So you (or someone you know) has been experiencing pain, weakness or some type of neurological symptoms for a while and have just been diagnosed with a spinal disc bulge or disc herniation, and want to know what is the best treatment for these serious, life-changing conditions.
That is an excellent first question to ask, unfortunately, a lot of doctors don’t take the time to explain what your options are, what the risks and costs associated with each option, and what are the success rates. Instead, they will typically choose the easy path, the same one they have been using for 20 years. That is, usually in this order, drugs, physical therapy, steroid injections, surgery.
That would be okay, if, in fact, it has been demonstrated to be the most efficient, effective way of treating lumbar disc and cervical disc injuries. But sadly, it is not. First, there is no drug on the market that fix a disc problem, they are all used for symptom management only: Reduce the pain, Reduce the swelling, Relax the muscles.
And while they may help with the short term management of symptoms, they can often cause greater risk for futher injury by masking the severity of the injury, or, in the case of opiods cause addiction.
Second step in the traditional approach to disc injuries, sciatica, etc is usually physical therapy. This option provides little risk of negative side effects. Physical therapists are usually focused on the musclulo-skelatal components of injury focusing on stretching, strengthening and range of motion. Most approaches in physical therapy offer little
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