I have a herniated disc in the Cervical Spine, and a couple of bulging or protruding discs. I hope to help you by publishing research and advice about treatments obtained from other sufferers who have “been there” and have recovered to living a pain free normal existence once again. The most beneficial early treatments when you first feel your symptoms are those that release my contracted muscles – hydrotherapy (Moist Heat), bed rest with a cervical pillow, and gentle massage. I believe a Herniated Disc will not heal until the underlying soft tissue problems and muscle contraction is resolved removing the abnormal pressure in the Disc. Remember Discs have very little blood supply to bring them healing nutrients.

Intervertebral discs make up about one-third of the length of the spine and constitute the largest organ in the body without its own blood supply. The discs receive their blood supply through movement as they soak up nutrients. The discs expand while at rest allowing them to soak up nutrient rich fluid. When this process is inhibited through repetitive movement, injury or poor posture, the discs become thinner and more prone to injury. This may be a cause of the gradual degeneration of the structure and function of the disc over time

What Treatments are Available? What is “Conservative Therapy”?

Conservative therapy for me has been a succession of Doctors telling me to go home and get better, with an occasional prescription for Physical Therapy. Or I’ll get a handful of prescriptions for expensive drugs that do not help. The most laughable is the generic exercise pamphlet! All you have to do is take it home and do those exercises!

A prescription and and exercise pamphlet is the Doctors way of telling you to go home and let your body heal itself because they don’t think surgery is warranted and they don’t believe your problem is severe.

Unfortunately for most it’s up to you to fix your posture, eat right, and hope for the best. But isn’t that why you go to the Doctor, to learn what is wrong and how to fix it? Seems like a weird “Catch 22″… if we knew how to fix ourselves we wouldn’t need Doctors, but the Doctors just send us on our way (After draining our wallets!) to go home and fix ourselves.

The Treatments for Herniated Discs are the same as for Bulging Discs or Protrusions. Conservative Therapy is really any therapy short of surgery. I write extensively on many different Treatment Options here on HealthSynergyRx.com so I won’t cover specific treatments on this post.

Nomenclature – Disc Buldge, Disc Protrusion, Disc Herniation?

Ask a radiologist to define what he sees in your MRI and you may have one call it a bulge and the next a protrusion. Herniations on the other hand are pretty clear, the disc material has broken out of it’s shell and is spilling like toothpaste into adjacent areas. Please see our post on MRI Reports for more information on understanding the technical terms used to describe degenerative disc disease, spondylosis, etc.

What is Absorption?

Absorption is the process by which your body naturally reabsorbs or shrinks the disc material thereby making the Herniations smaller. This is part of the healing process and a good thing. Often this is enough to get the herniated disc to stop irritating the nerves in the formina or central canal. This appears to be more common in acute injuries than chronic injuries (from the dozens of case studies I’ve read). However it’s possible (by means doctors can not yet tell) that any herniated material can be naturally reduced in size to the point where it disappears. This unfortunately does not refill the disc with fluid – it becomes flatter, but it does take the pressure of the material that has spewed out off of the surrounding nervous tissues.

How long will it take for My Discs to Heal?

126 days! Okay I’m kidding. Wouldn’t that be nice. Wouldn’t it be great if the Doctors could tell you how long it takes? They can’t. You hear the same thing “Each person and each injury is different”. This means simply I do not know and can not tell you when or if your injury will heal and when or if your pain will stop. That’s the unfortunate circumstance which revolves this insidious condition. Here is an excellent article on Disk Healing you should take the time to read.

Should You Have Spinal Surgery?

No, No, No – maybe! Let me tell you a related story. I had severe tooth pain for over a week. I went to my dentist (whom I trust). He X-Rayed the suspect teeth. He found the suspected source of pain. The root was swollen slightly. There was some evidence that a previous filling at the gum line was so close to the nerve that it was also causing the pain. But what do you do? Well obviously you STOP the pain! He removed the filling, drilled out the top of the nerve, filled it with pain killing anesthetic, capped it with a temporary filling and told me I need a root canal. He killed my tooth without even asking me. That’s what Dentists do. I’m not sure my pain was bad enough to warrant destroying the nerve tissue in my tooth – but it was too late!

Now the reason I mention this tooth problem on a page about dics is they are related. And here is how. My tooth is now DEAD! At this point it can not be fixed. I had hoped that Dental science had come to the point where they could inject an anti-bacterial agent into the tooth to kill the disease causing bacteria. Perhaps vitamin and mineral supplements to strengthen and grow the pulp or enamel so that the injury could heal itself. I guess what I am saying is my hope was the tooth could be saved by stopping the pain long enough to let my body heal itself.

Dental science has not reached that point. My tooth is now dead and I must deal with it. My options? Root Canal (You can not clean out the canals 100% – some bacteria will always remain, the goal is to get as much out as possible and seal it), implant or having the tooth pulled. Yikes. Dental is the only profession where they leave dead tissue in the body – bad idea?

But the alternatives may be even worse. Extract the tooth – then you have to fill the gap so the other teeth don’t move. They do that with Crowns and Bridges. So I lose one tooth they want to grind down and crown two healthy teeth so they will have a bridge? The Dentist advised against “resin bridges” as they usually fail. So my point is this. I now have a dead tooth. I chose to stop the pain. I don’t know if I had an option.

With Disc Pain you might have options if you can live with the disc pain long enough to allow your body to heal itself. If you choose surgery early on and they remove the Disc, you (like my tooth) are done. You’re options are now limited. You can not stick Your Disc back inside the Vertebrae. You’re option is artificial disc or more fusion surgery if things go south. So my advice (and I’m going through this myself and it’s miserable suffering most days) is at least give your body a chance to heal itself.

So how long should you wait? if you wait 5 years and and don’t get better then you wasted 5 years. If and it’s a big “If” the surgery would have alleviated your problem, you’re are going to have regrets for not having surgery. It’s a gamble. It’s all a huge gamble. But what can you do? All you can do is do your best and try every conservative option available to you before surgery.

We expect our Doctors to fix us and to fix us FAST! Spinal problems seldom care about “fast”… they will do as they please. And here is the absolute worst part. Surgery doesn’t always stop the pain or fix the problem, it can even make it worse! Then what do you do? Quite a nice little trick the human spine. Designed by it’s maker to start self destructing in between decade 1 and 2 of life! And usually not even a warning when it’s getting bad. It’s the lottery of life.

Please take the time to read about all the Treatments and Therapies I write about BEFORE you decide to have surgery. You might just find something that works for you! You can always have surgery later (As long as your symptoms are just pain and not Neurological).

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Quick Preface: I have DDD, Collapsed Cervical Discs, Bulges and Herniations. I’ve had MRA’s, MRI’s, Upright MRI’s, IV Drips, CT Scans, and on and on. I’ve tried therapies you have never even heard of and my research will help ANY neck pain sufferer that will take the time to read it!

In July 2008 I moved the content of HealthSynergyRx including the Popular Neck Pain / Cervical Disc information to the WordPress Format so I can keep you all up-to-date with new information. Topics like ADR (Artificial Disc Replacement) and state of the art imaging.

By moving to this new Blog Platform I’m able to quickly and easily post many small easy to read messages in their own unique post instead of trying to cram them all onto a single page that is too long to read comfortably. Now you can Scan for what you want and go right to the Article in any Category.

Dates of the post are not as important as the information contained. I am continually writing and updating, and editing Posts. So a post on the ProDisc C may have the date it was originally posted at the top, but the important date is at the end of the article which lists that last update.

Cervical Spine / Neck Pain Category – Help You Won’t Find Anywhere Else!

Most “Run of the mill MD’s” and even many “Experienced MD’s” do NOT know about the majority of the treatments I have uncovered in 100′s of hours of yearly research or they choose to ignore or discredit the available information. Doctors are paid to cut and drug. They are not paid to explore alternative treatments, even if those treatments are the best option for their patients.

Because Doctors Don’t know “How” to fix your neck. They only refer you to Surgery or to Physical Therapy. Doctors are not taught about Nutrition in Medical School. Doctors are not taught about specific treatment options other than “Cut and Drug”. Doctors have not taken the time to do anything more than a brief reading of my films then send me on my way. In short nearly all my Doctor visits have been a complete waste of time and money. So I had two options… live with the pain forever, or start researching Alternative Medicine and try and find a solution on my own. I chose the latter.

I have read 1,000′s of articles, abstracts, research papers, and scientific studies on neck pain and the cervical spine because I have unresolved neck pain and horrible unresolved balance issues. I’d like to invite you to join me in finding solutions to pain and suffering. If you are like me; you have probably been to many specialists and have not found relief. Relief is available but you might just have to uncover the solution yourself. I hope I can help you with my research.

There are so many overlooked and underutilized treatments. And I’m not talking snake oil here, I’m talking real world tested therapies used around the World. I’m talking about technologies your Physician may not have in your local area. Treatments like MRI scans of the nerves, Thermography to isolate sources of inflammation, Upright MRI to see the discs under load, specific non-drug supplements like Serrapeptase and Wobenzyme to bring down inflammation. YES!

There is a good chance you will find one or more treatments that apply to your specific condition that are being overlooked by your local Doctor. So please take the time to sort through the articles your own pace. If you don’t have time right now, come back later. I’ve uncovered over 50 ways to treat or fix forever neck pain! And it takes a lot of time to write about them all, and a lot of time to read about them all.

If you have neck pain (cervical spine) caused by cervical spondylosis or ? NOW IS THE TIME to evaluate why before it’s too late!

Think you have tried it all? NOT! There are treatment modalities and options here in the Neck Pain – Cervical Spine Category that you probably have not even heard of! Every week I find more information about the cervical spine and potential treatments. The neck pain treatments listed here are not “static” this is an ongoing project to beat cervical spinal pain. I’ve been making this site for more than 3 years now and consider it my mission to keep posting relevant information as long as I can find it and people find it useful.

I’m not just some writer… I have Degenerative Disc Disease, Cervical Spondylosis and a Herniated Cervical Disc. As mentioned above I have read 1,000′s of articles, abstracts, opinions, research studies on cervical spine problems which cause neck pain and continue to do so. Before you let anyone do anything to your neck you MUST correct the CAUSE if possible. Discs break under mechanical pressure – that is gravity and misuse or misalignment of the spine. My disc failure was the result of poor posture at the office computer for years on end. Surgery WILL NOT stop your pain if you don’t first address the cause of the failure. A repaired disc will simply rupture again unless you STOP the forces that started the downfall in the first place. You may have to give up some of the physical activities you once enjoyed (For me it is cycling, for you maybe horseback riding, water skiing, etc.). It’s a dirty little secret of nature – herniated disc will NEVER be the same as it was before injury, thus you must take care of it!

A poor Physician will tell you it’s just AGE or WEAR AND TEAR, and while that may play a role, the real culprit is mechanical breakdown stressing the joints. This is further compounded by poor nutrition, smoking, and stress. You can sit back and do nothing and get worse, or you can take responsibility for your own health and improve. The choice is yours. Neck pain sucks! Get Better!