NO !! Your leg pain is not just SLIP DISC...

It won't be wrong if I quote that BACK PAIN is second most common condition after common cold which makes people suffer affecting their daily life. Every third person has faced atleast one episode of back pain in their life. Our SPINE encloses and protects spinal cord which carry information from brain to the body via nerves. Without such information the body cannot control, move or feel anything effectively making you senseless and motionless.

"Are you suffering from back pain? 

Or

Do you get a pain travelling down your one or both legs? 

Or

Is it difficult to walk few minutes or few steps without a back or leg pain? 

Or 

Do you know someone who is facing such a complaint?"

Read the article carefully to understand what is going wrong inside your body. Read it as you will get to know things beyond your doctor might have missed to share with you.

You may have a leg pain travelling down along with back pain or sometimes without any back pain. The reason for leg pain can be nerves compressed from the spine or even at your hip. Sometimes muscular pain mimics like a nerve pain in the leg which makes you and your doctor confused. The difference between leg pain due to nerve or muscles is that former causes sharp shooting or electric current like leg radiation whereas the latter creates a continuous dull achiness in the affected leg along with pain in the muscle involved.

If you have seen a human spine, it looks like a curvy snake formed by multiple bones called vertebrae arranged in a manner to give it "S SHAPE " when looked from side view. But from front or back view it looks like a straight vertical spine. Any deviation in these curves can put the spine structures under stress causing lot of muscle imbalances or vice a versa.

When your muscles doesn't support the spine symmetrically it can cause excessive stress between couple of vertebrae causing reduced space for the nerves exiting from the spine. Hence, leading to compressed nerves causing painful radiation in the leg. These imbalances can even create severe muscular spasm putting heavy pressure on your affected nerve and the result is your painful suffering again.

Interestingly, the above mentioned reasons can put the disc under pressure and making it appear like a bulge or on MRI Scan. This should be called as false or pseudo disc prolapse causing nerve irritation and leg pain. This type of bulging can disappear or improve once the pressure between vertebrae goes away.

   

I have come across patients who comes with a dull pain in the hip which also radiates down the leg but does not behave like sharp shooting pain. And the reason is not your spinal disc or nerve but a muscle around the hip known as GLUTES MEDIUS (the HIP Abductor) which may have a TRIGGER POINT - muscle knot causing nerve like pain which people often confuse with sciatica due to nerve compression. 

 A deep muscle of the hip known as PIRIFORMIS (the HIP Rotator) is placed right on top of your sciatic nerve and in some cases this nerve pierces from within the piriformis muscle. If this muscle becomes tight it can cause a similar nerve pain but thankfully then the reason is not your spine. This is more common in people who keep purse in their back pocket and also when people sit with scissored legs (Cross Leg Sitting).

A disc is a doughnut like structure with hard outer shell filled with jelly like material inside. Disc is found between the vertebrae of the spine adding shock absorbing effect. In case there is a sudden trauma or repetitive wrong movement pattern in daily life, the disc wall gets weakened and starts bulging mostly backwards and outwards. If the nerve gets compressed by this bulging disc as it is lying very close to it, you can get a sharp shooting pain radiating down the leg. This condition is popularly known as SLIP DISC OR SCIATICA. The people describe this feeling as painful electric spark travelling down the leg. Your bulging disc or slip disc cannot cause leg pain if it is not pressing on to a nerve.

Bulging discs are very common and not everyone who has a bulging disc go through pain. Infact, after 30 yrs of age, every 10 years increases the chance of finding one or more bulging discs with or without leg pain. So when disc bulge is so common then what is causing your leg pain. Careful examination can reveal whether your nerves are compressed due to muscular imbalance, a mis-alignment in the spine or a disc compression on your nerve.

This information is totally in contrast with MRI reports showing disc prolapse as the possible cause of your pain. Trusting the MRI reports without careful examination can misguide you towards unnecessary treatments not required for your stage of the disease.  If you are better informed then you can reduce your suffering by heading towards the effective treatment for your condition.

The information on this blog is helpful in creating awareness related to different problems which produces similar symptoms and often confuse against reaching better treatment approach. 

Please do not consider this blog as a medical advice and do visit your doctor or physiotherapist whenever you experience such symptoms.

Feel free to explore more information by commenting here anytime.

Regards,

Dr. Kunal Vashist,PT

MPT(Ortho), Manual Therapy

DryNeedling Practitioner

Email ID - kvashist.physio@gmail.com

Contact No. 9968302757

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SHAPE YOUR FOOT - HEAL YOUR PAIN

All the ladies who keep shaping their foot cosmetically by pedicure, stylish footwear, nail-paints and foot accessories kindly pay attention to this write up. When you can take care of how well your feet looks then you should also look after how well your foot works or moves. I am not going to face your anger by saying do not wear high heels etc. etc. but you should definitely cut down the time for which your feet suffocates in those high heel shoes. 

Now to all the men who are living highly sedentary life, we are not made for sitting that long where you do not move your feet or weight bear on them. Our feet are living structures but not plants or trees who can survive just by being fixed to its roots. So moving out and repeatedly taking active breaks from your sitting work is highly recommended.

There are 54 bones in your ankles and feet altogether along with 33 joints, 107 ligaments, 19 muscles and tendons that hold everything in place. As a child you have more bones but some of them gets fused by the time you become an adult. We become brutal to our feet by keeping these numerous bones locked in shoes for at least 8 to 10 hours. 

Also the reduced physical activity doesn't load your feet enough and consequently the muscles to hold these small bones and the arches becomes weak. These small muscles holds the foot in normal stable position but due to weakness the foot and ankle wobbles (unstable). This disturbed stability afffects your other joints like knee, hip or even spine for the reason that nobody moves just from one part of the body. If you do not move correctly with your ankles then you can't move right from your other body parts.

As  consequence, a disturbed mechanics of your foot can lead to number of problems like Heel Pain (Plantar Fascitis), Knee pain or even Low Back Pain. A lot of health professionals like Podiatrists (Ankle and foot specialist), Physiotherapist and Chiropractors believe that even a neck pain or a cervical headache can be the result of poor foot mechanics.

The solution to this problem lies in becoming aware of how your lifestyle is affecting your health. Just knowing the wrong things and making little effort towards correcting it can make a huge difference to prevent what you may suffer and regret from. Here is a check list which you need to keep in mind in order to stay foot friendly :

Avoid prolong standing with your heels. 

Avoid pointed heels and prefer platforms.

Prefer wider shoes with raised arch support.

Instead of prolonged sitting do intermittent sitting. 

Learn some basic workplace foot exercises which are not time consuming.

Increase your effort to do more physical activities not just the weekend struggles.

Allow your feet to breathe out of your shoes and bellies very regularly during office hours.

Remember just a small change in your daily behavior can save you and your money from unnecessary damage to your health. Hence, SHAPE YOUR FOOT for better health not just the better looks. 

Feel free to comment below if you are curious enough to know more on this subject.