 Hey everybody, Dr. O here. Let's talk about the inter vertebral discs. So these are going to be the fibrocartilage pads, the shock absorbing discs that are between adjacent vertebrae and your spine. They're responsible for about 25% of the height that's in your vertebral column anyways. On the outside, we have this real tough annulus fibrosis, kind of like the outside of a tire. And on the inside, you have a softer, more gel-like material called a nucleus propulsus. I've actually touched it. It kind of reminds me of crab meat. I know it's kind of weird. But they play a really important role. The inside, the nucleus propulsus plays a big important role in movement and flexibility. And then you can see that they allow for compression. So they're basically like the shock absorbers of your spine. But as we get older, the water content starts to go away. Not only that, but the annulus fibrosis on the outside can become weakened with age and trauma. And the nucleus propulsus can start to dry out, which is one of the reasons we get shorter as we age, because our disc height is going to be lower because of less liquid, but also why we're more likely to hurt or injure our spines as we get older. So here we see an example of a herniated disc. So most of the time, if somebody has a disc injury, it's probably just an inflammatory reaction, maybe a bulging disc. But a true disc herniation maybe happens about 10% of the time. But here's the issue. As you move around, the contents of your disc are going to move around as well. So like if I bend backwards, the contents of my disc are going to move forward. And if I bend forward, the contents of my disc are going to move back. So the most common way that you hurt your low back is if you bend to one side, so you like bend over to pick something up, you bend to pick up a box or something. So bending forward is going to cause your disc to move backwards. And I'm bending forward into the left here, which is going to cause my disc to move backwards and to the right, which is, if you turn this over, it'd be the opposite direction in this image. But that's going to be where the interpretable disc is the weakest for some reason. So bending and twisting, bending to the side is going to put pressure on the weakest part of our disc. And if those annular fibres, that annulus fibrosis tears or breaks and part of the center of the disc herniates out, then you now have a herniated disc. The problem is the herniated disc can put pressure on your spinal cord, can put pressure on your spinal nerves as well. So I have issues with herniated discs in my neck. I just recently, just last week, I got an epidural injection in my neck to try to decrease the inflammation because the herniated disc in my neck is actually pushing on part of my cervical spinal cord. But this is what, so it's affecting, it'll cause radiating pain, but also weakness because it's affecting both my sensory and my motor nerves. So that's got the most common sight for herniated disc that was going to be at L5S1, where the bottom lumbar vertebrae attaches to your sacrum there. And then the second most common will be right above that, L4 and L5. So they are most common in your low back. And then those kind of disc herniations can pinch on your sciatic nerve, causing pain and problems down your legs. All right. So that's an interpretable disc. It's their function. Here's what it looks like when one of them herniates and actually can put pressure on your nervous system. I hope this helps. Have a wonderful day. Be blessed.