Do Herniated Discs Always Cause Pain?

This is fact that should shock those of you who are being told that the herniated disc that was found on your MRI is the cause of your back pain. Do not get lulled into the idea that because something showed up on your MRI that this means that the abnormal finding is automatically the cause of your pain.  I have shown that the cause of lower back pain in most cases was a muscle in spasm that attached to the spine in this area.  Resolution of pain came from stretching this muscle group and strengthening the opposing muscles.

It is critical to understand that the material that a herniated disc is made from, fibrous cartilage, has no pain receptors in it. That means that pain can not be experienced by a vertebral disc. Any one in the medical field should be aware of this very basic fact.

Knowing this, the next question to be explained, is if the disc cannot cause the symptom then is something else causing it. The so-called "experts" will tell you that the cause is not the herniated disc, but that the herniated disc is impinging on a nerve root. A nerve root is an extension of the spinal cord which comes out at every level of the spinal column. What is important to understand is that each nerve root innervates a very localized area of skin. For instance, if the L45 nerve root were impinged enough to create a symptom, the symptom would only be experienced at the inner shin. If an individual had a symptom anywhere else or if the symptom was experienced in an area larger than this region, the symptom could not be the result of an impinged L45 nerve root.

Pain experienced in the neck region and/or across the lower back could never come from a nerve root impingement of the cervical or lumbar spine because the nerve roots in the cervical (neck) and lumbar region (lower back) affect areas of skin and muscles associated with the arms and legs. Sciatica could never result from a nerve root impingement because the area of pain from the gluteal region down to the foot is larger than any area of skin innervated by a nerve root.

What must become an accepted fact is that pain can result from a muscular deficit even when a herniated disc is found on an MRI. The disc is irrelevant to the pain and requires no intervention while the cause of most pain, a muscular deficit, needs to be resolved through isolated, purposeful strength training.