Health conditions · Disc conditions
Bulging, herniated, degenerative, 'slipped'. Four words that get used interchangeably and mean four different things. Here is what a disc actually is and what actually happens to it.
Referred pain into an arm or a leg. The lowest lumbar and lower cervical discs take the most load — and complain first.
Patient education — general information about the condition, not medical advice about your body. Only an examination can tell you what is going on with yours.
A spinal disc is a pad of cartilage sitting between two vertebrae. It is the spine's shock absorber, and it is also its hinge — the elasticity of your discs is what gives your spine most of the mobility it has. Every jolt that reaches your spine, right down to the impact of an ordinary walking step, gets diffused through them.
Now the correction. The term 'slipped disc' is a misnomer, and it is worth being precise about why: discs are firmly attached to the vertebra above and the vertebra below. They cannot slip. What they can do is bulge or become wedged, usually when one or both of the neighbouring vertebrae are out of position — and that is what people are almost always describing when they say the word.
True herniation, where the disc actually ruptures, is comparatively rare. It generally takes real traumatic force — a fall from height, a car accident — or a disc that was already weakened, or both together. Most of what gets labelled a ruptured disc turns out to be a bulging disc and a spinal misalignment. That distinction changes what should be done about it, which is the entire reason to be pedantic about the language.
Does this sound like you?
Not a diagnosis, and not a test — nothing here can tell you what you have. It is a list you can take with you, because everybody forgets half of it the moment a doctor walks into the room.
0 things to mention. However many you ticked, the exam is what tells you anything.
What tends to be behind it
01
A fall, an auto accident, whiplash, a blow to the back or neck, or a strain from lifting — enough force at the wrong moment.
02
A vertebra cannot go out of position without involving the disc under it. Segments that move badly for long enough load their disc unevenly.
03
Discs lose water content and height with age. On its own this is normal, extremely common on imaging, and not automatically the cause of your pain.
04
Sports injuries, car accident injuries and years of repetitive loading all land in the same few segments.
How care approaches it
Written as aims, not outcomes — because that is all anyone can honestly promise you before they have examined you.
History, physical examination, and imaging where indicated. A bulge, a herniation and simple degeneration are three different situations. In some cases an MRI is the right call — and if it is, you get referred for one.
Where a segment is out of position and loading its disc unevenly, adjustments aim to restore that segment's normal position and motion so the disc is not being wedged.
Specific exercise supports the correction and the muscle around it. This is a slow condition and it does not respond to being rushed.
Some disc conditions are surgical. A responsible chiropractor knows which ones and refers early rather than treating something that needs a surgeon.
Chiropractic care is not a cure for any condition on this page, and no honest clinic will promise you one. What Dr. Means can do is examine you, tell you plainly whether this is something chiropractic care is suited to help with, and refer you elsewhere if it isn't.
If you come in
Step 01
Call or book online and we'll sit down with you at no cost or obligation. Tell us what's going on and we'll start building the picture.
Read this part
Some of what looks like disc conditions is something else, and some of it is urgent. A clinic that only ever tells you it can help is not being straight with you. If any of the following is true, do not book a chiropractic appointment — get medical care.
This page is general health information, not medical advice, and it is not a substitute for examination by a qualified provider. In an emergency call 911. See our healthcare disclaimer.
Including the questions where the answer is no.
Adjustments address the position and motion of the VERTEBRAE. The intent is to stop the disc being loaded unevenly, and to give it the conditions to settle. Framing it as 'pushing the disc back in' is not how it works.
Disc degeneration is extremely common on imaging and is present in enormous numbers of people with no pain at all. What is on the film matters far less than what your exam and your symptoms say.
It depends on the herniation, and that is a real answer rather than a dodge. Some presentations are appropriate for conservative care and some need a surgical opinion first. That is exactly what an examination is for.
Only if it will change what happens next. If the exam suggests it will, Dr. Means will refer you for one.
Often connected
That is what the consultation is for — and it costs you nothing to find out. If it turns out Dr. Means is not the right person for it, he will tell you that too.
