Herniated disc

Questions about herniated disc the way people actually ask them. Every answer says which signs need a doctor, what to do today, and how to check the thing that causes most of it: how you move.

My lower back has been bad for a month and now my leg aches too. Is this a herniated disc?
What you are describing has the shape of a disc problem rather than a muscle one: pain that travels down one leg, numbness at the far end of it, and sitting making it worse. That combination is what separates the two. A disc does not have to be dramatic, and most of them settle over weeks without anyone operating on anything. There is a short list of signs below that need a doctor today rather than a wait, and one of them is an emergency.
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