Can a Slipped Disc Heal? What Changes and What Remains
A slipped disc can settle a great deal, but in my experience it never heals back into the disc it was before the damage. I have not seen a bulge or a herniation pull back completely, and an operation cannot restore a disc to how it was before either. What can calm down is the irritated nerve and the strained muscles, ligaments and joints around the disc. What remains is some level of damage inside it.
So I judge recovery from a slipped disc by the examination and by what you can do again, not by pain alone. A damaged disc often causes no symptoms at all, so it can feel quiet while it is still weak. How well it holds depends largely on the hours you spend outside the clinic.
This page is part of my slip disc guide. The sections below explain what happens inside the disc and why it heals slowly. They then cover what I mean by recovery, what holds it back, the focused care I use and when surgery enters the picture.
For more information about a slipped disc, contact the Bukit Damansara (KL) main center: WhatsApp+60 17 269 1873 Call+603 2093 1000
Slipped Disc Healing: Key Takeaways
| Point | What to know |
|---|---|
| Can it heal? | It can settle and improve, but in my experience a damaged disc never returns 100 percent. Nobody can cure it permanently, the best surgeons included, because some level of damage always stays behind. |
| Why so slowly? | A disc has no blood vessels of its own. Its cells are fed from the bone above and below, and nutrients must soak in through the end-plate, which happens best while you lie down and sleep. |
| What recovery means | An active plan at CSC ends at MMI, maximum medical improvement: once two or three further weeks of care leave the retest results unchanged. |
| What holds it back | Long sitting, bending with twisting, heavy lifting, forceful cracking or neck pulls, heat on the spine, yoga, swimming laps and hard stretching all strain a disc that is trying to settle. |
| What helps | Focused care planned from the examination and the MRI, short walks, regular breaks from sitting, at least six hours of sleep, cold instead of heat, and exercise once the spine is ready. |
| Never wait on these | New numbness around the genitals or anus, new difficulty passing urine, or loss of bladder or bowel control needs urgent medical attention at a hospital emergency department straight away, within hours. |
Can a Slipped Disc Heal? Page Guide
- What Happens Inside a Slipped Disc
- Why a Damaged Disc Heals Slowly
- Checking How a Slipped Disc Is Healing in KL
- What Recovery From a Slipped Disc Means
- What Holds a Slipped Disc Back
- What Helps a Slipped Disc Settle
- Can a Slipped Disc Heal Without Surgery?
- When Surgery Becomes Part of the Answer
- Related Neck, Back and Sciatica Guides
- Slipped Disc Healing: Frequently Asked Questions
What Happens Inside a Slipped Disc
I use the words slipped disc loosely, as most people do, but a disc does not slip. Each one has a soft, gel-like center, the nucleus pulposus, wrapped in the annulus fibrosus. The annulus is a set of fiber rings, woven at angles to one another. They link each vertebra to its neighbor and hold the center where it belongs. Because the annulus connects bone to bone, I think of it as a ligament, and like any ligament it can tear.
A healthy disc is tough. In a review, Jill Urban and Sally Roberts note that healthy discs herniated in the laboratory only under forces beyond any met in normal life. In most of those tests, the vertebra broke before the disc did (Urban and Roberts, 2003). What weakens a disc, in my experience, is years of load from our habits: slouching, long hours in a chair, bending, twisting and lifting. Degeneration comes first. Once the outer fibers weaken, the center migrates toward the weakest point, usually the back of the disc, where the nerves are.
The Stages, From Bulge to Fragment
A damaged disc moves through stages. A bulge is a disc swollen a little past its border, and a true bulge does not press on a nerve. A protrusion and then a prolapse follow as the center pushes outward. A herniation, the same thing as a rupture, breaks through the outer rings. An extrusion pushes the material further out, and fragmentation, the last stage, is when a piece breaks off. Once a disc is damaged, the next stage can arrive within days or take years.
In this short video I set a healthy disc beside a damaged one. I also explain why a tear toward the back of the disc, near the nerves, is more serious than one toward the front. For the chapter list and the transcript, open the Bulging Disc vs Herniated Disc video guide.
Where Slipped Discs Usually Form
The levels that move and carry the most load wear first. In the lower back, most forward bending happens at L4-L5, so I see more disc problems there than anywhere else. L5-S1 and L3-L4 follow, while L2-L3 and L1-L2 are less common. In the neck, C5-C6 and C6-C7 lead, while C4-C5, C3-C4, C7-T1 and C2-C3 are involved less often. There is no disc between the skull and C1 or between C1 and C2, so the first disc sits at C2-C3.
Why a Damaged Disc Heals Slowly
Whether a slipped disc can heal starts with its supply lines. A disc has almost no blood vessels of its own. Urban and Roberts describe the disc as large and avascular. Its cells are fed by small vessels that rise from the vertebral bone and stop at the cartilage end-plate. Nutrients then have to diffuse to cells that may sit as far as 8 mm away (Urban and Roberts, 2003).
As I explain in my talks, the disc depends on the bone for its blood supply. What gets into it is oxygen, amino acids, sugar and water. That inward flow, imbibition, works best when the pressure inside the disc is low, as it is while you lie asleep. That is why most people measure a little taller on waking than at bedtime. Sitting raises that pressure, and leaning forward in a chair raises it further, pressing fluid and nutrients back out of the disc.
The same review notes that cells are sparse even in a healthy disc, and many cells in a degenerated one are dead. Stimulating those that remain may not be enough to repair it. In my words, there will always be some level of damage. It is also why I do not rely on pills to rebuild a disc. Supplements such as glucosamine and chondroitin may support muscles, ligaments and joints, but in my experience nothing you can swallow strengthens the disc itself.
Checking How a Slipped Disc Is Healing in KL
Whether a slipped disc is healing is settled by examination rather than guesswork. A first visit covers your history, a movement and neurological examination that tests strength, sensation and reflexes, and a review of your scans in plain language. Bring the MRI or X-ray images themselves, on CD or film, with their reports. A list of your questions, and of the care you have already had, helps too. Allow from half an hour to two hours; I do not rush it. Directions and hours are on the Bukit Damansara contact page and the Bandar Sri Damansara contact page, or you can call or message either center:
- Bukit Damansara (KL, main center): Call +603 2093 1000 or WhatsApp +60 17 269 1873 to see the Bukit Damansara / KL center.
- Bandar Sri Damansara (KL): Call +603 6262 5777 or WhatsApp +60 12 455 6939 to see the Bandar Sri Damansara center.
What Recovery From a Slipped Disc Means
When I speak of recovery from a slipped disc, I mean three things. The irritated nerve settles, so pain, numbness and tingling recede. The retested findings improve: movement, the nerve tests and the way the spine handles load. And the things that used to set it off, such as sitting through a meeting or a long drive, no longer bring the symptoms back.
At CSC, I close an active plan at the point I call MMI, short for maximum medical improvement. We reach it when another two or three weeks of care stop changing what the retests show. From then on, visits are as needed, alongside preventive care, everyday advice and the home exercises I give at the close of the active plan. In my experience, the people who keep their recovery are the ones who keep those habits.
Without improvement by the fifth session, I reassess the plan; if the tenth still shows no change, the patient and I weigh together whether to go on.
Between reviews, watch how far the symptoms reach rather than how much they hurt. Pain is not a yardstick. Leg or arm symptoms that retreat toward the spine are a better sign than a lower pain score on any one day. That holds even if the back aches more for a while. Symptoms that spread further down the limb are not.
What Holds a Slipped Disc Back
A slipped disc is torn tissue, much like a sprained ankle, where a ligament has torn. Nobody would stretch a fresh sprain hard or run on it the next morning. Yet people do the equivalent to a damaged disc every day. Small tears are often too fine to show on an MRI, so I treat every slipped disc as if tears are present. Each time the disc is strained, its repair stalls, and the damage can grow.
While a disc settles, I ask my patients to avoid:
- Long spells in a chair: slouching and leaning forward push the pressure inside the disc up.
- Bending with twisting, and heavy loads: early on, lift nothing heavier than about 2 kg, held close to the body. No deadlifts, free weights or heavy bags.
- Cracking, twisting and yanking: forceful neck pulls with a towel or strap, and rotary manipulation. I use chiropractic manipulation that is non-rotatory using the Activator instrument instead.
- Heat on the spine: a hot pack feels good, but over an irritated disc it adds to the inflammation, so I use cold.
- Yoga, laps and hard stretches: yoga must be avoided with a slipped disc. Walking in water is gentler than swimming laps, and hard hamstring pulls or general stretching wait until the disc has settled.
- Deep, forceful massage over the damaged level.
How fast can a disc go the wrong way? The quickest I have seen was a mild bulge on one MRI. Ten days later, after forceful treatment elsewhere, a new MRI showed a severe herniation with a rupture. Care has to do no harm before it can do anything else.
Painkillers and anti-inflammatory medicine can help in the first week or two, while inflammation is high. If you still need them week after week, something in the plan or in your daily habits is not working.
What Helps a Slipped Disc Settle
To give a disc its best chance, increase everything that is good for it and cut out what harms it. In my experience the change in daily habits matters more than any treatment. The time to make it is while it hurts, because once people feel better, little changes.
- Get up often: while the disc is irritated, stand up and walk for half a minute to a minute every 15 to 20 minutes in a chair. People without a back problem can stretch that to every 30 to 40 minutes.
- Walk: short, frequent walks on level ground keep the joints moving without loading the disc.
- Sleep: at least six hours, ideally seven to eight without waking. Sleep on your side with your spine straight from head to hips, or on your back with a bolster under the knees. The body repairs itself most during sleep, and that is when the disc draws in fluid.
- Cold, not heat: a cold pack, wrapped in a thin towel, for 10 to 15 minutes at a time on a sore area.
- Kegels from day one: with a lower back disc, I start Kegel exercises at once. Buttock squeezes, side-lying leg lifts, cat and camel with core canister breathing, the dead bug and wall-assisted squats follow one at a time. They start once the spine is ready.
- Posture everywhere: at the desk, in the car and in bed, the spine should stay upright and untwisted.
None of this is dramatic, and all of it adds up. A treatment session lasts half an hour to two hours; the rest of the day decides much of what the disc does.
Can a Slipped Disc Heal Without Surgery?
A slipped disc can often be looked after without injections or surgery, as long as the care is focused. By focused I mean care built on what the examination and the MRI show. It is aimed at those findings, reaches the whole spine and does no harm. Routine neck or back treatment is not focused care, and much of it does nothing for a damaged disc. Only when care of that kind has been given properly, and has not helped, do surgery or injections come into the discussion.
A slipped disc lies several centimeters beneath the skin, so hands alone cannot reach it. That is why I have always combined chiropractic care with physiotherapy: do not choose one or the other, choose both. Depending on what the examination finds, the plan for a damaged disc may bring together:
- chiropractic manipulation that is non-rotatory using the Activator instrument, and flexion-distraction on a dedicated table
- spinal decompression on the RxDecom®, a computer-controlled table with sensors rather than a fixed pull
- high-intensity laser, shockwave and therapeutic ultrasound for the surrounding soft tissues
- cold therapy with the QMD; its heat setting stays off a spine with a disc problem
- trigger point and myofascial work, and exercises chosen for the stage the disc has reached
Care is kept within what you can comfortably tolerate. Discomfort during care means it is being done too aggressively, so tell the clinician at once. At Chiropractic Specialty Center, this combined approach is called NSD Therapy®.
When Surgery Becomes Part of the Answer
Surgery has its place, and there are times when conservative care, mine included, cannot help. Even then, an operation cuts tissue to remove or trim disc material. It does not return the disc to normal, and a keyhole is still an incision. For a slipped disc, surgery is the last option, and steroid injections or surgery as a first choice are not something I would recommend.
The last stage changes the picture. A fragmented disc comes in two kinds. With a partial fragmentation, conservative care may still be considered, but only after a thorough assessment. Numbness around the genitals or anus, or any bladder or bowel sign, rules that out. Where it is considered, the care has to be highly focused and precisely given. A full fragmentation, where the piece has broken free, is the sequestered disc, and that is a severe case.
Leg weakness that keeps getting worse should not be ignored. It calls for a careful assessment by a competent provider, and conservative care can continue only while the weakness itself is improving.
Some symptoms have several possible causes, and assessing them does not automatically mean surgery, but they cannot wait. New numbness around the genitals or anus, new difficulty passing urine, or loss of bladder or bowel control needs urgent medical attention at a hospital emergency department straight away, within hours. A doctor should first see fever that comes with back pain, and back pain that follows a recent infection or procedure. The same goes for severe pain after a significant injury, or in anyone with osteoporosis or a history of cancer.
The fee for a plan is explained and agreed before care begins. Costs are set out on the chiropractic fees in Kuala Lumpur and physiotherapy price in Kuala Lumpur pages. Chiropractic fees are identical at every CSC center, and physiotherapy fees are identical at both Kuala Lumpur centers.
My slip disc guide begins with the slip disc overview, and this page is one part of it. For how a disc problem shows itself, read slip disc symptoms and the comparison of a slipped disc and spondylosis. My sciatica versus slipped disc video covers the leg, and the jaw has its own guide, a slipped disc in the jaw. For care, compare slip disc treatment in Kuala Lumpur, slip disc care options in Malaysia and what helps a slipped disc. Slipped disc care without surgery and the choice between non-surgical care and surgery cover the rest. Two pages describe CSC itself: choosing a chiropractor for a slipped disc and slipped disc care at Chiropractic Specialty Center.
Slipped Disc Healing: Frequently Asked Questions
How long does a slipped disc take to heal?
There is no fixed timeline. In my experience the pace depends on how far the damage has gone and what other conditions are present. It also depends on how closely the advice is followed and how consistent the care is. I expect to see change by the fifth session and look again at the plan if there is none. The active plan ends at MMI, once further weeks of care stop changing the retests.
Can a slipped disc heal on its own?
I would not count on it. In my experience a slipped disc is a progressive condition. Left with the same sitting, bending and lifting that damaged it, it tends to go further, quickly or over years. Pain can fade while the disc stays weak, because damage often gives no symptoms at all. Easing the load, changing the habits behind it and focused care give it a far better chance to settle.
Will an MRI show whether my slipped disc has healed?
In my view an MRI is the gold standard for a disc. It uses no radiation and displays the disc, the joints, the ligaments and the space around the nerves. Setting a new scan beside an older one shows whether the disc has changed. Small tears can still be missed, and the scan is taken lying down, so I read it together with the examination, never on its own. Studies also find disc changes on many scans of people who have no pain (Brinjikji et al., 2015).
Do supplements help a slipped disc heal?
Not the disc itself, in my experience. Glucosamine, chondroitin, MSM, hyaluronic acid and similar products may support muscles, ligaments and joints. What reaches a disc, though, is oxygen, amino acids, sugar and water, carried in through the bone. Vitamins D3 and K2 and magnesium are worth discussing with your doctor before you take them.
Can a slipped disc come back after it heals?
Yes. Neck and back problems often recur, and a disc that has settled still carries some damage. That is why strengthening starts in earnest once the symptoms improve: its job is to keep the problem from returning. After MMI, keeping up the habits, the home exercises and the as-needed visits is what protects the recovery.
Is rest good for a slipped disc?
Rest in the form of sleep, yes. Lying down lowers the pressure in the disc and lets it take in fluid. I ask for at least six hours of sleep, and ideally seven to eight without waking. Hours spent slumped on a sofa are another matter. Short, regular walks on level ground keep the joints moving; staying still for hours does not.
How to Read This Guide to Slipped Disc Healing
This page explains how a slipped disc heals, for education. It cannot examine you or say what your own disc is doing, so it does not replace an assessment by a registered practitioner.
References
1. Urban JPG, Roberts S. Degeneration of the intervertebral disc. Arthritis Res Ther. 2003;5(3):120-130.
2. Brinjikji W, Luetmer PH, Comstock B, et al. Systematic literature review of imaging features of spinal degeneration in asymptomatic populations. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2015;36(4):811-816.
These references describe the disc, how it degenerates and how often disc changes appear in people without pain, in general. None of them evaluates care at Chiropractic Specialty Center.
The Author of Can a Slipped Disc Heal? What Recovery Really Means
Can a Slipped Disc Heal? What Recovery Really Means was written by Yama Zafer, D.C., who has 30+ years in chiropractic and physiotherapy and founded Chiropractic Specialty Center in Kuala Lumpur in 2006.
Last Updated: Can a Slipped Disc Heal? What Changes and What Remains
Can a Slipped Disc Heal? What Changes and What Remains was last reviewed and updated on October 16, 2026.
Slipped Disc L5 S1 compressed
Compressed at L5-S1 describes loss of disc height at the lowest level of the lumbar spine. It helps to separate what that finding means from what it actually does, because the two are often confused.
Loss of height means the disc has lost water content and no longer holds the two vertebrae as far apart. On its own that is a common finding, present in many people with no back pain at all. Symptoms come from the consequences. As the disc narrows, the two small facet joints behind it are pressed together and take load they were not built to carry, and the opening the S1 nerve root passes through becomes smaller. That is why the same wording on a report is silent in one person and disabling in another.
The pattern that identifies root involvement at this level is S1: pain into the buttock and down the back of the thigh and calf toward the outer foot, a weak push-off when rising onto the toes, and a reduced ankle reflex. If those are present the nerve is involved, not only the joint.
What has to be established before anything is decided. Is there weakness, and is it stable or worsening. If your symptoms steadily get worse, or the care you are receiving is not helping, please arrange a medical review. New numbness around the genitals or anus, new difficulty passing urine, or loss of bladder or bowel control needs urgent medical attention at a hospital emergency department straight away, within hours. In the absence of those, this level is usually managed conservatively.
Conservative care at L5-S1 has to do two things that general treatment often does not. It has to reduce the compressive load on a segment that carries most of the body weight in sitting and bending. And it has to restore hip mobility, because a stiff hip transfers its work straight into this level and is one of the most common reasons L5-S1 keeps flaring after it settles. Strengthening of the gluteal and deep trunk muscles follows once symptoms allow. Some have found spinal decompression therapy by devices like the RxDecom or similar to be helpful for spinal disc related issues, including those that at times cause nerve issues.
Bring the MRI images to any assessment rather than only the report. Height loss, nerve root contact, and facet change are all visible on the images and only summarized in the text.
I have a cervical herniated disc and having pain due to nerve impingement. The pain runs down to my shoulder and left arm. It's been constant for the past 3 weeks. It was about to go off, but it came back 2 days ago. I wonder what kind of treatment would be suitable for me as it affects my daily activities and work. Please, contact me through my mail address below.
The pattern you describe, constant pain running from the neck into the shoulder and down one arm, is cervical radiculopathy: a nerve root being irritated where it exits the spine. In the left arm it is most often the C6 or C7 root. Which root is involved is worked out from where the symptoms land, which reflex is affected, and which specific muscles test weak, not from the MRI report alone.
The first thing that should decide your treatment is not how severe the pain is but whether there is measurable weakness. Grip strength, straightening the elbow, lifting the wrist, and holding the arm out to the side each map to a different root. Weakness that is stable can be managed conservatively. Arm weakness that keeps getting worse should not be ignored. It calls for a careful assessment by a competent provider, and conservative care can continue only while the weakness itself is improving. Symptoms in both arms, clumsy hands, or unsteady walking point to the spinal cord rather than a root, which the examination checks. Any loss of bladder or bowel control needs urgent medical attention at a hospital emergency department straight away, within hours.
Where it is a single irritated root with no progressive weakness, conservative care comes first, and surgery is the last option. Suitable care has three parts and they run in order. Reduce the irritation at the root and restore the movement the segment has lost. Remove the loading that keeps reproducing it, which for most working adults is sustained neck flexion at a desk or phone and a sleeping position that holds the neck rotated. Then rebuild the deep neck flexors and the scapular muscles, which are almost always weak by the time a disc at this level becomes symptomatic, and which is the part most often skipped.
While a root is acutely irritated, forceful end-range rotation of the neck is not appropriate. Lower-force, non-rotatory approaches are the safer starting point. Some have found spinal decompression therapy by devices like the RxDecom or similar to be helpful for spinal disc related issues, including those that at times cause nerve issues.
An in-person examination that tests reflexes, strength, and sensation is what turns this from a general answer into a specific plan.
One detail in your message is worth answering on its own: the pain had nearly settled and then returned two days ago. That pattern is common and it is usually misread.
Early relief in cervical radiculopathy generally reflects inflammation around the nerve root subsiding. It does not mean the mechanical cause has resolved. The segment that allowed the root to be compressed still moves the way it did, and the muscles that should be protecting it are still deconditioned. So when normal activity resumes at full volume, which is exactly what people do the moment pain eases, the root is loaded again and symptoms return. The relapse is not a sign that treatment failed. It is a sign that the pain settled faster than the tissue and the muscle control did.
Two practical consequences. First, return to activity in steps rather than all at once, and treat the first few pain-free days as the most fragile part of the recovery, not the end of it. Second, stop using pain intensity as your only measure of progress.
The more reliable measure is how far the symptoms travel. Symptoms retreating up the arm toward the neck indicate the root is less irritated, even when neck pain temporarily increases. Symptoms traveling further down toward the hand and fingers indicate the opposite, and that direction of change matters more than whether today hurt more or less than yesterday. Keep a simple daily note of where the furthest point is.
Escalate rather than continue if weakness appears or worsens, if the hand becomes clumsy, or if numbness becomes constant rather than intermittent.
I have slip discs L4/L5 L5/S1. What would you advise that should I do; operation, or do you have another alternative?
Whether you need an operation is decided by your neurological examination, not by the wording of the MRI report. L4-L5 and L5-S1 are the two most commonly affected levels in the lumbar spine, and disc changes at those levels are common even in people with no symptoms at all. The finding alone does not justify surgery.
If your symptoms steadily get worse, or the care you are receiving is not helping, please arrange a medical review. New numbness around the genitals or anus, new difficulty passing urine, or loss of bladder or bowel control needs urgent medical attention at a hospital emergency department straight away, within hours.
Outside those situations focused conservative care is the usual first step, and it is worth being specific about what that means. Painkillers, rest, and general massage are not focused conservative care. A proper attempt addresses the load on the involved segment, restores the movement lost above and below it, and rebuilds the muscles that stabilize the lower back, which weaken quickly once pain limits movement. Some have found spinal decompression therapy by devices like the RxDecom or similar to be helpful for spinal disc related issues, including those that at times cause nerve issues.
Two questions to put to whoever proposes an operation. Which level are you operating on, and how does that level explain my symptoms. And is a fusion planned or a decompression alone. Fusion increases mechanical load on the segments beside it over time, which matters when two adjacent levels are already involved.
If you have not yet had a hands-on assessment that tested your reflexes, strength, and sensation level by level, that is the missing step, and it belongs before a decision either way.
Please provide the location of your centers. I'm contactable at 0122352672.
Suffering from prolapsed disc C5-C6 since 2013.
Chiropractic Specialty Center has two centers in Kuala Lumpur: Bukit Damansara, the main center, and Bandar Sri Damansara. Addresses, hours, and direct numbers for each are on the contact pages of this site.
On the clinical side, a C5-C6 prolapse present since 2013 needs a different starting point than a recent one. Two things matter more than the age of the finding.
The first is what the disc is doing now, not what it did on the scan that named it. A prolapse from years ago may have progressed, stayed the same, or been joined by degenerative narrowing at the same level. If your most recent imaging is several years old, it no longer describes your spine.
The second is whether the problem involves the nerve root or the spinal cord. C5-C6 is a level where both are possible. Nerve root involvement gives pain, numbness, or weakness down one arm in a defined pattern, and it is usually appropriate for conservative care. Cord involvement is different: clumsy hands, dropping objects, buttons and keys becoming difficult, unsteady walking, or a change in bladder control. Those signs call for prompt medical assessment and current imaging, not manual treatment.
Where the picture is nerve root or mechanical neck pain, a structured course of care is reasonable to attempt. It should be specific to the segment: identifying which movements load C5-C6, physiotherapy-led treatment, and progressive strengthening of the deep neck flexors and scapular support, which are consistently weak in long-standing cervical disc problems. Some have found spinal decompression therapy by devices like the RxDecom or similar to be helpful for spinal disc related issues, including those that at times cause nerve issues.
Bring your original 2013 imaging as well as anything more recent. The comparison between the two is often the most informative item in the file.
Have you tried this treatment? Mine got the same problem
Since the problem is described as the same one without the detail, what follows is what determines whether an approach is likely to suit you, which is more useful than another person's experience of it.
Two people with identical MRI wording can need different things, and the examination is what separates them. Is a nerve root involved, or is the pain coming from the joints and muscles around a degenerated disc. Is there measurable weakness or a lost reflex. Do symptoms travel below the knee or below the elbow, and does that distance change with position. Those answers decide what is appropriate, not the wording of the report.
Before comparing treatments, rule out what does not belong in conservative care at all. If your symptoms steadily get worse, or the care you are receiving is not helping, please arrange a medical review. New numbness around the genitals or anus, new difficulty passing urine, or loss of bladder or bowel control needs urgent medical attention at a hospital emergency department straight away, within hours.
Where those are absent, judge any approach by three things. Does it begin with an examination rather than a package of sessions. Does it address the mechanical loading that keeps reproducing the problem, not only the pain. And does it include progressive strengthening, which is the part most often left out and a common reason symptoms return after they settle. Some have found spinal decompression therapy by devices like the RxDecom or similar to be helpful for spinal disc related issues, including those that at times cause nerve issues.
If you post which level is involved and what the symptoms do across a day, a far more specific answer is possible.
Dear Manual,
Thank you for the kind words. I am pleased to hear you like it. We have spent lots of time developing our site and blog. Please share our posts and pages with friends and family. Far too many go on suffering needlessly when we can help.
Kind regards,
Yama Zafer, D.C.
Doctor of Chiropractic; registered with the Malaysian Traditional and Complementary Medicine Division as a chiropractic practitioner
I'm a slip disc patient. Currently, I'm on medication and have been referred to Assunta hospital for treatment. I want to seek 2nd opinion. Can I know how/ where I can refer to? Kindly please contact me.
A second opinion is most useful when the person giving it can see what your first clinician saw. Bring the actual MRI images on disc or through the hospital portal, not only the typed report. Reports summarize; the images show which level is involved, which direction the disc has moved, and whether it is contacting a nerve root or only narrowing the space.
Three questions separate an operation that is necessary from one that is merely available. First, what is your neurological status: is there measurable weakness, a lost reflex, or numbness in a defined nerve pattern, and is it stable or worsening. Second, do the imaging findings match your symptoms anatomically. A disc at one level does not explain pain that follows a different nerve. Third, what conservative care has actually been tried, at what intensity, and for how long. Painkillers and rest are not focused conservative care.
Leg weakness that keeps getting worse, or a foot that drags, should not be ignored. It calls for a careful assessment by a competent provider, and conservative care can continue only while the weakness itself is improving. New numbness around the genitals or anus, new difficulty passing urine, or loss of bladder or bowel control needs urgent medical attention at a hospital emergency department straight away, within hours.
Where none of that is present, most disc presentations are given focused conservative care first. That means care aimed at the involved segment rather than general massage or heat: manual and physiotherapy-led treatment, load management, and progressive rehabilitation of the muscles that control the segment. Some have found spinal decompression therapy by devices like the RxDecom or similar to be helpful for spinal disc related issues, including those that at times cause nerve issues. It is not a cure and it does not suit every presentation, which is why assessment comes first.
For a hands-on assessment, Chiropractic Specialty Center has two centers in Kuala Lumpur, Bukit Damansara and Bandar Sri Damansara. Bring the images and any specialist letters with you.