Did you realize that back problems are one of the leading causes of disability in the United States? In fact, they say that approximately 80% of missed work days related to illness are due to spinal conditions, such as a bulging disc. But should you work when you are experiencing back pain due to a spinal disc condition?

The answer may actually surprise you, and it truly depends on your particular situation. Ultimately, your goal should be to heal your disc condition while in your normal environment. What that means is that you should try to work and perform any of your normal activities as much as possible while you're healing.

If you don't, your body will become de-conditioned and you will have a much harder time getting back into your normal routine. You will also be more prone to injury.

This wasn't the way we thought just a few years ago. In fact, even today some doctors are not up on the current research and will tell you to take time off of work and just rest. But we now know that this is one of the worst things you can do with a bulging disc.

When a person becomes inactive or immobile, your body will begin to develop scar tissue in the injured disc, which will actually cause it to be weaker in the future. Because of this, you will be more prone to injury and flare ups in these types of cases.

So, what exactly should you do when it comes to working?

Well, if you have a desk job or some other type of job that requires you to be immobile for most of the time, you actually have the opposite problem. With a bulging disc, it is important that you aren't sitting still for too long a period of time.

So, in these cases, it is important that you get up from whatever you are doing about every 30 minutes and just walk around for 5 minutes or so. This will go a long way in helping a bulging disc heal.

If your situation is the opposite, where you are working a job where there's a lot of movement or even lifting involved, there is one thing in particular that you have to be very careful of.

First of all, if you're in so much pain that you just can't move, then yes, you should take a break until the pain is reduced. However, if you can tolerate movement, and your job doesn't require a lot of lifting then you should try to work in order to stay active.

If your job does involve lifting, then it's the way you lift that you need to be careful of. The only type of movement that is incredibly harmful with any type of disc injury is one that involves bending and twisting at the same time.

So, your focus needs to be on discovering activities at work that require you to perform that motion, and eliminate those from your work routine. As long as you aren't performing that particular movement, you should be fine.

The video above is one in a series of 20 videos that I've created to answer the 20 most frequently asked questions about healing a bulging disc. If you'd like to learn more and see all 20 videos, visit www.BulgingDiscFAQ.com