Bulging and
Herniated Disks

What is a Bulging or Herniated Disc?

If you suffer from back pain, it could be caused by trauma to your spine leading to either a bulging or herniated disc, also referred to as a protruding disc. In between each of your vertebrae is a tough but flexible “spacer” pad called a spinal disc pad or simply called a “disc” because of its shape. The discs are primarily made of water, collagen, and cartilage with a gel center called the nucleus for shock absorption. The discs provide a passageway or a kind of a “nerve hole” (foramen) between two vertebrae, through which the nerves leave the spinal cord and exit through the nerve hole passageway and branch out to organs, muscles, and tissues of your body.

Proper nerve function allows critical information from your brain to reach its intended destination. However, if you have a bulging disc or protruding , the disc becomes inflamed and the gel center bulges outwards potentially creating physical irritating pressure against your nerves.

When a tear in the wall of the disc occurs the disc is then called a herniated disc and can be even more painful and symptomatic. An even more serious version of a herniated disc is called an extruding disc, when the gel of the disc squeezes out much like that of toothpaste squeezing out of a tube. In all cases , a range of symptoms can include, shooting, aching, symptoms down the leg (sciatica), weakness in the back and/or leg, difficulty in sitting, standing, or walking, and much more.

What are the Symptoms and Causes of a Bulging or Herniated Disc?

If the disc bulge or herniation extends into the spinal canal and presses on one of the adjacent sciatic nerve roots the inflammation and swelling of surrounding tissue causes pain. In fact, a herniated disc is one of the more common causes of sciatica pain. Some of the most common symptoms include:

• Deep pain in the neck, arms, hands, fingers and into the shoulders
• Headaches

• Burning, achy, stabbing, throbbing sharp or dull pain
• Shooting or stabbing pain
• Sciatica: numbness, burning
• Tingling, pain and/or weakness in the leg and/or feet
• Muscle weakness
• Neck pain
• Deep pain in the neck, arms, hands, fingers and into the shoulders
• Headaches

Symptoms depend on which disc and nerves are affected. Common causes of a bulge or herniation include:

• Slip and falls

• Repetitive strain
• Injury caused by intense lifting, especially during bending and twisting
• Slip and falls

Regardless of the cause, the High-Performance Healing System™ has proven time and time again that healing is possible and a pain-free life is possible.

Bulging or Herniated Disc Treatment Options

Dr. Ron Nusbaum created his own unique system of care to deliver rapid, non-invasive, and long-lasting lower back and neck pain relief. The first of its kind in Canada, the High-Performance Healing SystemTM has succeeded where other conventional treatments have failed. The system involves three steps:

Non-Surgical Spinal Decompression

Spinal decompression is a non-invasive procedure that delivers painless, precise and accurate targeted stretching of the damaged disc, causing a reduction of pain, inflammation which jumpstarts the healing of the disc and of course the back pain it causes. Think of Spinal Decompression, a kind of an outside in healing approach.

Class IV Summus Laser Therapy

Laser therapy, also called photobiomodulation, is used to help heal the damaged disc responsible for back or neck pain. This powerful, deep penetrating laser light is specifically aimed at the damaged discs. The laser light then interacts with the cells of the damaged discs to ultimately promote pain relief, reduction of inflammation and enhancing tissue repair of the spinal disc. Think of laser therapy as a kind of an inside-out job, just the opposite of spinal decompression.

Disc Renewal Plus™

This all-natural nutritional supplementation system was formulated with the goal to support reduction in pain and inflammation and support the healing of damaged connective tissue (discs are made of this). Disc Renewal Plus™ has a similar role to play in back pain healing as Class IV Summus laser, but from a nutritional perspective. Disc Renewal Plus™ is custom formulated by Dr. Nusbaum and available exclusively only to patients of Back Clinics of Canada.