What is Disc Herniation? How is it Treated? Ask Elite Spine & Sports Care of Totowa
A Herniated Disc is a term to describe an issue with the cartilage that lies between your vertebrae. This disc is called an Intervertebral Disc as they lie between each and every one of your vertebrae to absorb shock and prevent your spine from rubbing together. Over time, whether due to age or excessive trauma, these discs can become damaged, or cracked. Because these intervertebral Discs have a soft-cartilage center and a hard cartilage outer ring, damage can cause the inner cartilage to leak out, or herniate to the outer edges of the disc. This can pinch nerves and create immense pain that ranges from annoying, to outright debilitating.
How Do You Know if You Have A Herniated Disc?
Herniated discs can result in different symptoms for different people. Some people feel slight, annoying aches while others are sidelined from activities and everyday life. Numbness and tingling are also common side effects of a Herniated Disc. Because the nervous system is all connected, pressure on a nerve in your spine may cause pain throughout your body. Oftentimes, a Herniated Disc’s pressure on the nerve is felt in the arms and/or legs, interfering with basic movements. While medication, and sometimes even surgery, are called for to treat the pain, Physical Therapy can help you get back to moving properly while improving potential causes of Disc Herniation such as poor posture or lack of movement.
Can A Herniated Disc Be Treated?
Luckily, nonsurgical treatments are the most common solutions to Herniated Disc issues. A mixture of manual therapy, therapeutic exercises focused on strengthening and stabilizing the muscles surrounding the spine, deep tissue laser therapy, and therapeutic modalities can help to limit and even eliminate the effects of a disc herniation.
Physical therapists in Totowa NJ can help you with exercises and posture to first address the pain associated with a herniated disc. Preparing the muscles around the spine to correct your posture is essential for relieving pain. In addition to strengthening these muscles the ability to use pinpointed, deep laser therapy can get deep into the tissue and muscles and relieve your pain without the use of medicine or surgery.
Learning what techniques work best for your body and how strength and posture can help prevent future issues related to herniated discs can help both alleviate current pain and prevent future injury. Our educated and experienced physical therapists can provide you with the necessary tools to improve your quality of life. Physical therapy offers nonsurgical treatment for herniated discs. Correct posture and muscle development are essential to living a healthy and active lifestyle.
Contact Elite Spine and Sports Care of Totowa NJ to learn more about Physical Therapy
Elite Spine offers an approach based on the functional model and the dynamic use of manual medicine into physical therapy and rehabilitation. We believe that optimal health and performance can be attained through proper stability by enabling correct function via mobility of joints and corresponding muscles.