Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC Treats Disc Herniation Pain
Disc herniations can bring about back pain and leg pain for some. Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC welcomes those back pain sufferers due to a disc herniation. Gentle, relieving treatment without surgery is what we provide. La Grande back pain patients are relieved when they find us!
DISC HERNIATION: Size, Weight, Sleep
What matters when a disc triggers back pain? Its size? Its weight? Its effect on quality of life? Spinal researchers have generated data and documented that how the painful disc appears on imaging does not really matter. The size and shape of an intervertebral spinal disc’s protruded nucleus pulposus has no link to a patient’s clinical presentation or symptomatology or how a patient feels. (1) The weight of a disc fragment did not relate to the amount of time the symptoms lasted or severity of pre- or post-operative leg pain nor post-operative leg pain or back pain improvement, the percentage of space the disc occupied in the spinal canal, herniation classification, or vertebral level. The size of the lumbar disc herniation didn’t have much effect on clinical outcomes. (2) Chronic lower back pain and sciatica due to lumbar disc herniation negatively affected sleep quality. Treatment benefitted patient perception of pain in visual analog scale (VAS) scores as well as in the PSQI Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index scores. (3) Relieving chiropractic treatment of a pain-producing disc necessitates reducing the risk of recurrent back pain episodes as well as decreasing the pain of the current episode.
MANAGING BACK PAIN AND RISK OF ITS RECURRENCE
Once you’ve felt back pain related to a disc herniation, you do not want to have it back! Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC gets that and wants you to know that managing - as conservatively as possible - the disc herniation is more accurate than curing it. 6.05% of lumbar discectomy surgery patients had a re-current disc herniation. What brought that on? On their own, factors like age, BMI, current smoking status, heavy lifting, degenerative facet joint disease, operation time, and the ambulation time after surgery impacted the risk of recurrent disc herniation. Combined, older age, male sex, high body mass index (BMI), and early ambulation were significant factors in the experience of a recurrent lumbar disc herniation. Managing weight, not lifting heavy items, and exercising were suggested risk reducers. (4) One new study reported that the amount of sedentary time probably did not increase the chance of a new occurrence of low back pain as much as the amount and type of physical activity. (5) Pain relief happens more as a roller coaster than a straight hill to no pain. A disc herniation is like a bruise on an apple making the apple (and by comparison, the spine) never quite the same again. That is where Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC comes in with a treatment plan that ensures you know all there is to know about a disc herniation, how to feed it nutritionally, how to get it back to being strong with exercise and keeping it that way, and how to do activities of daily living to prevent (re)injury. A recent systematic review of approaches to managing back pain revealed 10 approaches: manipulation/mobilization, psychological/behavioral, advice to stay active/bed rest, reassurance, antidepressants, NSAIDS, opioids, muscle relaxants, and paracetamol. (6) Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC encourages walking, moving, careful lifting, and especially being treated with gentle, safe, effective Cox® Technic spinal manipulation!
CONTACT Dr. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Robert Patterson on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he describes the realistic expectations back pain patients can have with The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management.
Schedule your La Grande chiropractic appointment now. Disc herniation sufferers are invited to our practice for relief and a plan for controlling its future effect on life.
