Jan 28 2010
Treatment For A Bulging Disc Frequently Asked Questions: How Effective Are Medications For Relief?
If you’ve already been to a physician for herniated disc therapy, then you probably know that the first thing most doctors will prescribe are different medications. But is this the most helpful option for your condition? How effective are these medications anyway, and are there any side effects that you need to worry about?
These are the questions this article will answer for you. First of all, let’s discuss the types of medications that are usually recommended.
Usually, a physician will recommend an anti-inflammatory medication, a muscle relaxer, a pain-killer, or some combination of the three.
In order to understand what these different medications do, you first have to have a basic knowledge of what is happening when you have a bulging disc, and how the pain is being caused.
The discs of the spine are cushions that separate each set of vertebrae within the back. They are actually a special type of ligament, and in addition to their purpose of cushioning the vertebrae, they also help to hold the vertebrae together and help to maintain a proper alignment of the back.
Each disc is composed of a strong outer covering called the annulus, and a soft jelly center called the nucleus. The annulus itself is composed of many layers of cartilage, which makes it strong.
When an individual develops a bulging disc, what is really happening is that one or more of the layers of cartilage that make up the annulus become injured and torn. This creates a weakness in the disc wall, and the jelly will begin to move from the center into the area of weakness.
This results in a “bulge” in the disc wall, which is where the problem gets its most common name – a bulging disc.
What’s interesting about this condition, though, is that the spinal nerves are located directly behind each disc. And in fact, because of how close the nerves are to the disc, it’s very common for the bulge in the disc wall to apply pressure to these nerves.
This results in a chain reaction called “inflammation.” What this means is that the body realizes that something is wrong because there’s pressure on the nerves. So, blood will be rushed to the damaged area, because blood contains fresh oxygen and nutrients for healing.
Although this sounds good, in this case it just causes more pain. There isn’t much room for these nerves to start with, so if you send a whole lot of blood to the affected region, it will swell up, become very hot, and apply more pressure to the nerves. This just results in even more pain.
So, to make a long story short, this is the reason that these medications are recommended. An anti-inflammatory will slow the rush of blood to the area and reduce the swelling that is adding more pressure to the nerve.
A muscle relaxer is sometimes used because the nerve pressure will lead to muscle spasms in the region of the back that’s affected. This just helps the muscles to relax.
The pain-reliever will numb the nerves and reduce your pain level.
Although all of this sounds great on the surface, the fact of the matter is that medications are really only effective about 30% of the time. They may lead to temporary pain relief, but they usually don’t help for the long-term.
In fact, some of these medications can lead to other complications if taken for too long a period of time. Problems such as liver and kidney damage are very common with these medications.
The reason these aren’t effective in most cases is because they are all designed to focus on the affected nerve – they do absolutely nothing for the cause of the problem which is the bulging disc itself. You can numb the nerve, reduce the inflammation, and make the muscles relax all you want, but if you don’t address the cause of the problem, the pain will return.
The video above is 1 in a series of 20 that I’ve created to address the most frequently asked questions that individuals have about herniated disc therapies. If you’d like to see all 20 videos in this series, you can click the following link (treatment for a bulging disc).
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