Back Pain Diagnosis Starts with Informing Your Doctor

If you have back pain, you need to see your doctor. Even if it’s fairly mild. Why? Because if it’s the beginning of a more serious condition, then it’s best to catch it early. When you detect and start treating back pain conditions early, you have the best shot at successfully treating your condition.

Part of successfully detecting your back pain condition is properly informing your doctors. Most doctors rely extensively on what patients report to them. Therefore, the better and more precise the information you can provide, the better-equipped your doctor will be for properly diagnosing your condition. Remember diagnosing is the first step in starting a treatment program.

Here are some key questions to prepare for (make some notes) before seeing your doctor.

  • When did your back pain begin? Was there an incident resulting in immediate pain?
  • When do you experience your back pain? In the morning, after sitting, after driving, after walking, at the end of the day, and/or after any particular activity – be precise.
  • Do you get back pain when walking down or uphill? Does it increase the pain?
  • What sciatica treatment attempts have you made so far? Don’t forget to report what medication you’ve taken.
  • Describe the pain in as much detail as you can. Is it tingling, burning, numbing, sharp, radiating? Where is it? How long does it last when it hits you?

The fact is, if you don’t prepare before seeing your doctor, you’ll give less precise information. How many times have you thought back to a conversation you had or an interview and realized you could have provided much better information? I suspect this happens often. Avoid providing less than accurate and thorough information by being prepared before seeing your doctor.

Click here to discover 8 pain relief techniques.

Herniated Disc vs Bulging Disc – What’s the Difference?

You don’t have to look much online or elsewhere to read about the herniated disc vs bulging disc issue.  In fact, some claim a bulging disc is a form of herniated disc.  Other authors say not.  Who’s right?

  • MedicineNet.com defines “herniation” as an “Abnormal protrusion of tissue through an opening.“

Arguably the bulge is a protrusion, but most authors I’ve read do not equate a disc bulge with a herniated disc.  Instead, the herniation is equated with a disc rupture or prolapsed – which is when the inner disc fluid actually oozes outside the disc itself.

Here’s my take – it doesn’t really matter because at the end of the day, most authors get it right in that a bulging disc is a protruding, yet intact vertebrae disc that may or may not impinge a nerve.  On the other hand, a disc is herniated when the cartilage-material-outer surface of the disc actually ruptures and oozes out some of the internal disc fluid.  In a nutshell a bulging disc is a misshapen, yet intact disc; a herniated disc is a ruptured disc.

Some people have no pain from bulging discs and herniated discs, but many do.  The pain arises if the bulge or leaking fluid contacts a nerve.

What causes bulging discs and herniated discs?

There are two main causes of bulging discs:

  • trauma; and
  • muscle imbalances.

An example of trauma that causes many disc bulges and herniated discs car accidents.  But other types of trauma such as falling, being hit, or slipping can also result in either a bulge or herniation.

Muscle imbalances place pressure on the disc that results in either a bulge or a herniation.  Pain occurs if nerve irritation results.

What is a muscle imbalance?

A muscle imbalance results when you have overdeveloped and/or tight muscles in one area of your body and weaker, less-developed muscles elsewhere.  The overdeveloped muscles supercede or dominate the weaker, less-developed muscles.

Taking the spine for instance, if you have imbalanced muscles surrounding your spine, then the overdeveloped muscles will place pressure on your spine – such as a disc, for instance.  Over time, that pressure will form a bulge, and may ultimately rupture.

Muscle imbalances occur from activities of daily living … using a computer, writing, sitting certain ways, holding cell phones, etc.  Our routine activities use select muscles, often on one side of the body, which overdevelops some muscles in relation to other muscles.

Long-term muscle imbalance results in some for of misalignment in your body.  A common muscle imbalance results from imbalanced core muscles causing your pelvis to misalign.  When a pelvis is out of proper alignment, which is the base of the spine, the spines curve alters as well.  Any time the curve of the spine occurs, back pain may result – including a bulging disc or herniated disc.

One approach, a natural approach to ridding you of back pain stemming from a bulging disc or herniated disc is muscle balance therapy.  It makes sense that if your back pain stems from a muscle imbalance, the appropriate treatment is to balance the muscle imbalance – which is muscle balance therapy.

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