Overcoming a Disc Injury in Portland

A disc injury in Portland is painful, affects your daily life, and can be incredibly confusing. Your chiropractor at North Portland Wellness Group can be a great source for pain relief and help answer your questions.

What is a Disc Injury?

To begin, we're going to have to start by answering, "What is a disc?" Your spinal column has 24 bones known as your vertebrae. These bones work to protect the spine. In order to keep the bones mobile, and to keep them from grinding against each other, there are discs between the vertebrae. You will sometimes see these discs referred to as shock absorbers.

These discs have a soft center. Sometimes, a disc injury will result in a bulging disc, where the soft center is pushed to the side where it bulges out. Other times, the center will break, creating a ruptured disc. The third type of disc injury is a herniated disc, where the disc has slipped out of its natural place.

All of these types of disc injuries are painful. They are most often felt in the lower back, and can also lead to issues like sciatica.

How Disc Injuries Happen

It's common to hear that disc injuries are caused by sneezing.

This is both true and not true. If your disc came out of place when you sneezed, it was likely not in great shape when it happened. If your disc was already at risk, and then you sneezed and felt a sudden pain in your back, the sneeze was the last bit of effort that it took for things to become painful.

Disc injuries can happen from sudden accidents or from repetitive stress on the spine. They're less likely to happen with people who exercise often since strong core muscles lead to better posture and better spinal alignment. However, they can happen to anyone.

What Your Portland Chiropractor Can Do For Your Disc Injury

Disc injuries are often very painful. If you're hesitant to let someone touch you when your back is in terrible pain, that's understandable. The first thing to know is that chiropractic care is natural and gentle and that for a disc injury gentleness is even more important.

Your chiropractor is going to be gentle with your spine. They will use different chiropractic techniques to offer pain relief. They will also talk to you about your daily activities. It is likely that with a disc injury, you're having trouble with mobility. They can talk to you about ways to move so that you minimize pain and what exercises or other strategies you might take to improve your ability to function daily without causing more pain or aggravating the injury.

The appointment may include gentle spinal manipulation, soft tissue therapies, graded mobilization, and other natural strategies for improvement.

If you aren't already working with a spinal specialist or a doctor, your Portland chiropractor may refer you to one to visit as well. If you have already visited these other healthcare providers, your chiropractor will ask about your experience with them so far. It's valuable to keep your chiropractor in the loop on whatever medications you are taking or other care you have tried.