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Bharat Savur

Give the mind the spine and say, `I'll beat it, yet!' and overcome problems in the spine with therapeutic and preventive exercises.

Many people feel mentally paralysed with fear when the doctor diagnoses "slipped disc". Concepts of `a weakening spine and impending surgery' float in their mind and they feel "20 years older". Pain combined with the loss of the unthinking spring-like ability to just get up and walk does that. In fact, more than the spine itself, the mind continues to reel under this blow.

Since 1987, however, several authors from Aspergren to Weinert have been rolling out robust reports of their success with their spine without surgery. It's heartening. It gives the mind the spine to stand straight and say, "I'll beat it, yet."

The most important service these authors have rendered to our mental well-being is scoffing at the term `slipped disc' as a misnomer. A more accurate description would be to say `protruding disc', they maintain. An inter-vertebral disc is one, which sits between two bony vertebrae. The disc has two parts — the outer elastic band that supports and holds firmly the inside jelly-like nucleus. This makes for a smooth working, painless relationship.

When any kind of trauma occurs regularly to the disc, the outer elastic band becomes lax allowing the inner jelly-nucleus to protrude slightly over it. This causes acute lower-back pain — the `tsk' of the disc.

When the nucleus jelly works itself out a little further and presses the sciatica nerve, the sharp pain spreads beyond the lower back, butt, hip, down to the side and back of the leg. That's why it's called sciatica.

Unfortunately, `sciatica' is another label that's got "you've got to learn to live with it" written over it. That's what was told to our student Neelam who'd lost heart until one general practitioner who practices holistic medicine emphasised, "It's not sciatica, it's just inflamed nerves." After taking the prescribed medicines, pain never recurred. The basic idea is to reverse the symptoms — push the jelly back and strengthen the elastic band. For this, the treatment includes a bit of rest, back support, traction and manipulation. Electrical muscle stimulation, ultrasound and acupuncture have proved successful too. Once the doctor is satisfied with the progress of this treatment, the next step is spinal rehabilitation, which involves exercise. Walking improves circulation to the spine and moves more nutrients to the disc's elastic band to strengthen it. Circulation also aids in removing anti-inflammatory by-products from the injury.

Alongside, the physiotherapist gradually introduces specific back exercises to increase both strength and flexibility of the spine, back, trunk, butt and leg-muscles. Often, the thigh's hamstrings when unused, turn tight and rigid, pull on the other connected muscles and stress the lower back.

The most recently developed back-exercises are what are called `stabilisation exercises'. They ensure that undue stress is not put on the back by dissipating the workout-effort through the upper spine and hip-joints. These include:

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