I run manual handling courses. The participants look together at the causes of back pain. Here are some of their comments: Back pain is caused by poor posture, lifting things badly, twisting, over-stretching, badly designed beds or soft chairs, wrong shoes, body shape - for instance a long back, musculoskeletal diseases, osteoporosis, type of job, stress, depression, pregnancy, overweight, falling, accidents. All of these comments are valid but the groups never mention the most common story that people with back pain are told - the slipped disc. The story is that some of the gel from the disc or cushion between your vertebrae is pressing on a spinal nerve and causing pain that radiates through the back and across the back of your pelvis. In my experience only about 1 in 100 people who come to see with severe back pain suffer from this condition.
The bulging disc does not particularly lead to back pain. More commonly it affects the buttocks, back or outside of your leg or calf muscles. It might cause numbness to a big toe. If you lose feeling when you go to the toilet, or lose bladder control you must go to hospital as a medical emergency.
Bulging discs are not the cause of back pain. they are the result of a long series of events that start with the list that the manual handling course people rightly point out. To live with the story of a herniated disc is to take health out of your control. It is important to remember that you are responsible for your weight, your fitness, your posture, the way you do your job, sports, hobbies, your choices of diet. Just about everything in your life can come back under your control.
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