A disc herniation and protrusion are not the same thing… a herniation is “when something goes through something” such as a wall, and a protrusion is another word for a bulge. The vertebral disc has two basic parts- a nucleus propulsis, and the skin of the nucleus- the annulus fibrosis. The annulus is a fascia, and the nucleus is a gelatinous structure. A hernia is the result of a period of time of poor biomechanics and compression resulting in the nucleus “going through multiple layers of the annulus fibrosis.