When Back Pain Signals Something More Serious: Understanding Bulging Discs

When pain lingers and nothing seems to help, it’s worth asking—could something deeper be going on? We introduced our non-surgical spinal decompression program into the office quite a while back and since have had a lot of great success in helping people not only get out of severe pain but correct the cause of the problem.

Why Identifying the Cause Is Crucial

Knowing if a bulging disc in your spine is causing your pain or not is critical in actually getting it corrected. The course of correction are very different for muscular pain, pain caused by spinal dysfunction (subluxation) or pain caused by bulging discs.

Our non-surgical spinal decompression program is designed specifically for people suffering with bulging discs in their neck or back. This condition can cause severe neck pain or lower back pain. It can cause radiating pain or numbness into the arms, hands, legs and feet. The pain can be so severe that it is debilitating, keeping you from going about your normal routine at home and work.

The Gold Standard: How to Know If You Have a Bulging Disc

X-rays can give us a pretty good idea of whether you have a bulging disc or not. “By analyzing the disc space and current level of arthritic degeneration, and adding on your symptoms we can have a good level of certainty about the presence of a bulging disc causing your pain,” shares our chiropractor.

DIY Clues: Self-Checks You Can Do at Home

Here are a couple things you can do on your own to test:

• First, if you have increased pain when you cough or sneeze, this is a good indicator that you have a bulging disc.
• If you have sciatic type radiating pain shooting down your leg or arm, this is a possible indicator for a bulging disc.
• If you experience pain, especially sharp pain, when you bend backward or forward, this can be an indicator of a bulging disc.
• If your body leans to one side, this is called an antalgic posture and is an indicator for a bulging disc.

Virtually everyone over the age of 50 has some level of spinal disc degeneration, thinning and potential bulging. Non-surgical spinal decompression is valuable for most people over 50 regardless of symptoms.

What to Do Next If You Have a Spinal Disc Bulge?

At Ritchie Chiropractic & Wellness in Ballantyne we have developed a program designed to not only alleviate the pain and symptoms caused by bulging discs, but to correct the disc itself.

We use a unique combination of spinal decompression therapy and other modalities designed to correct and heal disc pain and problems so you don’t have to keep dealing with this for the rest of your life.