San Diego Chropractic, Chiropractor, back pain, neck pain, mission valley, headaches, lower back pain, muscle spasms, sciatica, palmer low force, san diego chiropractor

The disks are protective shock-absorbing pads between the bones of the spine. Although they do not actually "slip," a disk may split or rupture. This can cause the disk to fail, allowing the gel (which is part of the disk) to escape into the surrounding tissue. The leaking jellylike substance can place pressure on the spinal cord or on a single nerve fiber and cause symptoms of pain either around the damaged disk or anywhere along the area controlled by that nerve.

The layman's term "slipped disk" is, therefore, a misnomer and actually refers to a condition whereby portions of an abnormal, injured, or degenerated disk have protruded against nerve tissues. This condition is also known as a herniated, ruptured, prolapsed, or more commonly, slipped disk. The most frequently affected area is in the low back, but actually any disk can rupture, including those in the neck.

Slipped disc refers to a condition where the pad of tissue between two spinal bones is shifted out of normal position. Discs are important and useful when healthy. The discs allow the spine to support body movement and keep the spinal bones from grinding together when our backs move. The discs also assist the spinal bones to properly protect the spinal cord which carries thousands of nerves through it.

Vertebral discs are layered between stacked spinal bones. The outsides of the discs are made of an elastic mesh like tissue that is fused to the spinal bones. Inside the elastic webbing is a gel-like hydraulic system that is 88% water and helps react to compression.

Any misalignments of the spinal bones can result in decreased function of the discs . The misaligned spinal bones cause the disc in between the bones to be squeezed out. When it bulges out past the sides of the vertebrae, the disc is considered "slipped", although bulged would be a better term.

Chiropractic works to gently realign the spinal bones that are keeping stress on the discs. Once the pressure is taken off of the discs, they return to their normal position and are allowed to heal, once again providing proper shock absorption to the spine.