Powered by Max Banner Ads 

Lumbar Back Disc conditions can be some of the most difficult health conditions a person could suffer with. Not only do they cause quite a bit of pain, they also tend to cause a great deal of disability.

This article will cover what a lumbar back disc is, the most common conditions that can develop, symptoms associated with it, and the most common treatments recommended if you have a lumbar back disc condition develop.

A lumbar back disc is a spinal disc located in the lower back. The discs of the spine are like cushions that separate each set of vertebrae in the spine. They are really important, because not only do they act as shock absorbers when you move, they prevent the vertebrae from rubbing together, which would be incredibly painful.

Each disc is composed of a firm outer covering (called the annulus), and a soft jelly center (called the nucleus). For lack of a better comparison, they look a lot like a jelly doughnut with the way they’re put together.

The two most common conditions that can develop with a lumbar back disc are a lower back bulging disc and lumbar disc disease. Let’s discuss both conditions, and then we’ll discuss symptoms and treatments, because they’re very similar for both conditions.

A lower back bulging disc occurs when the outer covering of the disc becomes weak and tears, causing the jelly in the center of the disc to begin to push into the weak area. This creates a bulge in the disc, which is where this condition gets its most common name, a bulging disc.

This condition is also typically referred to as a herniated disc or a slipped disc. This condition can be extremely painful because the spinal nerves are located immediately behind the discs of the spine, and when a disc bulges, it tends to apply pressure on one of these nerves.

The spinal nerves are very sensitive, and will cause a person to experience intense pain. What’s even more important, though, is that these nerves control everything in the body, so whatever the involved nerve controls will also begin to malfunction.

I’ll go into further detail about the symptoms this can cause in just a moment, but let’s first discuss what lumbar disc disease is, because the symptoms are very similar.

Lumbar disc disease occurs when the jelly in the center of the disc dehydrates (loses water). This tends to develop with age and overuse of the discs. The real seriousness of this condition is that the disc will become shorter when this condition occurs, which also applies pressure to the nerves.

The symptoms that occur with lumbar back disc conditions will include low back pain, pain in the hips and legs, weakness in the legs, numbness in the feet, sciatic pain (pain shooting down the leg), as well as bowel and bladder problems.

Many people ask how they can know the difference between a bulging lumbar disc and lumbar disc disease, since the symptoms are so similar. Lumbar disc disease is actually a type of arthritis in the back, so one of the key characteristics of this condition is that the symptoms will tend to be worse when you first get up in the morning.

Just like with any type of arthritis, when you’ve been still for a long period of time (such as when sleeping), the involved area becomes stiff and aggravated. Once you move for a short period, and loosen the area up, it tends to feel better.

With a lower back bulging disc, this is not the case. The symptoms will tend to get worse with certain activities, or it will be constant throughout the day.

The cause of these conditions is also very different. Usually a lumbar disc displacement will occur with some type of trauma (such as a car accident or lifting something heavy), and it is usually easy to pinpoint some activity that started the problem.

Because lumbar disc disease is a type of arthritis, it usually develops slowly over a period of years. The symptoms will usually come on gradually over a period of time, and it is difficult to define a specific event that caused the problem to begin.

With any lumbar back disc condition, the treatments available are very similar. Most doctors will prescribe medications (usually muscle relaxers and pain killers), physical therapy, pain injections (such as cortisone and epidurals), and surgery as a last resort.

However, the success rates of these treatments are not very high. The reason for this is because they all are designed to numb the involved nerves, which sounds good on the surface, but this is only a temporary solution because they are not doing anything to actually heal the source of the problem which is the disc condition.

There are other treatments that I have discovered to be more successful with lumbar back disc conditions, but in all actuality, it’s a combination of treatments that are best to actually heal a damaged disc, no matter what the condition is.

If you would like to learn more about the most successful treatments available for lumbar back disc conditions, as well as the combination of treatments that I have found to be the most successful, you can click here (bulging disc in the lower back) for the full details.

Filed under: Health and Fitness

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!