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These lumbar disc herniation symptoms come on hard and fast which is why you need to be aware . This video will show and give you ideas of what the early signs of lumbar disc herniations are to be prepared if they occur to you. Hey there, it’s Dr. Walter Salubro. I’m a chiropractor in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada, and what my channel and my office is about is to help people recover from chronic spinal conditions like disc bulges, leg pain, numbness, tingling, sciatica, scoliosis, as well as chronic spinal degenerative conditions, so they can overcome this pain, live a better life and have a better quality of health. This video will outline some of the early first signs of lumbar disc herniations that I’ve seen in my patients to give you an idea of what to expect, just in case it’s something that may be happening to you and what immediate steps you should do to get the help you need to handle correctly.
There are three particular symptoms typically looked for in my patients when they come to me for the very first time that may point towards a lumbar disc herniation. Number one is if the patient comes in and can hardly move, have very restricted mobility, and are really dragging themselves as they’re moving. I had a patient once, that came through the front door and was holding onto our counter space at the front desk, holding onto the walls to walk into the office for support. That to me was already an early sign of a lumbar disc herniation. This was confirmed with our examination and of course, with further imaging studies. And another thing that can be an early sign of lumbar disc herniation is if there’s immediate onset of shooting pain down the leg, or tingling, numbness down the leg or severe leg pain that goes down into the calf, into the foot, and into the toes.
The last thing is a very serious lateral shift in posture called an antalgic posture. There was this one gentleman that came in to my office and he was walking with his whole body, his torso shifted to the side, crooked. The reason that happens is the brain, the nervous system innately wants to move away from that inflamed disc injury and into an antalgic gait. Antalgic means not painful or against pain. They are moving away from that pain position into a relief position which is called an antalgic And that to me is an indication possibly of a lumbar disc herniation. Again, the three most early first signs of common symptoms are a serious restriction and limitation in mobility, a sudden onset of late pain, in the the calf, foot and toes, and a drastic distortion of posture shifting to one side in that antalgic position. Most often, these are the very early first signs of lumbar disc herniations.
Now what should happen? In my office, my philosophy, my belief is that surgery should be the last resort. We want to try to correct these structural distortions that are irritating that disc, inflaming that disc causing that pain, lack of mobility and loss of function. So in our office, we apply corrective chiropractic methods, chiropractic adjustments, postural corrections, tractioning of the spine to improve that alignment and relieve the abnormal loads on that injured disc, giving it a chance to heal. So that’s our method, to apply corrective techniques to get that body and the spine to heal properly, to avoid the onslaught of drugs and the possibility of surgery, because we want our patients to avoid surgeries and our patients want that too.
Always remember, an optimal spine equals optimal health. It’s super important to have a healthy, strong spine and back because it correlates to health outcomes in the future. Do keep these symptoms in mind in case they apply to you, and do get it checked immediately by a medical doctor or a chiropractor. Make sure to do some kind of assessment of the spine and posture with a corrective care chiropractor, and then determine what kind of corrective care methods you need to alleviate the pain and restore that spinal alignment, spinal function so you can live a good life and do the things you want to do, and do the things that are important to you.
The most positive, favorable outcomes I’ve seen in my patients that have had confirmed lumbar disc herniations at L4, L5 and L5, S1 which are the ones that came in at the early onset of these symptoms. I had this gentleman once that came in and was perfectly fine in the morning and by the afternoon he could not walk. He had this pain that went right down into his leg and foot, and he was shifted over in his posture just like I talked about earlier. One of our differential diagnoses and his clinical assessment was a possible L4 and L5 disc bulge which was also confirmed on his MRI. Within three months he had recovered very well. There was no more pain while walking, posture was upright, and he went back to living his normal life because he came in and got assessed early at the early onset of these symptoms and got corrected.
I’ve had patients come to me two, three years after the early onset of these symptoms and are having trouble recovering fast like this other gentlemen, because they waited too long. The key thing for you is to get this assessed immediately by your doctor, get in with a corrective care chiropractor and start getting this corrected, so you can also recover quickly and as well as avoid that surgery right now. To find out the anatomy behind the disc bulge, the tissues that are involved and some images and stretches and exercises that may help alleviate this bulge, click on the video link below.
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