The symptoms of
A bulging disc may have no pain at all because it has not reached a certain severity level, and this can make it difficult to identify the bulging disc symptoms before the condition becomes more severe. Most commonly, bulging discs create pressure points on nearby nerves which create a variety of sensations.
Herniated disk pain can sometimes be intermittent. People can have minor pain that's always there or stronger pain that comes and goes depending on the activity they're doing. Varying pain typically has to do with movement and the position of the body.
Self care: In most cases, the pain from a herniated disc will get better within a couple days and completely resolve in 4 to 6 weeks. Restricting your activity, ice/heat therapy, and taking over the counter medications will help your recovery.
This pain might shoot into your arm or leg when you cough, sneeze or move into certain positions. Pain is often described as sharp or burning. Numbness or tingling. People who have a herniated disk often have radiating numbness or tingling in the body part served by the affected nerves.
The Difference Between Muscle and Disc Pain
Muscle pain will feel like post-workout soreness, while disc pain will feel debilitating and tingly.
A misdiagnosed herniated disc is one of the most common reasons patients endure chronic neck or back pain. Herniated discs are often misdiagnosed as piriformis syndrome, a muscular disorder in the buttocks, mild sciatica, degenerative disc disease, and osteoarthritis.
Skip movements that involve significant axial loading on the lower back, such as squats and leg presses. Avoid toe-touches, sit-ups, and yoga poses that worsen the pain and lead to significant bending of the back.
In most cases, pain from a herniated disk can go away in time. To ease pain while your disk heals, you can: Rest for one to three days, if the pain is severe, but it important to avoid long periods of bed rest to prevent stiffness. Take an over-the-counter pain reliever, such as ibuprofen or acetaminophen.
Nerve Damage
When a herniated disc puts significant pressure on a nerve, it can lead to significant damage by cutting off nerve impulses. Compressed nerves can lead to significant conditions, including loss of sensation in lower extremities or even loss of bowel control.
A herniated disk is a condition that can occur anywhere along the spine, but most often occurs in the lower back. It is sometimes called a bulging, protruding, or ruptured disk. It is one of the most common causes of lower back pain, as well as leg pain, or sciatica.
The bulging or herniated part of the disc presses on nerves as they exit the spine, resulting in pain and other symptoms. Since herniated discs involve nerve compression, the symptoms they cause can feel a lot different from the symptoms associated with muscle strain.
Avoid Sitting Too Much
Sitting for long periods is not advised if you suffer from a herniated disc. It places more stress on your spinal discs, worsening the pain. You can maintain comfort by regularly moving around or standing up from your seat.
A L4–L5 disc bulge (or slip-disc) in the L4-L5 region can cause severe health issues such as impotence and reproduction issues. It can also lead to infertility, loss or control of the bowel or bladder, paralysis in one or both of your legs, and even death.
It can cause pain in the buttocks, legs, or back. It can also affect your ability to walk. Bulging discs usually affect multiple discs. This condition develops over time and can cause other disc degeneration-related issues, like lumbar stenosis (narrowing of spinal canal).
Your doctor might recommend surgery as an option for your herniated disc if: Your symptoms have lasted at least 6 weeks and make it hard to do your normal activities, and other treatments haven't helped. You need to get better quickly because of your job or to get back to your other activities as soon as possible.
Bending over is a guaranteed way to irritate your herniated disc and experience back pain. That's why you should avoid any activity that requires you to bend over.
Lumbar Disc Symptoms – A bulging disc in the lower back can cause pain in the hips, legs, buttocks, and feet. A bulging disc in the lower back can also lead to sciatica, which can cause debilitating pain and make it difficult to complete everyday tasks.
Go slow at first to ensure no motions aggravate your back. Generally speaking—as long as they're performed correctly—core and back exercises are beneficial for bulging discs, as are activities like walking, elliptical exercise, swimming, and riding a stationary or regular bike.
You are not likely to be able to feel the disc itself, since it is located between the bones of your spine. However, you may be able to determine the affected area by touching various points along your back that you can reach.
MRI scan is the best non-invasive test available to find herniated and bulging discs and annular tears. Because the spatial resolution of spinal anatomy can be defined to 0.5mm with an MRI scan, doctors can identify with over 95% accuracy the herniated discs in the spine.
Dr. Seth Neubardt, cervical spine surgical expert tells how the x-ray is used to check the bones in the neck but it cannot reveal a herniated disc. To see the disc you must obtain a CT scan or MRI.