A C5-C6 herniated disc can be a very aggravating and debilitating health condition for an person to have with. This content will talk about exactly what a C5-C6 herniated disc is, the most common signs and symptoms associated with it, leads to, and treatment methods for healing this problem.

How To Determine Herniated Disc?

To be able to determine what a herniated disc is, we need to first go over just what the discs of the spine are, and the way they’re assembled. There are 23 spinal discs, and they are located between each set of spinal vertebrae (bones of the spine).

All these discs provide a couple of purposes – first of all, they’re a unique type of ligament, which holds the vertebrae of the spinal column together. Secondly, they behave as a cushion and shock absorbers, hence the bones of the spine can proceed openly with out causing you suffering.

Their structure is really quite simple, but very important because of what they do. Each disc of the spine consists of a strong external covering (known as the annulus), and a jelly center (known as the nucleus). I often refer to them as “jelly doughnuts” due to this.

When a disc herniates, the outside layer tears, and the jelly begins to push through the fragile area of the disc. This problem can be unbelievably unpleasant, but what would make this intriguing is that the discsof the spine were created to not sense pain.

Why? Well, consider it – when they are constantly taking in shock, wouldn’t it be better of you don’t feel pain with every single motion you are making? Of course, this can lead to the next question – when the spinal discs don’t sense pain, what would make this problem so distressing and unbearable?

The disc will usually herniate behind, which inturn is straight by the vertebrae and the nerves of the spine. The nerves handle everything in the body, and when there’s any kind of force placed on them, they turn out to be aggravated, which is often extremely painful.

This problem can be quite critical, although, due to the fact the nerves do control everything in the body. For example, with regards to a C5-C6 herniated disc, the nerves that’ll be afflicted control the arms, heart, lungs, chest muscles, jaw muscles, neck and skull muscles, sinuses, and many other things.

Because of this connection, it is very normal that a person battling with this condition will not only experience neck pain, but could also feel pain, numbness, or weakness in the arms and hands, chest pains, lack of breath, headaches, jaw pain, sinus problems, etc.

Cause Of A C5-C6 Herniated Disc

The cause of a C5-C6 herniated disc is normally some type of injury or shock to the neck. Motor vehicle collisions, falls, sports-related injuries, etc.

On the other hand, this disorder can be brought on by other, less clear means too. For example, when you sleep with more than one pillow through the night, this sets lots of stress around the discs of the neck, which as time passes can cause this problem.

Basically, any action that requires plenty of twisting and turning of the neck could cause harm to a C5-C6 disc. In addition to this, the discs of the spinewill start to weaken over time due to deterioration, that leads to weakening of the outside wall of the disc. This can also lead to a herniated disc as time passes.

So, what can be done relating to this situation? Most doctors will start by recommending medicines (typically pain killers and muscle relaxers), that can generally supply temporary relief, but also involve some difficulties related to them.

Medications That Can’t Provide Longer Relief

For instance, these types of medications can be quite toxic to the liver and kidneys and cause problems with these bodily organs over time. Also, the medicines essentially just dull the pain – they do not in fact heal the disc. Due to this, they often don’t offer any long-term advantage.

Physical therapy is also advised in many instances. This is a far better therapy option than medications, but it’s usually more effective when combined with other forms of therapy (for instance chiropractic care and massage therapy).

Pain injections will also be commonly used, such as cortisone and epidurals. These can also be efficient to decrease your pain, but recognize that the issue is exactly the same here as with all the medications – any reduction you experience is normally temporary since it is not truly fixing the cause of the situation.

Moreover, cortisone is regarded to trigger the joints of the body to deteriorate faster, which explains why cortisone injections can only be provided with at the most 3 times a year.

Surgery may be the final choice, however this is actually a final option. The effectiveness of spinal surgical procedure is just 16% based on an investigation study in the medical journal Spine. The chances are not really on your behalf, which is why you may hardly ever find a physician recommending this as a first alternative.

There are more alternatives to traditional procedures which are very efficient. Chiropractic care, therapeutic massage, and traditional chinese medicine are probably one of the most successful alternative remedies for a C5-C6 herniated disc.

Yet, I’ve discovered that these treatment options, and also the medical treatments discussed before usually are most reliable when utilised in specific combinations.

Also you can check this – Cervical Herniated Disc – A More in Depth Look

Dr. Jamy Antoine – Minnesota Disc Institute – Cervical Disc Disk Herniation Treatment Minnesota