Hey guys, Dr. Jon here, I want to talk to you really briefly about disc injuries and chiropractic care and how chiropractic care can help people with disc injuries returned back to optimal function.
What is a Disc?
So first of all, what is the disc, the disc is that softer tissue that is in between each of the vertebrae in the spine. So disc is very important, because it provides us with some shock absorption, it allows us to have mobility in our spine, if our spine was just one solid tube of bone, then we would not be mobile, we wouldn’t have flexible spine. So the discs, and the joints that make up the spine, allow us to have movement allow us to be very flexible in our spine, and to really do incredible things with our body as it relates to mobility and movement and flexibility. So when when someone is has a disc injury, it’s it’s pretty significant, right? It’s pretty significant, because it can impact our lives in a big, big way.
Symptoms of an Injured Disc
The traditional symptomology that can happen with disc injuries is radiating symptoms. So if somebody has a real bad disc injury, like a herniation, or something that’s pretty severe, then what we’ll typically will see is that they’ll have radiating symptoms perhaps down their arms, their legs, they may feel, you know, numbness and tingling, maybe even weakness in their muscles. So all of these things can happen when there’s a disc injury. And that as you can imagine it can impact someone’s life in a big way. And so what do we do with that? How do we help someone heal from a disc injury? Well, we got to start by remembering what a disc needs in order to be healthy. And what a disc needs in order to maintain its health and function is regular and consistent quality motion throughout life. Right? That is what a disc needs to be?
Disc Function
Well, as we move throughout life and our spine, as our spine moves, then the discs, they’re like little sponges in there, they’re absorbing and excreting the fluids that are around it. And that is what keeps it healthy. That’s what that’s how it receives a lot of its nutrition and lubrication, if you will. And that’s how it stays well. So when we have a disc injury, what will happen is that the joints become less mobile, they don’t move as well, they don’t slide and glide as easily as they should. And this creates a downward spiral of degeneration, right. And so when we when we don’t move well, when the joints of our spine are really restricted or damaged, then we’ll have degenerative effects that occur a lot faster than they should if they were healthy. So that is what we want to avoid at all costs. And so as chiropractors, what do we do, we when we analyze and assess the spine, we’re looking for areas that are not moving well. And when we make adjustments, we’re introducing good quality motion into those joints so that then they are liberated, and they’re free to move. Much, much better. And that is good for not only those joints, but it’s good for our entire body, our nervous system, everything benefits, from good quality motion, in our spine. Very, very important.
Disc Injury is a Structural Problem
So one thing we have to consider and remember is that when when we have a disc injury, that is a structural problem, what happened there, whatever caused the injury, it created a structural imbalance a structural issue in our spine or structure is not ideal at that point. And so a structural problem requires a structural solution, not a chemical one. And so what we see a lot is that people with problems in their spine of all sorts, but especially a disc injuries, you know, they they they seek out, you know, chemical solutions, right, you know, medications of painkillers, you know, these types of things that helped mass symptomology it helps reduce symptoms, but the fundamental problem is still there, right? The structural imbalance, the structural vulnerability is still there in the spine. Why? Because you cannot resolve a structural problem with with chemicals, right chemicals, chemical solution will not resolve a structural problem. So that’s why chiropractic works very well for these types of issues is because what we offer is a structural solution for structural problems. And that’s why it works so well.
Relieving Stress on Our Discs
And so again, as we assess and analyze the spine, that’s what we’re looking for, we’re looking for where those structural problems in the spine and how can we liberate the stresses and tensions that in the compression that’s building up in the spine and those joints that’s preventing them from moving? Well, when we make adjustments, we’re reducing that we’re allowing the spine to move better, to move with more ease, less tension, and that is a good thing not only for those segments, those individual specific areas in our spine that are damaged, but it’s good for our whole body. It’s good for our nervous system. It’s good for everything. Just our overall well being when we can move well, we will function at a higher level.
Okay, if you have any questions about this, let us know we look forward to talking to you in the future and have a great one.