Bulging Discs on Imaging
3 min read
Dreaded back pain. One thing that must be understood in the presence of back pain is that back pain does NOT mean you have a fragile spine. Your spine is not composed of degenerative discs and jelly donuts… Let’s take a closer look at what the research says about the spine so we can better help you overcome your pain and movement constraints and begin getting stronger.
In a study that looked at 76 individuals for a total of 380 discs all of whom DID NOT have any symptoms:
71.8% of discs were herniated
67.3% of discs had grade 1 or 2 degeneration
32.7% of discs had grade 3 or 4 degeneration
In a study conducted at the mayo clinic that looked at over 3000 scans of individuals who DID NOT have any symptoms:
37% of individuals in their 20’s, 96% of individuals in their 80’s had disc degeneration
30% of individuals in their 20’s, 84% of individuals in their 80’s had disc bulges
Photos like this provide an oversimplification.
Fact of the matter: there are people on the far left of these stages with a ton of pain and people on the far right of these stages with zero pain.
How Does Imaging Relate to Low Back Pain?
In other words, is your pain coming from that finding or does it not matter?
The problem with imaging is that you don’t have a reference point before the time you start experiencing pain. It is possible that some of those findings may have already been there when you had no symptoms, thus making them less of a culprit than they are made out to be.
Consider this: if an MRI reveals that you have stenosis or a herniated disc, why do you think that only certain activities cause your pain? If structural “damage” was truly the root cause, wouldn’t you think your pain should be constant?
In short, just because you have a finding on imaging does not mean it is causing your symptoms.
You may be experiencing no pain in the presence of structural damage and this can interfere with your ability to make an accurate assessment of whether surgery is necessary or not and whether your symptoms are stemming from your structural changes or not. If you do not have severe symptoms, then we recommend finding safe entry points to exercise that can then be scaled up to meet the demands of what it is that you would like to do.
If you are interested in hearing about how we can bridge the gap between where you currently are and where you are trying to go, book a free discovery call!
References
Brinjikji, W., Luetmer, P. H., Comstock, B., Bresnahan, B. W., Chen, L. E., Deyo, R. A., Halabi, S., Turner, J. A., Avins, A. L., James, K., Wald, J. T., Kallmes, D. F., & Jarvik, J. G. (2015). Systematic literature review of imaging features of spinal degeneration in asymptomatic populations. AJNR. American journal of neuroradiology, 36(4), 811–816. https://doi.org/10.3174/ajnr.A4173
Kuppuswamy, Dr & George, Dr & Chemmanam, Dr. (2017). Prevalence of lumbar disc herniation and disc degeneration in asymptomatic Indian subjects: An MRI based study. International Journal of Orthopaedics Sciences. 3. 357-360. 10.22271/ortho.2017.v3.i4e.50.
