Now tell us what you think. What To Do Some warning signs of a slipped lumbar disk include sudden loss of bowel or bladder control, weakness in the torso, buttocks or legs and numbness that runs up from the toes or feet. If you have one or more of these symptoms, see your doctor. For more on herniated disks, try the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons , the American Academy of Family Physicians , or Temple University . Or, you can take a look at these previous HealthScout stories on back problems.
Some people can never get their parents off their back.
New research shows that a genetic abnormality causes a significant proportion of spinal disk disease. And if you have the mutation, they say your risk of disk disease triples. Although testing for the defect is easy, it probably will have no immediate impact on the tens of millions of Americans with back problems. Even so, the finding could help doctors diagnose the disease in the absence of clear signs and could aid in identifying which therapies work best in which patients. Disks, the squishy sacs that keep the bones of the vertebrae from grinding against each other, are the shock absorbers of the spinal column.