Hey guys, Dr. McClimon back with McClimon Chiropractic, and today we’re going to talk about disc herniation or disc bulge, okay? And why that’s not because you’re old.
You don’t get osteoarthritis, disc bulges, and herniations because you’re old. You really get those because you have old misalignment and possibly have had acute injuries, okay?
Using X-Rays to Check the Spine
We’re going to use X-ray. We always use X-ray in the office. To see is to know; not to see is a guess. And we don’t guess with your health.
Obviously, the best scientific test to have done when you’re checking for a bulge, protrusion, or herniation is an MRI, okay? That’s the gold standard. But X-rays are very helpful in the office to determine: Is there poor alignment, and is there degeneration that impacts the disc, the nerve, and your health?
What a Healthy Spine Looks Like
You can see here, in a healthy spine, we have a nice forward curvature. We have nice open disc spaces and square bones, okay?
In this patient, you can see how we’ve lost that curvature. We’ve lost the curvature, and now the discs in the middle part of the spine have become degenerated. They’ve become narrowed or thin, and that narrows the hole where the nerve comes out, which puts more pressure on that nerve.
This is called phase two subluxation degeneration. When that disc becomes narrow, it puts more pressure around that nerve, okay? It becomes thin—less space around the nerve, more pressure around the nerve. It pinches the nerve and affects what that nerve controls in your body.
That may be sciatica. It may be headaches. It may be back pain. It may be your organ. It may be your liver or your stomach, right? Every nerve controls something different.
Disc Degeneration Isn’t Simply Caused by Age
But again, we don’t get this because we’re old, because this disc right here is the same age as this one right here, okay? This patient right here is the same age as this patient right here.
So, guys, we don’t get arthritis because we’re old. A lot of the time, we don’t get disc injuries because we’re old. We get them because we have old misalignment.
And where does that start? That starts because we never check our spine. Only 5%—4.7%—of people have ever checked their spine on a regular basis. About 14% of people have checked their spine ever.
So, what if 14% of people brushed their teeth? We’d probably have a lot of people with rotten teeth. Well, guess what? We’ve got a lot of people with rotten spines, but they don’t know it because they’ve never checked them, and you don’t feel it.
Health Isn’t How We Feel—It’s How We Function
What do we base health on? We base health on how we feel. But health isn’t how we feel. It’s how we function.
Your spine is what houses your nervous system, which runs every function of your body. Taking care of that structure is really, really critical.
When we talk about getting disc bulges and disc herniations, those are consequences of poor structure. If you’ve never looked at your structure or checked your structure, how would you know you have any imbalances in it?
Old Misalignment Causes the Spine to Wear Out Faster
This is what happens when you don’t take care of your spine. It’s not because you’re old. It’s because of old misalignment, and it degenerates.
You drive on a crooked tire, and it wears out faster. You live with a crooked spine, and it wears out faster. It’s not because we’re old. It’s because we have old misalignment.
Addressing the Structure and Root Cause
Guys, if you’re suffering with a disc bulge, protrusion, or herniation and you’ve never checked your spine, I highly recommend it. Addressing that structure could really address the root cause and help relieve that pressure on the disc and the nerve to give you relief—not temporarily, but permanently.
It’s not just a pain pill or an injection to mask the symptom. It really addresses the root cause of that symptom. That’s what makes us different. That’s why 95% of people under chiropractic care get out of pain.
