Learn about Herniated Disk

Hi! I'm Doctor Ross Carter. I'm a Board Certified Chiropractor in the State of Georgia and I've been practicing here since 1996. Many of my patients ask me about what is slipped or herniated disk is? So there is a lot of preconceived notions about it, what it is, so what I've thought to do is I show with the model, what exactly this condition is. So as you can see, this is a model of spine. We've got the disk start here and then we've got the vertebra. The nerves actually exist the spine through the holes in the back of the spine, alright. Now the disks are designed for shock absorption and motion. They allow the spine to move around. This is a normal disk and spine. Now here is what happen over time. What can happen is through trauma, stress and the weakness, these disks can start to degenerate. What happens is, they start to loose the fluid in the actual disk itself because it's designed two ways. There is an outer shell and there is a gelly center. Now the outer shell holds the gelly inside. When this starts to crack and get dehydrated, this gel can actually push out through the cracks and then lead to the problem. As you can see here, the gel is pushing out through the edges and it's putting pressure on the nerve. This is what we call a slipped or a herniated disk. As you can see, the disk doesn't actually move. The only thing that actually moves is the center or the nucleus, which gives push up and cause the pressure on the nerve. Now you can also see with this problem, there can be some changes of the vertebra. The vertebra actually changed shape and this is what you see on an x-ray and this is what's called osteoarthritis. So you can see how destructive that condition could be. As you can see, if we continue it can literally fuse the vertebrate together and not allow it to move again. The problem is you've got the nerve is being chronically compressed here. The vertebra had fused together and as you can see the disk is pretty much gone. So what we offer in this office to help with spinal or disk problems is we offer a table that does what's called the decompression and decompression basically, what it does is it causes this area to start to separate to some degree and you can take pressure off these disks and allow them to heal. So what I'm going to do is give you a demonstration with our actual table, so that you can find out how comfortable it can actually be. I want to take the fear out of this kind of process so that you're not afraid. This is our decompression table. Basically, here is how it works. It uses vibration to actually cause the muscles of the spine to relax. So we use a very strong vibration to cause the muscles to relax. Wow, what it does is it uses gravity to actually cause the body to separate. What it does, is it causes the lower back or neck depending on what area you're working on to actually start to pull apart to some degree. Now what that does is it takes the pressure off the disk and it can actually help those disks heal again. So if you have squish disk, this will actually open those disks faced up and allow those disks to start to heal, but it can also take the pressure of those nerves which have chronic compression on. So this is basically how it works. As you could see, it's a very general process. There is no sudden jerking motions, nothing that can feel dangerous or unconformable anyway. The patient just lays here for about 15 minutes or so and along with other exercises that we do. This is a great way to prevent disk surgery either of the neck or the lower back. So you should come, try this out. It's fantastic. It's very general. I hope the information that I presented today was helpful. If you or someone you know is experiencing headaches, neck pain, back pain, sciatica, numbness or tingling down the arms or the legs, even fibromyalgia or weight trouble, I'd like to help. All you have to do is just give my office or call at the number you see below or you can actually email us or check out my website as you can see on the information below.