Slipped Disc Treatment: Therapy, Causes & Diagnosis

Slipped Disc Symptoms

Common Symptoms of Slipped Disc

The wear and tear in the spine can cause damage in soft muscle tissue, which can lead to excess pressure on bones and discs. This causes the disc to move from its alignment and causes disc herniation, usually referred to as a slipped disc. Slipped disc treatment focuses on alleviating pain, restoring movement, and preventing long-term complications. It is therefore evident that timely intervention is crucial in the recovery process of any crisis. To get the right treatment promptly, these are the symptoms to watch out for:

Sudden and Shooting Pain

It results to a sharp pain in the upper back which may spread along the arms, or one in the lower back that may extend down to pelvic and thighs. This radiating pain is often managed through slipped disc therapy, which targets the source of nerve compression.

Persistent Pain

The durations of the pain may range from just a few hours to several weeks. If the discomfort continues or worsens, a structured herniated disc treatment plan may be necessary to relieve pressure on the nerves and support healing.

Inability to Sit or Stand for Long Periods

Sitting or standing for an extended period can even make the pain worse. Just as in the case of shifting our position while sitting, shifting positions might provide momentary comfort. Patients often benefit from slipped disc relief therapy, which combines movement modification and spinal support techniques.

Frequent Muscle Spasms

Sustained and severe muscle contraction in the back can be very discomforting and become a hindrance in the activities we perform in our day-to-day lives. To manage this, a comprehensive slipped disc relief treatment approach may be recommended, which includes medication, physical therapy, and strengthening exercises.

Get immediate medical care if:

You experience paralysis or lose sensation in your pelvis and legs: This is the Cauda Equina Syndrome (CES) and needs immediate attention.
You experience numbness and lose bowel or bladder control.
Radiating pain transfers to your arms or legs: This is caused by ‘Sciatica’ and the pain is caused by a slipped disc pressing against the nerve endings leading to your limbs.
Loss of balance
Weakness in the hands and feet

Professional diagnosis required
Chronic, can last for years
Treatable with 8 weeks of QI Spine Therapy

Slipped Disc Causes

Possible Causes From Your Daily Lifestyle

The most common cause of a slipped disc is aging. Over time, the hard encasement of the vertebrae becomes brittle, and the gel inside slips through the cracks. However, there are other lifestyle-related causes like:

Aging and Degenerative Disc Disease (DDD): The normal aging process reduces spinal discs in their ability to maintain water content and flexibility and shock-absorption quality. This process, known as degenerative disc disease, significantly increases the chances of disc herniation, often requiring herniated disc treatment.
Poor Posture and Sedentary Lifestyle: Spinal stress develops when people remain seated for extended periods and in poor body positions. Over time, this increases the risk of a slipped disc and leads many individuals to seek slipped disc therapy.
Repetitive Motions or Heavy Lifting: Disc displacement develops in work-related situations that require workers to bend and twist or carry heavy objects constantly. Preventive measures and proper technique can delay or avoid the need for slipped disc treatment.
Smoking: Reduction in spinal tissue oxygen supply leads to impaired healing caused by nicotine. Disc weakness caused by smoking makes discs more susceptible to this condition. For long-term smokers with chronic pain, slipped disc relief treatment may become necessary to manage symptoms effectively.
Lack of Core Strength: Weak back muscles force more stress upon spinal structures. The body becomes prone to disc injuries when proper muscular support is absent because minor contact easily results in tissue damage. Patients often benefit from rehabilitation programs that include slipped disc relief therapy.
Congenital Spinal Abnormalities: When scoliosis occurs along with structural misalignments the spine faces elevated pressure resulting in unequal wearing of the discs. These cases often require personalized slipped disc therapy to manage long-term spinal health.
Excessive Vibration Exposure: People from the working class working with heavy machinery or long-distance truck drivers experience constant whole-body vibration, which is a lesser-known but significant contributor to disc degeneration.
Obesity and genetic factors: The excess weight in the body puts prolonged pressure on the back-bone, leading to a slipped disc.
Accidents and Injuries: Unexpected physical damage from accidents can crack the vertebrae.
Gender: Studies have shown that men are more prone to slipped discs than women.

Most slipped-disc cases can be treated non-surgically, with the aid of physiotherapy. But, Different lifestyle risks present during each stage of life can be prevented when identified early to delay or prevent disc damage. However, if symptoms do arise, a guided recovery plan that includes slipped disc treatment and preventive care is the best way to restore comfort and mobility.

Professional diagnosis required
Chronic, can last for years
Treatable with 4 weeks of QI Spine Therapy

Slipped Disc Treatment

Depending on the severity of the case, a slipped disc can be treated in the following ways:

Medication and pain management: Pain can be controlled with various pain relief treatments, including medication. QI Spine offers a patented Cell Repair Treatment that uses frequency-specific microcurrents to reduce pain and inflammation in the affected area.
Surgery: In rare cases, the pain doesn’t subside for a prolonged period (6 weeks or more), and surgery can help relieve the pressure on the nerve endings caused by Sciatica.
Spine rehabilitation: There are multiple approaches to physical therapy in spine care, and they can stabilize the spine and help patients with disability or restricted physical movement. This helps improve the mechanical functioning of the spine, manages pain, promotes regeneration of the affected tissue and disc, and, with functional training, improves strength and flexibility.

Even in the case of surgery, follow-up rehabilitation helps sustain and improve the results.

Professional diagnosis required
Chronic, can last for years
Treatable with 4 weeks of QI Spine Therapy

Depending on the severity of the case, a slipped disc can be treated in the following ways:

Medication and pain management: Pain can be controlled with various pain relief treatments including medication. QI Spine offers a patented Cell Repair Treatment that used frequency-specific microcurrents to reduce pain and inflammation in the affected area.
Surgery: In rare cases, the pain doesn’t subside for a prolonged period (6 weeks or more), and surgery can help relieve the pressure on the nerve endings caused by Sciatica.
Spine rehabilitation: There are multiple approaches to physical therapy in spine care and they can stabilize the spine and help patients with disability or restricted physical movement. This helps improve the mechanical functioning of the spine, manages pain, promotes regeneration of the affected tissue and disc, and with functional training, improves strength and flexibility.

Even in case of surgery, follow-up rehabilitation helps sustain and improve the results.

Professional diagnosis required
Chronic, can last for years
Treatable with 4 weeks of QI Spine Therapy

Diagnosis for Slipped Disc

Understanding the Diagnosis

Diagnosis of a slipped disc is the first step when the symptoms mentioned are observed during the clinical examination. The first thing a spine specialist will do to diagnose the problem is to establish the area, intensity, and characteristics of the pain, any muscle weakness or numbness, and your mobility. According to the diagnosis and the patient’s past pain history doctor designs a personalized slipped disc pain relief treatment. Including slipped disc pain relief therapy. The therapy is based on exercises, yoga, medication, and even massage therapies.

1. Medical History & Physical Examination

The doctor will then question the kind of life the patient leads, whether or not the patient had any form of injury that led to the pains experienced and in what ways the pains affect his or her day-to-day life.
The physical examination entails how you respond to stimuli, the strength of your muscles, your ability to walk, and whether you feel pain with movement or at rest.
This makes it possible to know if the disc is pressurizing a nerve.

2. Imaging Tests

Another common approach may be suggested by the doctors to confirm the diagnosis and to see how far the disc herniation has progressed:

MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging): This is the most effective imaging technique for visualization of discs and nerves.
CT Scan: When an MRI cannot be performed, a CT scan, also referred to as computed tomography scan, may be used
X rays: X rays do not display discs just for the lumbar but they help to eliminate conditions such as fractures or arthritis which might be causing the patient’s pain.
Myelogram: It can be known as a picture of the spine together with dye for the outlines of the spinal cord and nerve roots.

3. Nerve Tests

There are two tests, Electromyography (EMG) and nerve conduction studies that may be done if the nerves are believed to be affected. These tests indicate the ability of electrical impulses to flow in nerves and muscles.

4. DSA

QI Spine diagnoses the pain with advanced spine analysis tests with the help of DSA. DSA (Digital Spine Analysis test) helps in analyzing the root cause of the problem. It is a non-invasive functional test that helps in measuring spine function. Its controlled and guided movements help in determining the mobility of the spine, strength, and imbalances of muscles around the spine.

Where CT Scan, MRI & X-Rays are performed to find the cause of the pain, these methods mostly fail to state the exact cause, but DSA analyzes the muscles directly and finds out the root cause.

Early and accurate diagnosis is essential to begin the right slipped disc treatment, whether it's through physical therapy, medications, or non-surgical methods. In any case, it is always important to seek the opinion of a specialist in spinal disorders if any of these symptoms persist or worsen.