About 6 years ago my discs between my L4/L5/S1 bulged to the point that they pushed into my sciatic nerve so far that I could barely feel my leg/walk. Cortizone epideral shots worked for a month or two but you can only have a limited amount of those. I ended up getting a surgery where they shaved off parts of the discs and removed fragments from the fluid inside of the discs. It worked great. I concentrated on core strength and stretching, and am in better shape than ever, even done a few triathlons since then.

I'm not going to weigh in on the chiropracter stuff, I've personally never seen one since nothing they can do can really address a disc that's bulged far enough to cause big problems, as far as I know. If you have good insurance get an MRI and really see what's going on with your back and go from there. Stretch properly and don't do anything that's painful in the meantime. A lot of the hanging/bending contraptions are pure snakeoil but I suppose they can't hurt much but your wallet. If you feel you aren't/can't be as active as you want, SWIM. That's where I started during recovery and it's been a massive help.