How To Manage Herniated Disks In Back Pain

Slipped disks/herniated disks/bulging disks –  are problems that cause, most commonly, low back pain. These disks act as cushions between the vertebrae in your spine. They’re made up of an outer layer of tough cartilage that surrounds softer cartilage in the center.

A bulging disk extends outside the space it should normally occupy where as a herniated disk results when a crack in the tough outer layer of cartilage allows some of the softer inner cartilage to protrude out of the disk. Herniated disks are also called ruptured disks or slipped disks. Either one of these problems can also cause sciatic nerve pain.

Once a doctor decides  a disk is slipped or herniated you can then seek naturopathic and massage intervention to manage and alleviate the problem.

How to manage:

First of all, stop smoking. Smoking greatly impairs the immune system and multiple, seemingly unrelated problems can arise. Disk problems is one of them.

Quite often, people with a virus in their system will develop disk problems. More specifically the herpes series of viruses can affect spinal disk integrity. This is because the virus lives on the spinal nerves! This weakens whatever spinal segment it is associated with as well as the surrounding tissue. If you even remotely suspect a virus is to blame, ask your Naturopathic doctor how to get rid of this virus.

Next up you need to relieve the pressure of the muscle tension that will be present in a disc problem. Now is the time to make an appointment with a good massage therapist.

You can purchase back mats with massagers fairly cheap, as well as sauna foot tubs but nothing beats a good old fashion hands on approach.

Doctors also recommend bed rest, as well as alignment of the entire body. You can learn stretch exercises, which work amazingly to relieve pain. If the disks are causing dramatic pain, doctors may include logrolling strategies every couple of hours. If you continue treatment in office, doctors will monitor your records and order laboratory tests, such as I/O, VS, and UO. TENS is “transcutaneous electrical nerve” stimulations, which is often ordered as well.

Once you are diagnosed with slip disk or “herniated nucleus pulposus” you will need to continue treatment.

Often doctors will prescribe NSAIDs, which include painkillers such as Indomethacin, Dolobid, Motrin, Clinoril, Ibuprofen, Ansaid, Feldene, etc. Flexeril and valiums are prescribed to relax the muscles.

Doctors will use chemonucleolysis combined with chymopapain treatment as well. Chemonucleolysis is the process of breaking down “disk pulp” by using enzymes, which are injected into the “pulpy material” of a certain “intervertebral disk.” The purpose is to liquefy and decrease pressure on neighboring “nerve roots” in slip disks. Chymopapain is an enzymes from papaya, which is found in juices. The mission is to breakdown proteins. The treatment works alongside common management schemes, such as bed rest, hot pads, stretch exercises, moisture, and hot compressors.
Now I have better news. You can fix those discs naturally.

About 40 years ago a doctor named Dr. Max Wolf, from the Columbia University, discovered that when the body reacts to pain, the bodies of younger adults responded by flooding the painful area with something called “proteolytic enzymes”.

But for some reason… the older folks he studied showed dramatically reduced levels of proteolytic enzymes and therefore felt more pain.

Since then scientists have found that proteolytic enzymes are the first line of defence against pain and inflammation!

Proteolytic enzymes can also “eat” fibrin and scar tissues, cleanse toxins from the blood and even fight viruses and boost your immune system. In the form of a capsule, proteolytic enzymes should be taken on an empty stomach. A Naturopathic Doctor can give you the recommended amounts to take and where to buy the best brand.

Various other treatments and management schemes are set up otherwise potential complications could arise. The complications include urine retention, infections of the upper respiratory, urinary tract infections, muscle degeneration or atrophy, chronic back pain, thrombophlebitis, progressive paralysis, and so on.

Thrombophlebitis is inflammation of the veins, which formulate blood clots. If complications arise, doctors may consider surgical procedures to intervene. The interventions may include microdiskectomy, spinal fusion, percutaneous lateral diskectomy, laminectomy, etc.
Laminectomy is the process of surgically excision the vertebral posterior arch. The patient is administered fluids through I.V. as well as related treatment such as ROM exercises, which are done prior to and after back surgery. Isometric exercises are commonly ordered when back pain is present. Spinal fusions are described as stabilizations of the “spinous” progressions along with the “bone chips” of the ilium and its surroundings, or iliac crest. Harrington rods of metallic implants are potentials as well and describe spinal fusions.

In addition to slip disks, back pain may arise from fractures, which may emerge from trauma, aging, osteoporosis, steroid therapy, multiple myeloma, osteomyelitis, bone tumors, Cushing syndrome, immobility, malnutrition, and so on. Fractures are defined in many ways, which include compression, avulsion, simple, etc.

One thing for sure, when it comes to back pain one must take measures to prevent further complications, since back pain is one of the worst possible pains one can endure.