Is my herniated disc causing my back pain?

Is My Disc Herniation The Cause Of My Pain?

I am often asked the question ,"Is my disc herniation the cause of my back pain?" Although this can be difficult to determine, it is possible to put all the information together and make an educated guess on whether your disk herniation is the cause of your back pain. First of all let's talk about a study that was done in 1984. This study examined 100 adults with no history of back pain.  An MRI was performed on their lower back.  About 40% of these adults had a disc herniation in their lower back. Some of these herniations showed direct pressure on the nerve root. None of these subjects had any history of low back pain. So how could these patients who have disc herniations with pressure on the nerve root not have any back pain? The reason is these disk herniations and the pressure on the nerve root happened gradually over a period of time. Therefore there was no, or very little inflammation, bleeding or swelling. Have you ever seen an older person with a ring on their finger for decades.  It is obvious that the ring is too small for their finger.  But they have no pain from the small ring.  This is because the pressure has happened slowly and gradually over a long period of time.

But suppose you bend over the wrong way and put some pressure on your back that it's not used to and cause some pinching or pressure.  This may cause some bleeding and tissue damage in that area.  This will cause an inflammatory response.  What is an inflammatory response?  When you bent over and damaged some tissue, your body has to clean that mess up.  It has to clean up dead tissue and it has to rebuild new tissue. Your body does this with a whole series of chemical events. This series of chemical processes is called the inflammatory process.  Some of these chemicals helped to rebuild tissue.  Some of these chemicals helped to get rid of dead tissue.  Some of these chemicals are irritants to nerve endings and will generate pain.

So back to the question, "Is my disk herniation causing my pain?" Well I would like to answer that question with the question.  Do your symptoms makes sense compared with where your disc herniation is? For instance, if your disc herniation is on the left side of your spine and your symptoms are on the right side, the disc herniation is probably not the cause of your symptoms. Is your disc herniation at L5-S1 and your symptoms are higher up in your back? If you answered yes, then your herniation is probably not the cause of your symptoms.

Fortunately, a good orthopedic and neurologic exam combined with x-rays and an MRI can usually determine the cause of the pain.  If you're having back pain or neck pain that has been difficult to treat call our office to make an appointment.  You can also call 663-2423 and we will be glad to talk to you personally on the phone at no cost to you to see if we can shed some light on getting rid of your pain.

Dr Robert Hermann

Hermann Wellness