There are many types of decompression. You can get decompression sickness when you come up too fast from diving. You can feel sick because the pressurized aircraft you’re in is experiencing decompression.

Decompression can also make you feel better. At the end of a long workday when you slump into your favorite chair with a bag of popcorn and watch something mindless, you can feel yourself decompressing, that is, letting all the pressure out. The worries and pressures of the day wash away, and you feel human again. This is good.

Decompression of pinched back nerves feels even better. Your spine, that thing that runs the length of your back, is surrounded by vertebrae and is responsible for sending nerve signals and muscle commands throughout your body is supported by discs as well as vertebrae, muscles, ligaments and all the other accoutrements.

These discs are basically fluid-filled sacs situated between each of your vertebrae as cushioning, so that the bones do not rub up against each other. That would reduce support, wear the bones down, and hurt like the dickens. Because of these discs, we are all a little taller in the morning than we are at the end of the day. When we lie down in bed, it takes the vertical pressure off our bodies and enables them to refill with the fluid that gets squeezed out during the day through the pressures of sitting and standing.

Unfortunately, sometimes there is a little more pressure on these discs, or something else goes wrong and a herniation takes place. This means that there is a tear in the skin of the discs that allows the softer, inner portion to bulge outward to some degree. The immediate result is pain.

This condition is called, in the vernacular, a slipped disc. The disc has not actually slipped, but it certainly feels like things that shouldn’t be rubbing together, such as your vertebrae, are. Sometimes this condition can be serious enough to require surgery, but that should only be tried as a last resort, as there are times where the cure is worse than the condition.

Often herniated discs will clear up on their own, but due to the severity of the pain, treatment may be advised. The chiropractic treatment of decompression helps to alleviate the pressure, get things back where they should be and reduce or eliminate the pain. A chiropractor can also recommend stretches or other exercises that can help speed up the healing of the ruptured disc.

They will also tell anyone suffering from this condition that the most likely cause is poor body mechanics. Especially poor body mechanics over the long term. You can increase the stress and strain on the discs cushioning your vertebrae through actions such as prolonged sitting and persistent lifting with your back rather than your legs. If the disc has been strained, or weakened, even a small movement can lead to a rupture.

The other thing that is important to remember, is that once you have experienced this problem and even after decompression has made you feel so much better, you are more prone to it happening again. Therefore, it is wise to take your chiropractor’s advice to avoid a repeat incident.