Originally Posted by
5 alpha victim
Get a good quality back brace as well. Obviously this will only make a big difference if it's a disk in your lower back. If its the l4,l5 or l6 region wear the back brace before the disk gets damaged. This could possible end up being the difference as far as if your disk even ends up becoming "buldged" or not in the future. Also you may want to consider pushing for a MRI to get a better idea as to if your doctors opinion is correct or not. Because my l4 is buldged and because it has caused me severe sciatica I have done a pretty good amount of research on this subject.
Honestly your doctor can tell very little about the status/health of your disks by looking at a regular x-Ray image and like English mentioned he's pretty much giving you his opinion about what he's assuming based on your current injury.
Back exercises and wearing a back brace every day has cured 75 percent of my back pain and sciatica. If I had the chance I would have done both of these things before hand and I probable would have avoided the disk injury all together.