Got a Disc Bulge.. So What?

If I had a penny for every time I heard someone self diagnose a disc bulge, or tell me their 10 year old disc bulge is the reason behind their current pain, I’d be in this year's Forbes magazine. Disc bulge/prolapse/herniation/’slipped disc’ is such a buzz word in our line of work and they get so much more blame than they deserve.

Don’t get me wrong, symptomatic disc issues are relatively common and when they’re a problem, they’re a bloody problem. I wouldn’t wish the issues they could cause on anybody. But did you know you can have multiple disc bulges and be completely asymptomatic?

The reason I want to discuss this comes from a conversation I had in the clinic last week. A client came to me for help with their lower back pain which was referring down their leg to their foot. They had been to the NHS who said it was a disc bulge, and were waiting for a referral for an MRI scan to confirm. 

They were very upset when they heard they had a disc bulge as they had heard horror stories about them in the past and had also been told it’s probably something they will have to live with from now on. After some convincing they let me start adjusting them and changing their years and years of bad habits leading up to this point.

After 6 weeks or so a lot of their issues had either cleared up or gotten to a stage where they could start living their life again. They went for an MRI not long after this and within 2 weeks they got their results. 

When given the results, the medical practitioner explained that it was no wonder they were in so much pain as they indeed did have a disc bulge in the lower back and to look at injections or surgery to try solve it. The thing is, this MRI was taken after the client had already seen huge improvement in their health from being under care with us. 

Confusing right?

In fact, latest studies have found that 20% of young adults and over 75% over 70’s have disc bulges found on MRI scans and are COMPLETELY SYMPTOM FREE.

This for me shines a huge light on NOT treating someone for a specific diagnosis in a specific area but instead aiming to improve function system-wide. 

It also begs the question of how many unnecessary back surgeries are performed every year when other more conservative things could be done.