Dr. Kinjal Shah

When do you know that one of your discs from the spine has been slipped off from its original position? Here are some conditions and cases, as per our knowledge and these are different from low back and neck. First let’s talk about the neck; it’s more upper and closer to the brain!

Giddiness, Pain travelling in the arms, pain and tenderness in the cardiac region of chest and certainly you can have numbness and tingling sensations in your hands- all this is not about any of the heart problems, always! These are the most common signs and symptoms of the cervical disc compression and in most the cases patients reached to us with some complaints of cardiac problems in all such cases.

Besides this, other patients start feeling that they have something in their brain and they would have gone for MRI or CAT SCAN of Brain for the same condition because of severe headache and giddiness with some nausea along with these!

Why does the pain reflect on the different locations?

When the disc compresses any segment of the spinal cord or one of the nerves emerging from the part, the nerve will carry the sensation, without any external trigger for the pain or burning sensation in the area, supplied by that part of the spine or corresponding nerves. Certainly, if nerves are tingling these will affect the muscles for sure, supplied by the same nerves.

When this condition appears in neck, it will affect the parts supplied by the cervical nerves which emerge from between – C1-C2/ C2-C3/ C4-C4/ C4-C5/ C5-C6/C6-C7/C7-C8 or C8-T1 vertebral bodies. These nerves from cervical region supplies to the muscles of head, upper back, arms, neck itself, chest region and sides of the chest. So wherever the supply goes, pain appears in the corresponding regions.

Same is the story of the lower back well known as Lumbar Region or Lumbo-sacral region of the spine. Nerves emerging from the lumbar region, supply to the lower limbs up to the toe, lower back and

The symptoms of a herniated disc: symptoms will be according to the location. The mostly affected areas are cervical region (neck); and lumber region (lower back).

When it is in neck region the symptoms will be as follows:

• Pain which may radiate in arms.
• Numbness/ tingling sensation in arms
• Stiffness in neck
• Difficulty in neck movements
• Headache and giddiness, specially, while rising from bed

Symptoms of herniated disc in lower back are:

• Pain in lower back which radiates into one or both legs
• Numbness or tingling or sensation of in areas of one or both legs
• Stiffness in lower back
• Pain increases if fellow remains in same posture for long time period.
• Muscle weakness or wasting of muscle mass in certain muscles of one or both legs
• Loss of the reflexes in one or both legs

Depending on the nerve affected by the herniated disc the location of above said symptoms will differ and not surprisingly, both the areas of the spine might be effected at a single time, because vertebral column is a unit, certainly it will behave like a unit. If you wish to discuss any specific problem, you can consult an ayurveda.