♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous physical therapists ♪
♪ On the Internet. ♪
- Hi folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- We are the most famous physical therapists
on the Internet.
- In our opinion of course, Bob.
- So the question is, can my, not my but yours,
can your herniated, bulging disc or sciatica heal?
Big question.
And we're gonna answer it today.
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Because we're giving away a huge giveaway this week.
- It's big.
- Go to the giveaway section or go
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- There you go.
- So what are we giving away, Brad?
I gotta show this here.
- Yeah, this is a very nice, comprehensive package.
- We're giving away a massage lounge.
- There you go.
- An entire lounge.
- Right.
- We did this for some nurses at a nursing home.
- Right.
- And now we're gonna do it for you.
So, you get, well Brad what've we got here?
A foot massager.
- Right.
- We got an upper back massager,
you can actually use on the lower back, too.
- Lower neck, as well.
- A full back chair massager,
it kind of fits in your chair.
- Right, you bet.
- And then we got three hand massagers.
Hand held massagers.
- Right, which work the whole body,
wherever you can reach.
- So you could set up a lounge in your house
and you're gonna be the most popular
person in your neighborhood.
Or you can give away some of these.
- There you go.
- With Christmas coming along.
- It's that time of year.
- Okay, Bob.
I've been, this is a really good subject
that I'm anxious to get into.
Cause we get a lot of questions.
How long does it take for my disc to heal,
can it heal.
- Right.
- And there's a lot of good information
that I think you're gonna share.
- I got contacted by a young man
that was really distraught.
He goes, "Am I shot for the rest of my life,
I got a herniated disc?"
So I let him know that yes, it can heal,
and that yes, it is most likely to heal.
The majority do.
The body has an enormous capacity to heal
if you allow it.
So you're gonna want to avoid the things
that make it worse, which we have
in other videos like bending forward
and stuff like that,
but let's show what happens when you
do have a herniated disc or a bulging disc perhaps.
- So this is our famous coffee cup vertebra model.
- Yeah, Brad invented this.
- Yeah, well, I got the coffee cup
from an anatomy place, and then I've got
one of these at a store where you walk out
and it happens to squish, and it really
does a nice job of duplicating a herniated
or bulging disc.
So this represents a disc, they're not round
but they're like that.
- I'd be in this position if my back
was like this right now.
- So this is L5 and this is L4,
your bottom two vertebra in your low back.
The disc which, and this is where
most herniated discs happen,
and so if you bend forward like that,
this is the mechanics that happens.
Now, what happens if you have a weak disc,
from whatever the problem may be.
- From repetitive use.
- Usually that's it.
You can do that.
- Look at that. Watch it bulge right out
or herniate right out.
And then there's a nerve right back there
that it could bulge up against
and cause pain down your leg.
- Exactly.
And that's the sciatica.
So if we can do some exercises
that allow this to go back into
where it's supposed to go,
and then keep it there and allow
scar tissue to heal over that bulge area,
so it doesn't come out any more,
that's the goal.
- Right. And let's just say this, Brad.
That, you know, on a normal, healthy disc
you can bend forward like this.
- Oh, right. It's not a big,
- Nothing's gonna happen,
but if you do it repetitively over time
and with weight.
- Yes.
- Then, you're putting stress on that disc.
- In other words, you're lifting up
hay bales or whatever work you do.
- With your back rounded out like this.
Not in a good spinal mechanics.
So, what happens?
How can it heal Brad?
I thought you'd show this, Brad.
- Oh, sure.
- So, this is the part that's bulging out.
Well one thing, this disc material
can sometimes get reabsorbed.
- Sure.
- Right into the body, right into the other discs.
- Right.
- The other thing, the disc material
might dehydrate and it no longer causes problems.
The water comes out of it.
- Sure.
- Desiccates, what is it, no that's when it deteriorates.
But the water goes out of it, so dehydrates.
Also, in response to inflammation,
the body creates little microphages,
which I like to call little Pac Man cells.
- Sure.
- Are we dating ourselves when we say that?
Do people know what a Pac Man cell is?
- If you're over 50 you do.
- Yeah, that little game where the thing
would go around.
- Liz, she's only 29, maybe 21,
- All right, so anyway, the little macrophages
can come in there and they'll eat the disc material.
Isn't the body a wonderful thing, Brad?
- Well on my extras, I don't even have
a disc between L4 and L5, and I know that's exactly
what happened because it just didn't disappear,
it took time.
This doesn't happen in a couple weeks.
- Right.
- This is something that may take months.
- It may, but to be honest, well I'll talk
about that in just a minute.
But the last thing you can do,
if you do McKenzi exercises,
M-C-K-E-N-Z-I,
type in Bob and Brad McKenzi,
and we're gonna show you all sorts
of exercises that you can do for the disc problem.
- And McKenzi's a therapist who developed
a world wide system for over 50 years has been going.
How to treat sciatica, to get that disc
to centralize and heal again.
- Especially if you're a younger person
and you have 70% of your disc left,
they find out that that technique is very helpful.
If you have less than 70% of your disc,
it becomes a little questionable
whether that's gonna help.
- So people are gonna ask, how do you know
if you have 70%?
- I don't know.
- Well you do the exercises,
if it works, well then you did.
- That's right.
So how long?
The symptoms often improve within six to eight weeks.
If you don't reinjure.
But, six to eight weeks can be a long time
especially if you're having really severe pain.
If you're having nerve damage,
so let's say you're getting weakness
in your foot or your toes, your ankle,
then you may have to have surgery.
- Right.
- You can't allow that nerve damage
to continue and you're gonna have permanent weakness.
- Right.
And then they'll go in and hopefully
all they need to do is open up
the foramen or they'll do a discectomy
where they don't take the whole disc out,
I think they just take the part out
that's interfering with the nerve.
- Right.
Also, if you're having trouble with your
bowel or bladder, or if you have numbness
and tingling, what we call saddle anesthesia,
the place where all the parts of a saddle
would hit, when you're,
- Sitting on a horse.
- When you're sitting on a horse.
Then it's time that you need to go in.
But otherwise, you should do your best
to hold off.
I know it's a drag. It's some of the worst pain
you probably are gonna have in your life.
But if you can get through without surgery
you're gonna be better off.
- If you can get to a McKenzi certified therapist,
it's gonna make a world of difference
cause that's what they specialize in.
We do have a video
- A video that shows you how to look
up a McKenzi therapist.
- Right, and again I believe there are 40 countries
now worldwide, in the United States
- Definitely the high thirties I know,
- Right, so there's a lot a lot of clinics
that will have these therapists available.
- All right, well good luck with it,
and keep your spirits up.
We hope it heals quickly for you.
Thanks.