Herniated Lumbar Disc: The Problem, a Symptom or Both?

I was reviewing some articles about herniated lumbar discs the other day and a couple of statistics jumped out at me:

• 20% of people under the age of 40 without low back pain have disc herniations
• 30% of people over 40 without low back pain have disc herniations

What this means is that a herniated disc is not necessarily the root cause of lower back pain.

It’s more likely that the herniated disc is a symptom of increased stress to the lower back because of dysfunction/misalignment.

When the disc herniation gets bad enough and puts pressure on the nerve root, it becomes a problem — just ask someone who has dealt with sciatica before. But with what we know about the presence of disc herniations in asymptomatic people, it’s not likely THE problem.

The good news is that the underlying problem that creates the disc herniations (dysfunction/misalignment) usually responds very well to conservative care, which includes chiropractic.