On Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 9:23 PM, LyleBogart{AT}gmail.com
<lylebog...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Nathan,
>
> Hmmmmm... herniated discs. As a PT, I am typically suspicious of
> diagnoses of back pain diagnosed with a herniated disc. Here's why:
> First, there are usually no "pre-injury" images (MRI) showing that
> there was no bulging disc previously. Second, and very much related to
> the first, the imaging evidence of a bulging disc does not mean that
> your pain is due to the bulging disc even if the image shows the disc
> pressing on a nerve. There have been several good randomised control
> trials which show that if you take 100 people with no back pain, no
> radicular symptoms (pain or numbness/tingling down the legs or
> elsewhere) and take MRIs of their spine, in 50-60% of the cases, there
> will be at least one bulging disc, often pressing on a nerve root.
> Third, I don't know what your age is, but age we age past 30, the
> nucleus pulposis (the liquid center of the disc) begins to desiccate.
> As we age, there is, practically speaking, less disc "to bulge." This
> disc desiccation is also why grandma and grandpa keep getting smaller--
> loss of fluid in the disc equals loss of disc height, leading to loss
> of overall height. Fourth, and this is at least as important as the
> other three points, that you sometimes experience reduced pain while
> riding points away from the disc as the culprit.
>
> So what...
>
> Without knowing a few more specifics, I can't really offer more than
> to say that there are several causes of back pain and radicular
> symptoms which are easily overlooked during the medical diagnosis
> process. If you can tell me, as near as possible (don't worry about
> correct terminology) where you feel your pain (other than "my low
> back"), what the quality of the pain is (sharp, dull, burning,
> throbbing, etc...) how often it occurs, how long it lasts, what you do
> to alleviate the pain, what your age is... just some more details,
> generally. Oh, and what you were doing when you first experienced the
> pain.
>
> Feel free, of course, to reply off-list though I'd bet many other
> folks could use this info too :) Oh and I'd say don't stop riding
> unless it hurts too much!
>Oh - please keep this on list - I find discussions of [lower] back pain useful. I've had an interesting set of problems over the last 5 yrs or so and curiously enough A small amount of cycling in the morning - even just to pick up coffee - seems to wring the kinks out of my back but when I'm not cycling they creep back in. thanks, -sv --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
