Do Herniated Discs Heal? What Actually Helps a Damaged Disc Recover

Dr. Amy Konvalin, physical therapist, explains how it can be done:

Let’s twist again 🎶

…or rather, a controlled rotation.

First, understand disc structure and herniation: spinal discs are made of fibrocartilage with multiple layers of fibers oriented in different directions, allowing them to accommodate movement and cushion the vertebrae. In contrast, a bulging, herniated, or ruptured disc occurs when material moves outside its normal boundary, and can irritate nearby nerve roots, causing pain and sometimes loss of strength.

Next, understand how discs heal: displaced disc material doesn’t return inside the disc, like toothpaste squeezed out of a tube, but the body can reabsorb the material and repair the opening

With that in mind, set your treatment goals: Dr. Konvalin suggests that your priority should be restoring pain-free movement and everyday function, rather than focusing solely on whether an MRI still shows a disc abnormality.

Notably, surgeons often see patients soon after an MRI identifies a herniation, whereas physical therapy can help patients recover without surgery. In other words, there may be merit in trying to heal it without surgery, rather than hurry to get a potentially unneeded surgery.

So, what you can expect to do, exercise-wise: gentle rotation helps discs compress and decompress, facilitating the exchange of nutrients and waste products. For this, she advises to sit on a firm surface with your hands on your shoulders, and gently rotate your lower back as far as you can without pain, before returning to the center.

On which note, she does also advise to rotate only within a pain-free range, because moving into pain can cause surrounding muscles to contract and increase disc compression. If a disc is particularly irritated or inflamed, work in one direction at a time.

Finally, some caveats: loss of leg or arm strength requires urgent medical assessment, while loss of bowel or bladder control requires immediate medical attention and may indicate a need for emergency surgery.

For more on all of this, enjoy:

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Want to learn more?

You might also like:

Sciatica Differs By Age, So How To Fix It Is Different Too! ← relevant here, as sciatica can often come from a herniated disc

Take care!