Herniated Lower Back Disc and Lumbar Disc Disease - Symptoms, Causes, and Therapies

Lumbar Disc problems can be some of the most difficult health problems a person could suffer with. Not only do they lead to quite a bit of pain, they also tend to lead to a great deal of disability.

This article will cover what a lumbar disc is, the most common conditions that can develop, symptoms associated with it, and the most common treatments recommended if you have a lumbar disc problem develop.

A lumbar disc is a spinal disc located in the low back. The spinal discs are like cushions that separate each set of vertebrae in the back. They are really important, because not only do they function as shock absorbers when you move, they prevent the vertebrae from rubbing together, which would be incredibly painful.

Each disc is composed of a firm outer covering (called the annulus), and a soft jelly center (called the nucleus). For lack of a better comparison, they look a lot like a jelly doughnut with the way they’re made.

The two most common conditions that can develop with a lumbar disc are a back bulging disc and lumbar disc disease. Let’s talk about both conditions, and then we’ll talk about symptoms and treatments, because they’re very similar for both conditions.

A back bulging disc occurs when the outer covering of the disc becomes weak and tears, causing the jelly in the center of the disc to start to shift into the weak area. This creates a bulge in the disc, which is where this problem gets its most common name, a bulging disc.

This condition is also commonly referred to as a herniated disc or a slipped disc. This problem can be extremely painful because the spinal nerves are located immediately behind the spinal discs, and when a disc bulges, it tends to apply pressure on one of these nerves.

The spinal nerves are very sensitive, and will cause a person to experience intense pain. What’s even more significant, though, is that these nerves control everything in the body, so whatever the involved nerve controls will also begin to malfunction.

I’ll go into further detail about the symptoms this can cause in just a minute, but let’s first talk about what lumbar disc disease is, because the symptoms are very similar.

Lumbar disc disease occurs when the jelly in the center of the disc dehydrates (loses water). This tends to develop with age and overuse of the discs. The real seriousness of this problem is that the disc will flatten when this problem occurs, which also applies pressure to the nerves.

The symptoms that occur with lumbar disc problems will include low back pain, pain in the hips and legs, weakness in the legs, numbness in the feet, sciatic pain (pain traveling down the leg), as well as bowel and bladder problems.

Many people ask how they can tell the difference between a herniated disc in the back and lumbar disc disease, since the symptoms are so similar. Lumbar disc disease is actually a form of arthritis in the back, so one of the key features of this problem is that the symptoms will tend to be worse when you first wake up in the morning.

Just like with any form of arthritis, when you’ve been still for a long period of time (such as when sleeping), the involved area becomes stiff and aggravated. Once you move for a short period, and loosen the area up, it tends to feel better.

With a back bulging disc, this is not the case. The symptoms will tend to get worse with certain activities, or it will be constant throughout the day.

The cause of these problems is also very different. Usually a herniated lower back disc will occur with some form of trauma (such as a car accident or lifting something heavy), and it is usually easy to pinpoint some activity that started the pain.

Because lumbar disc disease is a form of arthritis, it usually develops slowly over a period of years. The symptoms will usually come on gradually over a period of time, and it is difficult to define a specific event that caused the pain to begin.

With any lumbar disc problem, the treatments available are very similar. Most doctors will prescribe medications (usually muscle relaxers and pain killers), physical therapy, pain injections (such as cortisone and epidurals), and surgery as a last resort.

However, the success rates of these treatments are not very high. The reason for this is because they all are designed to numb the involved nerves, which sounds good on the surface, but this is only a temporary solution because they are not doing anything to actually heal the source of the pain which is the disc condition.

There are other treatments that I have found to be more successful with lumbar disc problems, but in all actuality, it’s a combination of treatments that are best to actually heal a damaged disc, no matter what the condition is.

If you would like to learn more about the most successful treatments available for lumbar disc problems, as well as the combination of treatments that I have found to be the most successful, you can click here (herniated lower back disc) for the full details.

Did you find this article helpful? Here are some other related articles and resources you may also find useful:

• Here is a list of the best resources I've found for Bulging Disc / Herniated Disc relief
• Herniated Lumbar Disc and Lumbar Disc Disease – Causes, Symptoms, and Treatments For Relief
• Lower Back Bulging Disc – Symptoms, Causes, and Therapies
• Lumbar Back Disc and Lumbar Disc Disease – Causes, Symptoms, and Treatments for Relief
• More Lumbar Disc Resources