A Slipped Disc

This is a typical term used when people experience low back pain with symptoms that travel down their leg. Medical terms that describe this phenomenon are protruding, herniated or bulging. There are varying degrees in which a disc can be causing issues, and they all stem from the same mechanics.

Imagine standing on a stack of water balloons. They all provide cushioning and support for whatever movement you may want to perform. You can even bias pressure toward one region of the stack, offloading some of the balloons while increasing load on others. The system holds. Now let’s say you apply pressure to the same region repeatedly, to the point where the skin of said balloon starts to become thin. Water slowly starts to make its way out of the balloon into the surrounding environment. No biggie for a while, shift the pressures again and the water moves back inside the balloon. If enough water moves out however, it can reach a critical point where the momentum carries a significant portion away from the center.

This is a common sequence of events with a slipped disc. A part of your anatomy that behaves like a water balloon. They consist of a gel-like material at their core and if that makes its way toward a nerve exiting your spine things can get dicey. Potentially leading to pain that radiates from your lower back to your foot. The bright side is that often this can be reduced and even completely reversed without invasive interventions. Looking back to the stack of water balloons, small changes in pressure management can off-load and shift the gradient such that water shifts back to its original home.

Let’s imagine a focal pressure on one disc in the spine. The gel-like material starts to leak as it moves away from the high pressure. However, if movement can be reorganized and the high pressure becomes more distributed throughout the spine, now there is no reason for the gel to move away from home. Symptoms might dissipate and life goes on. That is an oversimplification, however it works. Making the changes can be difficult, but they are not impossible.

Austin Ulrich, Physical Therapist