Slipped discs and low back pain relief: knowledge
As discussed previously and as a quick recap, the term “slipped disc” is really a misnomer.
In reality there is no such thing. The term is used to represent what is known as a bulged disc or a disc herniation.
In order to understand this type of injury, it’s imperative to understand the anatomy of the structures involved.
In this installment of the “slipped disc” series, I’ll be describing the anatomy in question and how it relates to the pain you may be feeling.
As you’re probably aware, the body is composed of a variety of different tissues and structures that all work together to create or resist movement. The back is no different.
It is made up of bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments, cartilage, fascia, neural and other connective tissues.
Muscles of the back
The idea behind this post isn’t to bombard you with all the intricate details of human anatomy. Rather, you should use this info as a knowledge foundation of how your anatomy may be placed under undue stress and injured.
Again, as a reminder, carefully note the difference between “cause” and “source”. This is very important as the anatomy of the back is usually related to low back pain as being the source of the pain, rather than the cause of the pain.
Now that the rationale for needing to know the anatomy has been presented, let’s get down to the business of learning the anatomy.
One of the easiest ways to understand how the spine and its components work is to separate it into three major components:
1. The Spinal Column (Bones & Discs)
2. The Neurological Tissues (Brain, Spinal Cord & Nerves)
3. The Soft Tissues (Ligaments, Muscles, Tendons & Fascia)
Today, we’ll spend some time on the first component (the spinal column) which for our purposes will include the vertebrae (the bones) and the intervertebral discs (cartilage between the vertebrae).
The Vertebrae: The vertebrae are made up of the living, dynamic bony tissues that interconnect and interact to make up your spinal column and give it its distinctive shape and curvatures. The vertebrae sit atop each other, create specific curves for each region, and attach through articulations called “facet joints”.
stacked spinal vertebrae
There are five groupings of vertebrae, which include: the cervical (neck), thoracic (upper and mid-back), lumbar (low back), sacral, and coccygeal (tailbone) vertebrae.
spinal curves
In a broad sense, each of these curves plays an important role is allowing your body to deal with the various stresses that are placed upon it, most notably, the constant, unyielding effects of gravity.
Intervertebral Discs (Cartilage): Sitting between each of your cervical, thoracic and lumbar vertebrae are cartilaginous discs, which act as shock absorbers and allow for spinal movement.
Intervertebral Discs
These discs are composed of a tough, layered outer shell (annulus fibrosus) and a gel-like inner layer (nucleus pulposus). A good way of thinking of these is imagining a jelly filled doughnut. The doughnut itself would represent the annulus fibrosus while the jelly within would represent the nucleus pulposus. These structures are the ones implicated in disc herniation injuries when the inner nucleus pulposus bulges out into, or out of, the outer annulus (the misnamed “slipped discs”).
disc bulge sequence
Again, to be perfectly upfront about the potential for problems with discs that are bulging do bear the following in mind: these discs are often affected by processes related to aging and injury (e.g. degenerative disc disease) and may show signs of wear and tear without demonstrating any clinical symptoms of pain or dysfunction.
Hopefully the above gives you a little better understanding of the bony and cartilaginous structures of the low back.
In the next post, we’ll cover the neurological and other soft tissues.
Yours in movement.
Dev Chengkalath
