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Bulging Disk? Herniated Disk? The BIG LIE You Need to Know!
- chelsie462
- 6 hours ago
- 8 min read
This article is a transcribed, edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in November 2024. For the original video, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trjvLKmfFEk
Mike: Today, we're diving into the truth about bulging and herniated discs, what you really need to know to understand the pain you are having.
Brad: That's right. So if we look here, we've got something that's going to make a lot of sense after you see the video.
Brad: And we're going to show an additional exercise that we did not do before, which is going to help with one-sided sciatica.
Mike: So we're actually going to go back in time and let Bob and Brad explain this very thoroughly. So here's a time-traveling warp.
Brad: Woo-ooh-ooh-ooh-woo.
Bob: Hey, we're going to be talking about the big lie, which actually comes in part from this book called "Paindemic" written by Dr. Melissa Cady. She's a doctor of osteopathy. And she wrote a chapter in this book called "The Disc," I believe it is. And that chapter alone might be worthwhile getting this book read.
Brad: Right. It's a good chapter. And if you have back pain, and you're thinking about getting an MRI, you really should read the information.
Bob: Right, MRI, or if you're thinking about having surgery, you definitely want to. So, we'll talk more about this book in future videos. But right now, let's talk about the big lie. All right, first off, let's say you're having back pain. You go in, and you have an MRI, and they find out you have a bulging disc or a herniated disc. And you're going, "Oh my God."
Brad: Right. You're all excited. I'd better get surgery.
Bob: I'd better have surgery.
Brad: Right.
Bob: And the thing is, that's probably the last thing you want to do, because the problem is what you'll find out in this study. We're going to show a couple of studies. It'll show that, is that most people at a certain, well, some people at a certain age have a bulging disc, and they have no pain at all. So, the fact, let's go right to this chart, Brad.
Brad: Sure. I think that's a good idea, Bob.
Bob: Okay? So, if you have a bulging disc, what they did is they did MRIs on people who were having no symptoms whatsoever. They had no signs or symptoms of pain. Right?
Brad: Yep.
Bob: And they did it on people in their twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, sixties, and seventies. What they found out is that 30% of the people in their twenties had a bulging disc.
Brad: No symptoms. Active people.
Bob: No symptoms. Yeah. 40% in their thirties, no symptoms. Had a bulging disc. All the way up to when you're in your seventies, 77% of people had a bulging disc. But no pain.
Brad: And you can see it just gradually goes up with age.
Bob: Yeah. So it's a part of aging.
Brad: Right.
Bob: It's a deterioration process.
Brad: It's like getting gray hair.
Bob: It's like getting gray hair. Exactly. Or putting on a few extra pounds. So, are you going to have surgery when you get gray hair, Brad?
Brad: No.
Bob: Okay. The other thing is, and we don't have a chart for this one, was for disc protrusions, which is really a disc herniation. We're going to show this on the model in a little bit. But on the disc herniation, the same was true, Brad. At age 20, 29% of the people had a disc herniation and had no symptoms. And all the way up to 70, I'm sorry, they had one for 80 years old, all the way up to people in their eighties, 43% had a disc protrusion or herniation, and no pain.
Brad: Right. So if you think about it, and you've got back pain, and you may have had that herniation in your disc for 10 or 15 years prior without any symptoms, and you get back pain, it may be from a different cause. You get an MRI, they see the herniation or the protrusion, and point the finger at that. You have the surgery, get it taken care of, and you still have the pain.
Bob: Because it wasn't from the herniation.
Brad: Right.
Bob: So we'll talk a little more about that. But right now, Brad's going to show what a bulging disc would be like. First off, you have the disc itself, right?
Brad: Right, well, let's look over at our Napoleon here.
Bob: Napoleon Bonaparte.
Brad: We're going to look at L5 and L4, two lower vertebrae. This red bulge here represents a bulging disc or a herniated disc.
Brad: And now, if we look at these two vertebrae, and we're going to take them out and show a model of those, this cup represents one of the vertebrae, and this is the other. The green ball represents the actual disc itself.
Brad: So, this is a healthy disc here. It moves; it has some mobility in it so that you can move your spine as we all do. But if you get a bulge, right where my finger's pointing, right there's a bulge starting. Okay?
Brad: And particularly if it's in the back, where most bulges are, when you bend forward, it oftentimes makes it worse. Or when you lift weights with poor body mechanics and sit with poor posture, and that bulge could eventually, boom, turn into a herniation.
Bob: Yeah, herniation is when some of the inner material of the disc actually spills out back. Behind there.
Brad: Right. A disc is just like this. You can see there's material in there that's, it's liquid, kind of a thicker liquid, but it can come out and cause that bulge. And that's a problem that you do not want to have.
Bob: Well, it's a problem that is not really a problem unless it pushes out the back and hits a nerve, Brad.
Brad: Right. Exactly. I guess what I meant to say was when it gets this far out, and it's extreme and creating pain and whatnot.
Bob: So, when should you have surgery? There are times you should.
Brad: Right.
Bob: One is if this bulge or herniation is pushing against your spinal cord, which is running right down this hole here.
Brad: Right.
Bob: The other one is if it's hitting one of the nerves coming off on the sides. If it hits that nerve, it could actually give you some pain down your leg. And if it's causing you foot drop, Brad, where you actually started getting weakness in the foot, that's usually a sign that you're getting pressure on the nerve.
Brad: Right.
Bob: You know, it's pushing on the nerve itself. The other time, so really three instances. One is that it pushes on your spinal cord, and it'll show up on the MRI. You'll be able to see that. Two is pushing on one of the spinal nerves. Or three, is there an actual mass there? I mean, if you have cancer or some type of mass growing.
Brad: Right. Sometimes it's benign, and they get in there and remove it, and it takes care of the problem very quickly.
Bob: Or a blood clot. There could even be a blood clot growing on the spinal cord. You know, Dr. Cady, she said she knew plenty of physicians and surgeons who would avoid back surgery like the plague. That was one of her quotes. So, it's really something you want to consider that you really want to try some aggressive physical therapy way before you try surgery.
Brad: Right.
Bob: It really probably is the last case scenario. So again, don't get distraught if you're seeing a lot of things on your x-ray, as far as which is just showing general aging, which can be a disc protrusion or disc herniation.
Brad: Yeah, I think Bob meant to say MRI.
Bob: What did I say?
Brad: X-ray.
Bob: Oh, X-ray. Well, X-rays show some of that stuff too.
Brad: All right, now that was a really good example of how, or a model of how that disc can actually herniate or bulge. Good visual. Let's say the bulge is on the left side, which is causing pain in the sciatica down the left leg. Mike, what's the exercise that we learned from Rick Olderman in the recent years or two, how to correct it?
Mike: So, what you could do is go to the top of a door frame, a pull-up bar, or you can use a stick if you're shorter and can't reach high enough. So what I'm going to do is go on the side that is painful, reach my hand away from me, and then I'm going to lean into the doorway. I'm going to feel a good stretch here. If you're not feeling much stretch, you can try bending your knees a little bit more, and it's really pulling, and that is taking stress off of the herniated disc, relieving some pain you may be experiencing.
Brad: That's right. Now, if you don't have, if you cannot reach the doorway, and you have a stick four to five feet tall, I am using the Booyah Stik, and you can grip it so that your hand does not slide down. That's really critical. And the other key thing is, if you don't have a rubber tip, it may slip. And if you're using a countertop or a table, you do not want it to slip off because it will not be a good experience. So put your shoe on there, and that'll take that off and give a good grip. And you can see I'm just, there we go. My left knee's bending. I'm feeling that stretch on the left side. Monitor the pain or the symptoms, tingling, or numbness down the left leg. If the leg is feeling better as a result of doing this or while you're doing it, you know you're right on target for the correct treatment.
Mike: Now, if you want to check out more videos on back pain, you can watch "Six Best Low Back Stretches for Max Pain Relief."
Brad: Every position.
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