Disc Injuries
A common term these days for someone with back pain is a “Herniated Disc”. As a clinician I hear this term a lot, but not all people with a disc injury have pain down their leg. The text book herniated disc injury has pain shooting past the knee mostly on one leg and stemming from the back. If you have a disc injury and the pain is local in your back, then first of all it is a better problem to have, and second it is often that the pain is not directly related to the damaged disc. So it is good to get an MRI of your back, but it is just part of the whole assessment by a physical therapist.
For treatment, the McKenzie Protocol is great for pain shooting down your leg and manual therapy for local pains in your back. Therapeutic exercises and core abdominal/ back exercises are given gradually at the therapist’s discretion. And keep in mind that many back pains are kept around due to the Automatic Brain and Nervous System’ s over activation. This requires our state-of-the-art brain re-training system.
