Today I was having a conversation with a patient when she mentioned that she had been in the emergency room with her husband this past weekend and found out he had a herniated disc in his low back.  A few days later he is still in pretty rough shape with low back pain and leg pain... literally the whole 9 yards!  Simply saying someone has a herniated disc tells only part of the story as there are varying degrees and the terminogy used such as hernited, ruptured, bulging, and extruding sometimes get used interchangeably among health care providers.

By asking further questions about what the doctor had said about the MRI, I was able to gather that the outer layers of the disc, or the annulous, were more than likely intact.  If indeed that is the case, then he quite possibly could be a good candidate for chiropractic.  I mentioned to her that we should schedule him an appointment, at which point she told me that the ER doc specifically said, "No chiropractic."  WHAT!  I was shocked!

The volume of research demonstrating the effectiveness and safety of chiropractic care for disc problems is immense, and chiropractors specialize in identifying those cases that we should treat and referring those that need other forms of intervention.

I encourage any of our medical counterparts who may be reading this to contact us directly for a professional discussion on how we can often help their patients with this often time debiliating condition.  If you are a patient or potential patient reading this, then you owe it to yourself to consult a chiropractor if you or a loved one are experiencing a disc problem.  In non-emergency cases, you should exhaust all of your conservitive options before resorting to invasive procedures.