Toronto-Centre Naturopathic Medicine is a Toronto naturopathic clinic dedicated to providing safe and effective treatment of a wide variety of health conditions using natural therapies and the principles of naturopathic medicine.
A herniated disk, also known as a slipped disk or a ruptured disk, is well treated using naturopathic medicine. Your spine is made up of small bones (vertebrae) that are cushioned by small cartilage disks. These disks consist of a tough outer layer (annulus) and a soft inner layer (nucleus). A disk is described as herniated when a small portion of the nucleus pushes out through the annulus into the spinal canal. This can cause nerve irritation and result in pain, numbness or weakness in your back, arms or legs.
A herniated disk is most often the result of a gradual, aging-related degeneration combined with lifting heavy objects “using your back”.
Professional healthcare should be sought out if you experience disabling back pain for more than a week, or less severe back pain for more than three weeks.
Seek emergency medical care if your back pain (corresponds with):
• Loss of bowel control
• Numbness or weakness in one or both legs
• Increases rather than decreases over time
It is likely that the cause of your pain is a herniated disk if the pain increases when sitting, coughing, or sneezing.
Symptoms of a herniated disk
It is possible to have a herniated disk with no symptoms. Possible symptoms of a herniated disk include:
• Sciatica (aching or tingling pain extending from your buttocks to your legs
• Pain, numbness or weakness in your lower back and one leg, or in your neck, shoulder, chest or arm
• Lower back or leg pain that worsens when you sit, cough or sneeze
Treatment of a herniated disk at Toronto-Centre Naturopathic Medicine
At Toronto-Centre Naturopathic Medicine, the goals of herniated disk treatment are to reduce pain intensity and discomfort, restore full range of activity and prevent recurrence.
Conventional treatment for a herniated disk may include physical therapy, and variety of medications, including pain medications (e.g., aspirin, Advil®, Motrin®, Tylenol®, Aleve®), nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), corticosteroids, muscle relaxants (e.g., valium), narcotics (e.g., codeine, Vicodin) and gabapentin. These medications may have serious short- or long-term side effects. For this reason, you may choose to try natural treatment to possibly avoid use of conventional medications, or together with conventional medications in order to decrease dosages of conventional medications required to manage your herniated disk symptoms.
Naturopathic treatment of any chronic health concern must be recognized as a process that involves identifying specific treatment goals, a thorough understanding by your naturopathic doctor of all factors affecting your health, including physical, psychological, emotional and lifestyle factors, development of a comprehensive treatment plan and execution of that plan through periodic monitoring and adjustment.
At Toronto-Centre Naturopathic Medicine, a typical approach to treating a herniated disk may be to first identify and address underlying factors in your lifestyle (e.g., smoking, poor weight management, poor diet, sedentary lifestyle, occupational issues), manage the pain and restricted mobility caused by disk herniation using acupuncture, Bowen therapy or Suikodo™ and to “toughen” the annulus using nutritional supplements to prevent recurrence.
Where appropriate, a number of therapeutic options are available, to be used alone, or more often in a complementary fashion, including:
• Acupuncture
• Bowen Therapy
• Suikodo™
• Relaxation techniques
• Homeopathic medicines
• Botanical (herbal) medicines
• Nutritional supplements
• Lifestyle counseling
• Hydrotherapy
• Exercise prescription
References
Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. Herniated Disk [Online]. [cited 2010 Jan 25]; Available from: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/herniated-disk/DS00893.