8 Ways to SPEED UP Disc Bulge Recovery Time!

Hey everyone. I just wanted to encourage you guys to not lose hope because disc bulges CAN heal. I'm in my 20s and I was in major pain every day for about 6 months from a L5-S1 disc bulge (confirmed after having an MRI on my lower back). I was in horrible pain every day, the whole day, no matter what I was doing.. sitting, walking, trying to fall asleep etc. Sometimes it would take me even 2-3h to fall asleep because the pain was so bad. I had constant back pain and pain in my right leg (especially my thigh, around the joints and calf). I am sharing this so you can understand that I was in such bad pain and I healed! And I know how desperate I was to find some advice from someone that actually healed from this so I hope this is gonna help someone.. I am not 100% healed, I still feel pain once in a while.. for example after sitting for too long (ex 8h at work) or if i don't move my body for a couple days (like jogging or working out) but I would say I am 95% healed and for me it's like a miracle, after living in pain for 6months! I've been 95% pain-free for about 1 month and a half!! Things that I tried and worked for ME: 1. I changed my diet. I tried to adopt an anti inflammatory diet: - the only meat I eat is chicken (max 5 times a week). You can also eat turkey, it's actually even better; - I stopped eating sweets, fast food, processed foods.. especially icecream, chocolate bars, sodas, aliments that have added sugars (and most of them have it, check labels before eating sth), pre-cooked/frozen foods etc. - I ate a lot of vegetables&fruits (fried, steamed, smoothies etc).. about 70% of what I ate was vegetables and fruits - less white flour, white rice and more whole wheat flour, brown rice etc; You can find a lot of info about anti inflammatory diets, recipes etc online. I started an anti-inflammatory diet about 1month before my pain started to decrease. 2. I made an anti-inflammatory juice and I drank 1 shot a day for about a month. If you want, you can ask your dr first, but I felt ok the whole time..after all it's just natural ingredients. If you want the recipe for the juice let me know and I'll write it down in the comments. (it's mostly ginger, turmeric, aloe vera, apple cider vinegar etc). I feel like taking this juice helped very much, i started feeling some improvement after the 1st week. Idk if it was specifically the juice cuz I was doing more stuff so I am not sure. 3. I started moving my body almost everyday. I would either go jogging (1-2mi) or even just walking for 2-3mi. Or I would just do some exercises at home for 10-15 min. There are a lot of videos with exercises online, but one thing i wanna mention is to find exercises for your specific disc bulge cuz some people would just say "stretches for back pain/ disc bulge" but they can make ur pain worse, cuz they are not good for your specific disc bulge. As I was saying, mine was a L5-S1 and 1 thing you MUST stop doing is bending down with your back or lifting things with ur back. IF you have to bend down or pick sth up, bend ur knees and go down on your heels if that makes sense, don't bend your back cuz that's pushing the bulge even more on your nerves and that causes the pain.. The dr explains everything really well in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2gog8A8qvM . I recommend watching the whole video as I tried to implement everything he was saying in this video and I feel like it really helped me. 4. I went to chiropractic adjustments and physical therapy this whole time (and still going). I started with 3 times a week, then 2times a week and now once a week. 5. ! I am doing Spinal Decompression. (I did it 6 times in about 1m and a half. Now I am doing it once every 2 weeks but this is sth for ur chiropractor to decide.) I feel like this also helped a lot cuz I've started feeling improvements since I started doing it. In the beginning for about 2 weeks it felt like my symptoms got even worse and after that I started feeling a lot better. But again, I was trying out so many things that I don't know what helped or what made it worse. But you should definitely try the spinal decompression. 6. I took a natural supplement that my chiropractor recommended. It's called Devil's claw and it's literally $8 at Walmart. I starting taking it about a month before I started feeling better. A disc bulge is an inflammation and this natural supplement fights inflammation. Almost everything i did was finding ways to reduce the inflammation in my body. (Diet, supplements, the juice etc). If the inflammation is gone, the pain is gone. That was my goal.. to reduce the inflammation. 7. I tried to sleep more on my back, or on my side with a pillow between my legs, I bought a cervical pillow, I tried to have a better posture etc. Also I feel like it's really important to have a good and positive attitude. I was really down and discouraged in the first 3 months and in those months I literally didn't feel any improvement.. I was in major pain the whole time. I really think that the body can't heal when you're just upset all the time.. it's like you're not allowing it to heal. I know it's hard to be positive when you're in such bad constant pain.. but try to make an effort, it's gonna be worth it. And also, I believe in God and I constantly prayed to receive healing and I declared healing over myself in Jesus' name. And I would thank for the healing that I received (even if at that time I was in pain). Believe you will receive healing. Have faith! God doesn't want you to suffer. As I was saying, there are a lot of things that I tried so I can't really point to sth and say that that's what you need to do, but I really hope this is gonna help someone. I would've loved to find some tips like these when I was struggling with so much pain. PS: It was my personal decision to not take any painkillers or other medication during these 6 months. I think I only took about 5 ibuprofens in this whole time. I can say that my healing process was 99% natural: chiropractic treatment, diet changes etc. That's what I was looking for and it definitely works! If I missed something I will definitely update this comment. Let me know if anything helped you or if u have any questions. I really hope this will help! Take care and God bless you guys. <3

Who else stopped by before they were 50 lol 😅😢 Hope you feel better soon! Thanks Doc for the tips!

24 yr old athlete here, been struggling with bad lower back pain for 2.5 months now that I only just learned is a bulged disc. Have been making so many mistakes (forward folks, Grayson leg stretches, pushing through the pain, etc). Yesterday it became so painful I could barely move. I was beginning to feel so hopelessness and depressed at the prospect of not being able to return to lifting or sport. Your videos have given me hope and a game plan. Thank you!

#1 avoid painful movements #2 rolled towel when sitting #3 stay hydrated #4 start gentle pain free movements #5 keep walking #6 modify sleeping position #7 avoid hamstring stretches #8 stretch the non-painful leg

You gave me more relevant and useful information in a 16 minute video than 8 visits to a chiropractor and 3 visits to a personal trainer totalling 575 euros combined. Thank you so much.

Man there's so much conflicting information from different YouTube Physical Therapists. Its impossible to know which advice is the most valid. Many of them recommend the hamstring stretches and other movements that exasperate the pain. Your advice does sounds logical though, especially the hydration and sleep advice. Thank you.

You explain more thoroughly and carefully than the doctors I paid for.

Disk bulge recovery notes:- Always be in no pain. Put a towel on ur c shape of ur back. Drink a lot of water coz if u are trusty Water will be taken from ur disk and it presses. Pain free exercises of lumbar spine. Need more blood in the area of spine. Walking is very very helpful. Start from 1km up to 8km even Maxx. Modify sleeping position - Put a towel under ur knees Try to sleep in front Hamstring stretch makes it worse. Stretch the non pain leg areas.

I did a lot of research and watched hundreds of videos on this topic. I tried a lot of things and got to the same points on a hard way. You can trust to this guy, it works. If I would find his chanel earlier I would save 6 months.

I’ve been living with disc bulge for over a year now and none of docs or physios gave that much information which now I know it’s true. If someone wonders what to do, those seem like the best advices you can get on yt! Very useful video

This is tue most well put together video I've seen on disc bulge. A great refresher for what I learned during physical therapy a few years back. Thanks!

I’ve just had a second micro-discectomy operation, due to a compressed nerve from a L5/S1 herniation, and after 3 years of pain and treatment this is the best summary of advice I’ve seen/heard.

Really good explainer. It all makes sense and aligns with what I’ve been experiencing. I would also add that swimming is amazing, and I’ve been able to swim without pain even when everything else hurt. Important to get advice from physio of course as each case will be different.

Thanks doc, your advices is really worth it. I've been struggling for a month and a half, but I tried some exercises, now I know it's wrong. Obviously, we need a lot of rest and smart movements that don't cause pain. In order for the inflammation around the disc to go away

One of the best videos. I've been having problems with bulging disk for 3-4 years. Basically my disk is at extrusion stage where the whole disk was ripped. Basically this guy is giving best tips, tested many of them myself during those years. Few days ago I had 60km bike trip and it fucked up my back. Second day laying in bed, walking a bit or at least standing up every few hours. Cold showers help a shit ton as well. For first days ice helps a lot as well, it reduces inflamation. Basically my position on a bike puts too much stress on my back, tho for fact running completely removes my back pain, probably it pushes that disk back. Basically I already know how this time for me will end up, ill slay in bed for 1-2 more days. Then ill start walking as much as possible like he said then ill start running slowly increasing run duration depending on how I feel while running and the day after. Basically some motivation for whoever is reading this. You can live a fully healthy life you just need to stick to proper stretching, strengthen back muscles, loose weight if ur overweight, avoid activities that hurt or modify them. It's all about how mentally strong you are, don't give up. If you acfually stick to this plan you will be good. Even I knew that I was pushing with that bike ride but fuck that, im pushing to the limits and if thats what it takes sometimes then that's that. Now I know that I should do more running than bike riding or I should modify my sitting position on the bike or strenghten back muscles more before riding that many kilometers.

This guy explains it all so well and very thorough!

I just found out that I have a disc bulge from deadlifting. I subscribed to your channel! Thank you so much for this video. I’ll try to do everything you suggested!

This is excellent advice and shows a lot of understanding.

Appreciate the simple clear way you explain concepts. Refreshing. Keep going.

In 26-27 years of having a bulged disc issue I can say that this video is one of the very few that have useful information. Very good