back pain, discomfort and immobility, without experiencing sciatica itself. I believe this has more to do with chronic myofascial trigger points (muscle & fascia) guarding the area as a delayed over-protective mechanism & instability rather than the disc itself. Although many of these clients reported to me that back pain & immobility superseded the sciatica, I guess its a chicken or the egg type situation.

Another surprising fact; in one study 28% of patients that showed a disc herniation on MRI did not actually have a herniation when they performed surgery on them. Conversely 33% of patients with a negative MRI actually had a herniation. There are some very important points which this highlights, surgery should always be the very last option, MRI’s aren’t extremely useful when diagnosing disc herniation’s, if your MRI show’s you do have a herniation research has shown there is close to a 30% chance you in fact do not have one. On the other hand, if your scans say you do not have a herniation in spite of demonstrating the clinical signs i.e pins & needles, weakness, numbness etc.. this doesn’t mean you don’t have one and if you have been told ‘its all in your head’ it is worth keeping these facts in mind.

On a side note, if you experience back & leg pain/numbness with rapid onset of bowel or bladder symptoms or difficulty urinating although rare is a medical emergency and you need to be assessed by a medical physician immediately. 

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