‘Slipped Discs’ are more properly called Prolapsed Discs. Discs are the shock absorbers between the bones (vertebrae) in your spine. They consist of a tough fibrous outer coating and a softer gel-like substance on the inside. A disc prolapses when the outer fibers tear and allow the inner gel to poke through. It’s a bit like a punctured tire.

Why can it be so painful? If you are unlucky, the prolapsed disc could touch one of the nerves coming out from the spinal cord. If the prolapsed disc is in the low back, it could send pain down your leg, and if it is in your neck, it could send pain down any of your arms. Typically it’s not the physical pressure of the disc pushing on the nerve that causes most of the pain, but the body’s reaction, inflammation.

What causes it? Perhaps, a lifting injury, or some other trauma like a car accident, or more commonly, we will hear our patients say something like: “All I did was bend down to put my shoes on and this happened!” The truth is that back injuries don’t occur through such simple activities. For most of us it’s a buildup of many small traumas that are caused by our lifestyles. Bending down to put your shoes on was ‘the straw that broke the camel’s back’.