The intervertebral disc. The centre of back pain. The elusive mystical creature that lives in your back and makes pain travel down your leg.
Many people believe that discs are quite fragile, easily injured and quite mobile. There is a lot of fear around disc injuries and I hear a lot of people asking if they will have this problem forever.
"I cant do that, I've got a slipped disc!!"
So what does the disc actually do in the spine? What is it made of? Does it really get injured that often? Can it heal?
The disc is a fibrocartilaginous joint between two vertebrae. Each level of your spine has a disc except the top two joints. Discs are composed of outer fibrocartilage rings (annulus fibrosis) surrounding an inner gel like material (nucleus pulposus)
Intervertebral discs are actually extremely robust joints that can withstand tremendous amounts of force without fail. They also play an important role as shock absorbers in our spine.
The disc is connected to each vertebra via a bony and a cartilage endplate which creates an exceptionally strong connection - the disc simply cannot slip due to this strong connection.
If a disc cannot slip, what actually happens when it gets injured. Discs can have compressive forces and shearing forces applied to them and both can injure the disc. It takes about 740 lbs of force to compress the disc 1mm in youner subjects and 460 lbs of force in older subjects (from a cadaver study). Shearing forces are more likely to injure the disc, much like they are more likely to injure a ligament in your ankle or knee. Thats why its not a good idea to lift heavy items off the floor with end range spinal flexion in a jerking twisting motion.
What about after a disc gets injured?
So you can that not only can discs heal, but the worse the injury the better chance they have of healing.
How common are bulging discs?
VERY!!!!
A 2015 study by Hiroaki et al showed on MRI that 87.6% of subjects showed bulging discs in the neck on MRI, but most did not have pain or other symptoms.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR YOU?
Your spine is a strong and robust structure that is not easily injured.
You can and should continue to be active if you have neck or back pain.
Some findings on imaging are actually quite normal, especially as we get older
There is nothing to be scared about and it is highly likely that your injury will heal with conservative management.
How does Physio help?
Our physios are experts at diagnosing and treating neck and back pain. We will help you understand your pain, allay any fears you may have and develop an optimal treatment plan for your rehabilitation.
Most of all we will help you gteback to the activities you love doing!!!
Give us a call on 9838 8449 or click on the button below to book online.
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