Lumbar Disc Herniation

Posted On: February 14, 2020

The first lumbar disc herniation I helped rehabilitate was back in 1988. The patient was an active aerobic dance instructor who came into me distraught as she had severe lower back, buttock and posterior thigh pain.

The typical medical care of rest, brace, anti-inflammatory medication and muscle relaxants hadn’t helped. I was the new and only chiropractor in town and this woman came to me.

I did interferential stimulation, simple exercise and chiropractic manipulation. She responded favorably.

I had a theory that a lot of problems were do to muscular imbalance. In the lumbar spine of an aerobic instructor I hypothesized that she had well conditioned abdominals (from all of those crunches) and poorly condition spinal extensors (back muscles). I therefore moved her into spinal extensor work.

She took to it like peanut butter to jelly. Soon I progressed her to working out at the gym. She had an orthopedic surgeon whom I called when I was preparing to release her to the gym. His response was something along the lines, “Are you crazy, she could easily blow that disc.” I told him she was doing really well with it. He humphed.

The woman went back to being a full time aerobic dance instructor, she transitioned into training and has trained a lot of people since then. The orthopedic surgeon eventually came along with the rest of the profession and now endorses progressing patients into “spinal stabilization” exercises. I just look back and smile at a job well done.