Overview | Disc Bulge | Causes | Treatment

Have you been diagnosed with a herniated or bulging disc?

(Other terms for this condition include disc herniation, disc rupture, or disc sequestration.)

At Spine Correction Center of the Rockies we take herniated disc problems very seriously and have amazing results with this condition for our patients in Fort Collins and Northern Colorado.

We offer non-surgical solutions to correct your herniated disc! Without surgery, you can continue to live normally without weeks or months others must take for recovery. You can still go to work, you can still function and you can still be with your family.

This quick news piece on one of our bulging disc patients from ABC 7 News details a bit more about our NASA-discovered, new, non-surgical therapy to correct bulging discs and relieve pain. After just 2 weeks of our therapy, Jed—a professional bull rider—reported no pain.

What is a bulging disc?

To understand a bulging disc, understanding spinal discs is important. In the spinal column there is a disc between every vertebrae, or the bones that make up your spine. Those discs are composed of two components: the nucleus pulposus and the annular fibers.

How about we think of your disc as a jelly donut?  The nucleus pulposus is the jelly and the annular fibers are the dough.  When a disc herniation happens some of the jelly (nucleus) pushes out of the dough (annular fibers) and creates problems when it touches the nerve root.

A disc bulge happens when your spinal discs become damaged. In response to that damage from an injury or movement, they herniate, which means they push out of their place. This bulging can happen from too much pressure and tension or from evening moving the wrong way. This leaves the bulging discs pushing against the spinal cord and spinal nerves. A bulging disc becomes very painful when it presses against the nerves in your spinal column, causing numbness and/or pain.

Causes

Although many people think that the disc herniation happens at the exact time they begin experiencing pain this isn’t usually the case.  This happens over time as your body breaks down in that area from wear and tear or inflammation. This cascade of events usually begins with some form of trauma, causing the spine to lose the normal lordotic curvature of the neck or lower back.  Over time this causes degeneration and weakness in the neck or lower back (or both), therefore the disc breaks down.

Any event involving movement (walking, running, sports, exercise, standing) can cause the disc material to move outside the annular fibers. When that bulging hits the nerve root, the pain begins. This can be in the form of lower back pain, sciatica, neck pain, arm pain, numbness and tingling, etc.

There are many terms that all mean the same basic thing, these include but are not limited to herniated disc, bulging disc, protruding disc, slipped disc, swollen disc, broken disc, etc.

Herniated Disc Treatment

You will hear the term “herniated disc”, when it’s actually the same thing as a bulging disc. There are many terms you may hear that all mean the same thing. Some of those are “protruding disc”, “slipped disc”, “swollen disc”, “broken disc”, etc. A herniated disc is a bulging disc, so don’t become confused by the two terms. The terms may be used depending on how much the disc material is starting to bulge out. That is when there can be differences in the two terms.

 

Think of a bulging disc like a hamburger that has a meat patty too big for the bun. When wear and tear on the vertebrae disc happens, the discs can dry out more and the soft cartilage then becomes hard. That can make your discs start to bulge out evenly all the way around the disc. Literally, the disc material is bulging in every direction. With a herniated disc, that bulging may only be happening in certain areas or one area. You can start to get a crack or weak area in your vertebrae disc where the cartilage is damaged. That can cause disc material to protrude out of the disc instead of staying inside.

 

Find Healing Today

At Spine Correction Center of the Rockies, we take bulging and herniated disc problems very seriously. These conditions can leave you in chronic pain that make every day tasks seem impossible. No one should have to continuously live with that pain.

Because we are an integrated clinic, our revolutionary bulging disc and herniated disc treatment is covered by most major insurances. To diagnose bulging discs we need to conduct a complete medical history, and confirm the bulging disc through MRIs, CT scans, and/or X-rays.

Spinal decompression therapy is one of the components of our program that gives us these great results, often meaning you will not have to undergo risky, expensive surgeries. Combined with exercises, trigger point injections, chiropractic manipulation, and active body orthotics, we are able to get results where so many have failed.

Spine Correction Center is one of few integrated clinics to offer spinal decompression therapy in Fort Collins or Colorado.