Hi everybody, Dr. Jodi Kinney here, your chiropractor for disc injury in Jackson Township, NJ. Today what I want to do is explain what a disc herniation is and why it’s so beneficial to be under chiropractic care to help with any kind of disc herniation or bulge that you may have in your neck or lower back spine.
Many people are told they have a bulge, or a “slipped disc,” or herniated disc and they don’t even know what that is. So what I wanted to do today is just give you a visual of what a disc injury actually looks like.
Chiropractic Disc Care in Jackson Township, NJ
To start off with, when we look at what a normal disc looks like, the disc first of all, is this shock absorber-like cushion in between every one of the vertebrae in your spine. At that disc level, is where you have a pair of nerves that exit out on either side. And those nerves extend into every single part of your body.
The disc itself looks like a jelly donut. The inner core of the disc itself is very jelly-like. We call it the nucleus. And the outer rings of this harder material are what we call the annulus.
So when you have abnormal wear and tear on a disc, or abnormal stress, what can happen is that disc material can be displaced one way or the other. And if the disc material is too much compression on one side of the spine. What happens is it puts pressure on that nerve that extends out in that area. That’s called a disc herniation.
When we start initially when the initial injury does happen, what happens usually is the annular, rings of annular fibers start to break down and that jelly material starts to push out. That’s called the bulge. And if it winds up pushing all the way out like I just showed you that’s called a herniation.
Disc Injury in Jackson Township, NJ
And that disc material takes up the same space as these nerves. So what happens to these nerves that are supposed to be small and skinny, and sending all the proper nerve supply get fat. They get swollen. They get inflamed. And anything that brushes up on that nerve, be it a ligament, or a muscle, or tendon, or bone is going to cause serious pain.
So one of the things that we need to do in order to help alleviate pressure on that nerve is to help alleviate some off that nerve. One of the ways we do that, is by correcting the alignment of the spine. Once we correct and get healthy motion and movement and alignment of the spine, you may not completely reabsorb that disc material back into the disc. Because unfortunately you can’t get that toothpaste back in the tube, right? Sometimes some of that material can reabsorb, but ideally when you get healthy alignment it’s gonna put healthy pressure and healthy motion on the disc moving forward, so that it doesn’t happen again.
So ideally one of the best things you can do if you have a bulged or herniated disc is see a chiropractor. So we treat disc problems all day long.. It’s important to get the spine checked. See you on the next one, thanks.
