mobility. If a disc is punctured, the fluid contained within the disc may pour out from its original position and irritate the closely related nerves. With hundreds of disc cases treated and years of experience, we hope you choose Total Spine Health and Injury Center as your Maple Grove chiropractor.
Where do herniated discs most often occur?
Herniated discs can occur anywhere in the spine, but most often they affect the lower back. A herniated disc is commonly referred to as a slipped disc, but in actuality there is no "slipping" that takes place at all. The problem is actually that the disc has ruptured and a gel-like fluid has leaked from the disc.
Diagnosing a Herniated Disc
The most common way to visualize and diagnose a herniated or bulging disc is through an MRI. Surprisingly, herniated or bulging discs can be asymptomatic, but in many cases they can cause a tremendous amount of pain. Most commonly, herniated discs can lead to radiating symptoms, with sciatica being the most common when a nerve in the lumbar spine is affected. Sciatica occurs when nerves exiting the low back are compressed, resulting in pain, numbness, or tingling into the buttock and down the side or back of the leg.
The location of the herniation will ultimately determine the accompanying symptoms that are present. Low back pain or leg pain that increases when sitting, sneezing, coughing, or during a bowel movement may also indicate the presence of a disc herniation in the low back. In men, it is not uncommon for a disc herniation to lead to erectile dysfunction.
How to contact your Maple Grove chiropractor
If you have experienced any of the above symptoms or are experiencing acute or persistent back pain it's time to seek help from a healthcare provider that specializes in the treatment of spinal conditions. Disc problems, left untreated, can lead to increasingly serious conditions and sometimes irreversible nerve damage can occur.
Oftentimes the best approach is to seek conservative treatment first, prior to more invasive treatment methods like injections or surgeries. As your Maple Grove Chiropractor, we incorporate a specific and skilled approach to the treatment of disc injuries. Therapies such as, intersegmental traction, and specific therapeutic exercises help to successfully relieve the symptoms associated with a disc problem and allow the injured area to heal. Please contact us at (763) 568-7869 to see how our top rated Maple Grove chiropractic office can help!
